Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

This Member has proved difficult to identify. On grounds of dating, it seems possible that he was the Matthew Patteson who matriculated from Peterhouse in 1575, though this person has been identified with the Catholic controversialist who was physician to Charles I.1 With more assurance he may be identified as the chamber official in 1603,2 whose superior was Sir John Stanhope, treasurer of the chamber and an intimate of the Cecils. The Cecil connexion would explain his election at West Looe, where Burghley was a likely patron. It was evidently this Matthew Patteson who was on friendly terms with (Sir) Henry Constable in 15933 and was commissioned by him to find a gelding suitable for presentation to Sir Robert Cecil. The Constables shared control of Hedon and in this way his return there in 1601 can be explained. Probably Robert Cecil arranged it through Constable.4 The known facts about this man indicate that he was a dependant of the Cecils.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Notes

• 1. Al. Cant. i(3), p. 319; Peterhouse Biog. Reg. ii. 5.
• 2. LC2/4/4.
• 3. HMC Hatfield, iv. 362-3.
• 4. By 1609 the mayor of Hedon was offering the nomination of a burgess to Cecil direct; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 558.
• 5. HMC Hatfield, xv. 54.