THE BOOKS OF THOMAS, LORD PAGET, (c. 1544-1590)

Abstract

Thomas, Lord Paget was born about 1544, a younger son of Sir William Paget, the distinguished Privy Councillor and Principal Secretary of Henry VIII and his successors, who, in 1549, became the first Baron Paget of Beaudesert in Staffordshire. Thomas succeeded as the third Lord in 1568 and, as late as June 1580, was active in Staffordshire affairs. Within a few weeks however, his religious opinions led to his being committed to the care of the Dean of Windsor. Fourteen weeks of residence with the Dean failed to mend Pageťs ways and in early 1582 fresh complaints reached the Privy Council. Paget and his servants interrupted church services and attempted to replace the communion bread with . . little singing cakes, after the old popish fashion. . .. At last, the collapse of the Throckmorton Plot in 1583 sent Paget scurrying to Paris and, convicted of treason, he spent the rest of his life in exile, on the fringes of the Spanish attempts against England, until his death in 1590.1 William Camden said of Thomas that: To the Commonwealth of Learning he left a sad miss of himself'.2 His father, Sir William, was reputedly the son of a shearman, or barber or clothmaker, and had used his learning and scholarship, acquired at St Paul's School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to climb to high office. His teachers and friends included William Lily, John Leland and Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Mary's Lord Chancellor.3 William Paget lectured upon Melanchthon's rhetoric at Trinity Hall and found time in later life to act as patron to Roger Ascham and to aid in the reformation of the curricula of the Universities.4 Paget was careful to ensure the educational advancement of his own children. His eldest son, Henry, the second Lord, was the eventual owner of a number of books, while Thomas entered Gonville and Caius College in 1559. There, he was probably tinged with the Catholicism of the Master, John Caius, but he soon left for the Middle Temple, becoming a barrister in 1561. During the years of obscurity which followed, Thomas added to his library and his books may have formed the nucleus of the great collection owned by William, Lord Paget at his house at West Drayton in Middlesex in 1617.5 Unfortunately, however, no complete list has survived of the books of Thomas, Lord Paget. Purchases made between November 1580 and June 1582 are contained in the bills for payment presented to William Warde, Pageťs Receiver-General, by Henry Staunford, Robert Banckes and other officers of the household. A few additional titles of mostly older books are