Person Page - 65

Paske, Thomas (d. 1662), Church of England clergyman, was probably born in Cambridge, a younger brother of William Paske (d. 1639), who was admitted as a scholar from Eton College to King's College, Cambridge, about 1594, and who graduated BA in 1599 and proceeded MA in 1602. Thomas was a scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, who graduated BA in 1602 or 1603, was elected a fellow at Christmas 1603 and proceeded MA in 1606. He succeeded William as vicar of Hendon, Middlesex, on 9 September 1611 and became chaplain to James Hamilton, marquess of Hamilton. He resigned his fellowship in 1612, but returned to Cambridge to proceed BD in 1613.
Both brothers gained steady preferment. William Paske, who had proceeded BD from Clare in 1609, became chaplain to the bishop of London and in 1618 proceeded DD and became a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral...^1,14,4,3

Revd. William Paske Doctor of Divinity. 2nd son. Clare Hall, Cambridge.
Arms granted by Sir W. Segar 1630 & after him to his brother Thomas D.D.
There are no children detailed in the chart.¹⁵

"Thomas Pask, prebendary of Canterbury, account of"
The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent ..., Volume 4 By Edward Hasted

Following the English War "...parliament resolved to purge the university of Cambridge...."
"The town of Cambridge was in the interest of Parliament, but the colleges were so many little garisons for the King and sanctuaries of disaffection. The university press was at his majesty's disposal and their sermons filled with invectives against the two houses. Frequent quarrels happened between the townspeople and the scholars, which would have ended in the ruin of the university, had not parliament forbid any violence to the colleges, chapels, libraries and schools, under severe penalties. Indeed the Committtee put into execution the ordinance for destroying the relics of superstition, whereby the paintings in windows, images of the deity and a great deal of carved work were demolished; at which the masters and fellows were so incensed. that when they were ordered to repair the damages they peremptorily refused, were fined 40s a college as the ordinance directed."
"...the heads of the university raised a great clamour at this invasion of their rights, as if the parliament intended to seize all their revenues and destroy the very fountains of learning...etc"
However, the purge proceeded and a number of Loyalist masters were turned out of Cambridge colleges, among these: "Dr Thomas Pask"
The collected works of Sir Humphry Davy ...: Discourses delivered before the ... By Sir Humphry Davy The Puritans chapter

"The following masters were turned out:
 ...Dr Thomas Pask from Clare Hall, also eminent for learning..."
History of Religious Liberty in England: From Magna Charta to the ..., Volume 2 By James Aikman

"Thomas Pask D.D. He was master of Clare Hall in Cambridge, Arch Deacon of London and Rector of Much Hadham in Hertfordshire; all which he lost in the Civil wars; but was restored to them again on the Restoration.
He died 1662."
History of Religious Liberty in England: From Magna Charta to the ..., Volume 2 By James Aikman

"Oridinations for the government of the university, which the Vice Chancellor requests the heads of colleges to promulgate and enforce in their several colleges. No date, but signed by Thomas Pask, Vice Chancellor in A.D. 1623
A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of ... By H. R. Luard

The college of cilvians called Doctors-Commons exercent in London Dr Thomas Pask
The Present State of Great-Britain and Ireland. In Three Parts (etc.), Part 3

"Thomas Lord Middleton elected  member of parliament for the University of Cambridge December 19th 1720 in the room of Dr Thomas Pask, deceased."
The peerage of England. 3 vols. [in 4. Sig. N6,7 of vol. 1, 3B1 of vol. 2 ...
By Arthur Collins

"Dr Thomas Pask, Chancellor of the diocese of Exeter and official to the Arch-Deacon of London"
The Present State of Great-Britain and Ireland. In Three Parts (etc.), Part 3 By Guy Miege  4th edition 1718.³

