Worcester-House, the [8] day of [July] 165[6]. By the Commissioners for Discoveries. Whereas [Edmond Stephens of Lemster (i.e. Leominster) in the County of Hereford, Gent.] on the behalf of his Highness the Lord Protector, [hath] exhibited an Information... against [Sr. Robert Pye the elder of Margaretts - Westminster in the County of Midd. Knt].
1650
Items
Details
Title
Worcester-House, the [8] day of [July] 165[6]. By the Commissioners for Discoveries. Whereas [Edmond Stephens of Lemster (i.e. Leominster) in the County of Hereford, Gent.] on the behalf of his Highness the Lord Protector, [hath] exhibited an Information... against [Sr. Robert Pye the elder of Margaretts - Westminster in the County of Midd. Knt].
Created/published
London, 1650s.
Description
1 broadside ; small folio
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271255 (flat)
Folger-specific note
Ordered from Quaritch, D9331, 2019-07-26, Advance Proofs cat 1440, item 17. Purchase made possible by The Roger T. and Peggy M. Simonds Acquisitions Fund. From dealer's description: Part-printed broadside, small folio, completed in manuscript, signed at the foot by the Registrar, Ferdinando Parkhurst; marginal tear to upper left, small hole affecting one word (still legible), creased where folded else in very good condition. The Commission for Discoveries was established in 1656 to hunt out lands and goods belonging to the State or the Protector which had been improperly concealed; it relied heavily on informants, as the structure of the form here would imply – Stephens ‘hath exhibited an information … a Copy of which … is hereunto annexed’ (sadly no longer). As a result of Stephens’s affidavit Sir Robert Pye is ‘hereby required [desired] to appear before the said Commissioners …. On [Tuesday] the [ffifteenth] day of [July instant] by [Two] of the Clock in the [Afternoon] then, and there to give your Answer in writing’Sir Robert Pye (1585-1662) was a very long-serving member of the political class, Auditor of the Exchequer Receipt from 1620 until c. 1654, and several times an MP including during the Long Parliament. In his early twenties, at the Middle Temple, he had known Ben Jonson and ‘loved the muses’ (Jonson later sent him a verse petition for the payment of the arrears of his pension). He then entered the service of the Duke of Buckingham, to whom he gave financial advice, not always heeded, and it was through Buckingham that he secured the lucrative Exchequer position; as a consequence he was often called on to loan money to Buckingham, and to the Navy, and to defend his patron in Parliament. During the Civil War he exhibited ‘lukewarm support for the Parliamentarian side’, but did not heed Charles I’s call for the exchequer officers to join him in Oxford (History of Parliament online); his estate at Faringdon in Berkshire, which included a castle as well as a manor house, was captured twice by the Cavaliers and then nearly destroyed in a siege by Parliament forces in 1646 (a siege led by his own son). In 1643 a letter was intercepted and read in the Commons suggesting that Pye was keen to make peace with the King and he narrowly escaped expulsion. He was evidently still under some suspicion by 1656, but it is presumably in deference to his long political career that the form is altered by hand to suggest that his presence is ‘desired’ rather than ‘required’ by the Commissioners. Dealer's description continued: The only surviving minutebook for the Commissioners (BL Add MS 54198) records that in due course Pye attended on 15 July, only to have the hearing deferred to 9 September while evidence was gathered, both parties to ‘come prepared accordingly’. Come 9 September we find no entry, but later in the month it is recorded that, the plaintiff requiring more time, it would now be rescheduled for 25 November. We find no evidence that this further hearing occurred, and perhaps the ‘information’ was withdrawn by Stephens; he appeared as plaintiff on behalf of the Protector in at least two other cases, in one of which, also in November, the Commissioners found he had not sufficient proof and ordered him to pay the defendents’ costs of 40s. At any rate, evidently Pye survived the brush unscathed; on the Restoration he briefly regained his Exchequer position. The Registrar of the Commission was Ferdinando Parkhurst (b. 1621?), who later served a similar function as prosecutor for the recovery of properties after the Restoration. He is now best known for his English translation of Ruggle’s medical comedy Ignoramus. Very rare, not in ESTC, COPAC or OCLC.
Folger accession
271255