Thomas Paynell Explained

Thomas Paynell
Nationality:English
Occupation:Augustinian and translator

Thomas Paynell (fl. 1528–1564) was an English Augustinian and translator.

Biography

Paynell was an Austin friar. He was educated at Merton Abbey, Surrey, where he became a canon. He then proceeded to the college of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, which was designed for the education of the canons of certain Augustinian houses, of which Merton was one (Wood, City of Oxford, ed. Clark, ii. 228–9). He subsequently returned to Merton, and devoted himself to literary and medical studies. His first book, an edition of the ‘Regimen Sanitatis Salerni,’ appeared in 1528, and from that date Paynell's activity as a translator was incessant. In 1530 a Thomas Paynell was admitted member of Gray's Inn (Foster, Register, p. 8). On 13 April 1538 Merton Abbey surrendered to the crown, and its inmates received pensions. Paynell accepted 10l. per annum. On 16 October in the same year Paynell was licensed to export from England five hundred woollen cloths, and in December he was despatched, with Christopher Mount, on a mission to the protestant princes of Germany; he was present at the diet of Frankfort on 12 February 1539 (State Papers Henry VIII, i. 604–6, 609, 614). Before 1541 he had become chaplain to Henry VIII, perhaps as a reward for diplomatic services. He seems to have escaped molestation on account of his religious opinions, and remained in favour with Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, to all of whom he dedicated books. Among others to whom his dedications are addressed were Mary (1496–1533), queen-dowager of France, John de Vere, fifteenth earl of Oxford, Anthony Browne, first viscount Montague, the lord chamberlain, and William Blount, fourth lord Mountjoy He was also an intimate friend of Alexander Barclay, the author of the ‘Ship of Fools.’ He is probably the Thomas Paynell who resigned the living of St. Dionys, Lime Street, London, on 13 Feb. 1549–50 (Strype, Eccl. Mem. ii. ii. 261), and succeeded his friend Richard Benese at All Hallows, Honey Lane, which he resigned before 21 Feb. 1560–1. His will was proved 22 Mar. 1564. The latest mention of him appears in the ‘Stationers' Register’ in December or January 1567–8.

The translator's works are:

He likewise supplied a table for the 1557 edition of the works of Sir Thomas More. Other works which Wood and Bale attribute to him have not been identified.

Paynell is confused by Wood, Cooper, and others with a contemporary Thomas Paynell or Parnell, apparently one of the Paynells of Lincolnshire, who was born at Boothby Pagnell or Paynell, and educated at Louvain under Robert Barnes, then an Augustinian friar. When Barnes became prior of the Austin friars at Cambridge, Paynell went thither with him, and together ‘they made the house of the Augustinians very famous for good and godly literature’ (Athenæ Cantabr. i. 78). It may be he who was in the king's service at Boston in 1538, and wrote to Cromwell certifying the suppression of the friars' houses there, and urging the application of the building materials to the repair of the haven and town (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd ser. iv. 170–2). A third Thomas Paynell studied at St. Bernard's (afterwards St. John's) College, Oxford, became rector of Cottingham, near Beverley, Yorkshire, and left benefactions to the place by will, which was proved at the prerogative court of Canterbury on 22 March 1563–4 (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. i. 337–40). A Nicholas Paynell of Yorkshire was elected fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1515, and subsequently became public lecturer in mathematics (Eccl. Mem. i. i. 75).

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