     Paske, Thomas (d. 1662), Church of England clergyman, was probably born in Cambridge, a younger brother of William Paske (d. 1639), who was admitted as a scholar from Eton College to King's College, Cambridge, about 1594, and who graduated BA in 1599 and proceeded MA in 1602. Thomas was a scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, who graduated BA in 1602 or 1603, was elected a fellow at Christmas 1603 and proceeded MA in 1606. He succeeded William as vicar of Hendon, Middlesex, on 9 September 1611 and became chaplain to James Hamilton, marquess of Hamilton. He resigned his fellowship in 1612, but returned to Cambridge to proceed BD in 1613.
     Both brothers gained steady preferment. William Paske, who had proceeded BD from Clare in 1609, became chaplain to the bishop of London and in 1618 proceeded DD and became a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral. On 31 December 1620 Thomas Paske was elected master of Clare. He was incorporated DD in 1621, and two years later became vice-chancellor of the university. He was instituted to the vicarage of St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, Surrey, in 1624, although he retained Hendon until 1626. In 1625 he became a prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral and succeeded Thomas Aylmer both as archdeacon of London and in the living of Much Hadham with Little Hadham, Hertfordshire. Following his presentation to the prebend of Ulles-kelf in York Minster on 10 November 1628 the fellows of Clare petitioned for, and obtained from Charles I some time before 2 September 1640, permission to elect a successor as master of the college, but no such appointment was made. Paske continued to be active in the southern province: several sets of his visitation articles as archdeacon of London survive. By the later 1630s he had taken up residence in Canterbury. In the spring of 1640 he was one of those delegated by Convocation to the difficult task of revising the book of subsidies. Absent from the November 1640–February 1641 session of Convocation, he was present again in April and May 1641.
     By 1641 Paske had married his wife, Anne; a daughter, Elizabeth, was baptized at Canterbury Cathedral on 12 February 1641 or 1642. Following the outbreak of the civil war, as subdean of Canterbury he complained on 30 August 1642 to Henry Rich, earl of Holland, about the ruthless treatment of the cathedral by troopers of Colonel Sandys's regiment. In the dean's absence Paske had been ordered by the parliamentary commander, Sir Michael Lindsey, to deliver up the keys, upon which ‘soldiers entering the church giant-like began a fight with God himself’ (Fifth Report, HMC, 45). His communication to Lord Holland was published on 9 September as The Copy of a Letter Sent to an Honourable Lord, by Dr Paske, Subdeane of Canterbury, London, but he told the House of Lords on 17 September that it had appeared without his knowledge.
     By 16 May 1643 pressure from parishioners at Bermondsey had succeeded in having Paske replaced by the lecturer there, Jeremiah Whitaker, and by 20 December that year Paske had also been sequestered from Hadham. In 1645 he was ejected from Clare College in favour of Ralph Cudworth; he also lost his prebends. David Lloyd states that Paske ‘suffered cheerfully for his majesty and his son for eighteen years’ (Lloyd, 504); he evidently had means to support himself and his family. His wife, Anne, and four children (including Elizabeth and Thomas, baptized in 1643) were awarded a fifth from Much Hadham in September 1644. The following year Paske was assessed at £400 by the committee for the advance of money, but the family were later reported to have moved to a house in Hadham which was better than the rectory, and the committee for compounding failed to oust him; at least three further children were born in the parish—Theophila (bap. 1644 or 1645), Judith (bap. 1646), and George (bap. 1650). Articles were exhibited against Paske for using the prayer book at ceremonies for the family of local landowner and royalist leader, Arthur Capel, Lord Capel (d. 1649).
     At the Restoration, Paske was reinstated in the rectory of Hadham, in his two prebends and archdeaconry, and in the mastership of Clare, but he surrendered his right of restitution to the last to the ejected master, Theophilus Dillingham, who, on 30 March 1661, married Paske's daughter Elizabeth. The same year Paske also resigned his York prebend to his son-in-law. On 24 June he attended the lower house of Convocation, but in December, probably because of illness, he subscribed by proxy. He issued visitation articles for his London archdeaconry in 1662, but drew up his will on 12 September and died within weeks; probate was granted on 19 November. The main beneficiary was his son Thomas, but there were bequests to three younger children and to the poor of Much Hadham; his wife was the executor. Paske was reputed to be eminent in learning, judgement, and piety, to be a great teacher, to have modestly refused a bishopric, and to have accepted unwillingly his other preferments. According to Lloyd, in one day during his final illness he was visited by three bishops, four privy councillors, two judges, and three physicians, all former pupils.
Charlotte Fell-Smith, rev. S. L. Sadler.^16,17

