PUREFOY, Michael (1562-1627), of Caldecote, Warws.; later of Nottingham.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 1562, 1st s. of Thomas Purefoy of Caldecote by Elizabeth, da. of Robert Bradshaw of Morborne, Hunts. educ. Peterhouse, Camb. 1576, Magdalene, BA 1581/2, MA 1585, incorp. Oxf. 1598. unm.

Offices Held

Dep. official of archdeaconry of Notts. from 1598.

Biography

It is not easy to explain Pureroy’s return for Clitheroe, and it is uncertain in any case whether the MP was the man whose particulars appear above, or his cousin and namesake, a younger son of the senior branch of the family, who was a member of the Inner Temple and servant of the Earl of Rutland. Perhaps the former may be preferred because of a tenuous link with the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, president of the council in the north, who knew his uncles Humphrey and William. Huntingdon could certainly have secured Pureroy’s return and it is highly likely that he spent several years in the service of this uncle Humphrey, who was himself a legal member of the council in the north. Purefoy died in 1627 and was buried in Caldecote church, where his cousin and executor, Gamaliel Purefoy, erected a monument.

Vis. Leics. (Harl. Soc. ii), 34, 37; Nichols, Leics. iv(2), 601-2; R. A. Marchant, Puritans and Church Courts in Yorks. 1560-1642, 148, 156, 158, 162, 167-8, 171-2, 174, 176-8, 181, 184; HMC Rutland, i. 161, 228, 229, 230, 231, 238, 239, 249, 261, 269; PCC 94 Skinner; Dugdale, Warws. ii. 1098-9.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes