Robert Pakington
| Robert Pakington | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1489 |
| Died | 13 November 1536 (aged 46–47) London |
| Spouse(s) | Agnes Baldwin Katherine Dallam |
| Children | Sir Thomas Pakington |
| Parent(s) | John Pakington, Elizabeth Washborne |
Robert Pakington (c. 1489 – 13 November 1536) was a London merchant and Member of Parliament. He was murdered by a handgun in London in 1536, likely the first such killing in the city. His murder was later interpreted as martyrdom, and recounted in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. He was the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Sir John "Lusty" Pakington.
Robert Pakington, born about 1489 at Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, was a younger son of John Pakington and Elizabeth Washborne, the daughter of Thomas Washborne. He had three brothers, John, Augustine, and Humphrey.
By 1510 Pakington had completed an apprenticeship with the Mercers' Company, one of the twelve great livery companies of London, and was exporting cloth and importing various wares. In 1523, and again in 1529, he and others were chosen to draw up articles on behalf of the Mercers for presentation to Parliament. According to Marshall, one of the articles drawn up in 1529 was 'sharply anti-clerical'. In 1527-8 Pakington was elected Warden of the Company.
He was elected to Parliament in a by-election in October 1533, and was re-elected in 1536. The chronicler Edward Hall records that in Parliament Pakington again revealed anti-clerical sentiments, 'speaking somewhat against the covetousness and cruelty of the clergy’.
In the final years of his life Pakington reported to Thomas Cromwell on matters in Flanders at the behest of Cromwell's man of business, Stephen Vaughan, who held strongly Protestant sympathies.
On the morning of 13 November 1536 while crossing the street from his home in Cheapside to attend Mercers' Chapel located opposite, Packington was shot with a gun and killed:
His murder was likely the first committed with a handgun in London. His murderer was never found, despite the 'gret rewarde' which was offered for information.
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