     "Thomas Paske D.D. (died 1662) was an English clergyman and academic, deprived as a royalist.
He was perhaps son of William Paske, vicar of Hendon, Middlesex, and may have been born there, but the registers do not begin until 1653. William Paske left Hendon for the living of Ashdon, Essex, in 1611; he died before 15 February 1639-40. Thomas was a scholar of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and fellow between Christmas 1603 and 1612. He graduated B.A. in 1606, B.D. in 1613. He succeeded William in the vicarage of Hendon on 9 September 1611, and became chaplain to James, Marquess of Hamilton.
     On 21 December 1621 he was elected master of Clare Hall, and was incorporated D.D. in 1621. In 1625 he succeeded Theophilus Aylmer (d. 1625) both as archdeacon of London, and in the living of Much or Great Hadham, Hertfordshire, to which Little Hadham was then attached. He was also vicar of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey. Paske was presented to the prebend of Ulleskelf in York Cathedral on 10 November 1628, and to a stall at Canterbury about 15 December 1636. He took up his residence at Canterbury, and the fellows of Clare consequently petitioned for and obtained from Charles I, some time before 2 September 1640, permission to elect a successor; but no appointment was made until 1645, when Ralph Cudworth was put in by Parliament.
     Paske was also subdean of Canterbury, and on 30 August 1642 complained to Henry, Earl of Holland, of the ruthless treatment of the cathedral by troopers of Colonel Sandys's regiment. In the absence of the dean, he had been ordered by the parliamentary commander, Sir Michael Lindsey, to deliver up the keys. This communication to Lord Holland was published as The Copy of a Letter sent to an Honourable Lord, by Dr. Paske, Subdeane of Canterbury, London, 9 September 1642.
Paske, after being deprived of all his benefices, at the Restoration was reinstated in the rectory of Hadham, in his two prebends, and in the mastership of Clare Hall; but he surrendered his right of restitution to the latter in favour of his son-in-law, Theophilus Dillingham who succeeded Ralph Cudworth in 1664. Paske also resigned the York prebend in favour of Dillingham in 1661. On 24 June 1661 he attended in the lower house of Convocation but in December, probably from illness, he subscribed by proxy. He died before September 1662.
     Thomas Paske of Hadham, apparently a grandson, was admitted to Clare Hall on 1 July 1692, was fellow and LL.D. of Clare, and represented the university of Cambridge in parliament from 1713 until his death in 1720."¹⁸

     Walters Hist of Suffolk, pt II, pg 141, says he was Vice Chancellor of Camb 1632 and that he refused the offer of a bishopbric.
     Clutterbuck’s Hist of Herts says “he was learned, prudent, pious and cheerful and that once, at Cambridge, 2 Bishops, 4 Privy Councillors, 2 Judges and 3 Physicians, all old pupils, visited him in one day.”
     The Pedigree Roll states that his son Thomas Paske, the younger, was also Master of Clare Hall. No confirmation of this was found, although in 1667 he, with two others, presented to the College a silver ewer and bason, weighing 156 oz, he giving 88 oz, this plate the College still has.¹⁹

He issued visitation articles for his London archdeaconry in 1662, but drew up his will on 12 September and died within weeks; probate was granted on 19 November. The main beneficiary was his son Thomas, but there were bequests to three younger children and to the poor of Much Hadham; his wife was the executor.⁹

     Dillingham, Theophilus (1613-1678), college head, was born on 18 October 1613 at Over Deane, Bedfordshire, the elder son of Thomas Dillingham (d. 1647), rector of that parish. He was educated at the school at Over Deane and then matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 13 September 1629. From that college he graduated BA in 1634 and proceeded MA in 1637. The following year he moved to Sidney Sussex College as a fellow, taking his BD there in 1644.
     In 1654 Dillingham was elected master of Clare and proceeded DD from that college the following year. At the Restoration he was ejected from the mastership, but the successful claimant, Thomas Paske (d. 1662), who had been master from 1620 to 1645, became his father-in-law on 30 March 1661 on Dillingham's marriage to Elisabeth Paske at St Edward's, Cambridge. With the assent of the fellows Paske resigned his mastership to Dillingham. His popularity within the university both before and after the Restoration is evident in the fact that he served as vice-chancellor in 1655-6, 1656-7, and 1662. Evidently, too, he was not out of favour with the restored regime, since he became prebendary of Ulleskelf, in the church of York, on 29 January 1661 (a position he again owed to the fact that his father-in-law resigned in his favour) and archdeacon of Bedford on 3 September 1667, as well as retaining the rectory of Offord Cluny, Huntingdonshire (to which he was appointed in 1654), until 1678.
     Dillingham died at Cambridge on 22 November 1678 and was buried at St Edward's Church, Cambridge. He was survived by his wife, three sons (Thomas (d. 1722), John, and Theophilus), and three daughters (Elizabeth, Dorothy, and Ann).
John Gascoigne.²