Richard Pate 1516-1588

RICHARD PATE, 'a very excellent and charitable man' was undoubtedly one of the most influential men in Gloucester in the sixteenth century. He was probably born in Cheltenham, son of Walter Pate and a nephew of a Richard Pate, Bishop of Worcester, who was deprived in 1559. He later lived in Gloucester, and is also said to have lived in Minsterworth, and refers in the codicil of his will to 'my house at Minsterworth, with barns, stables, orchards and garden,'. He owned extensive property, having purchased a great deal after surveying the possessions of the religious houses in the district, being a commissioner under Henry VIII and Edward VI.

In 1541 he was admitted at Lincoln's Inn and later called to the Bar. He represented Gloucester in Parliament on a number of occasions and was Recorder of Gloucester from 1561 until his death. On his election the Recorder was authorised 'to exercise justice by himself or by his deputy who shall be called the Town Clarke'. In the year 1586 he endowed his old college (Corpus Christi, Oxford) with property he had purchased, on condition that three-quarters of the income should be used by the College 'for the perpetual maintenance and foundation of a free Grammar School at Cheltenham ... and also a Hospital or Almshouse for six old poor people'. He would have known of Alderman John and Joan Cooke, and may well have based his ideas on their example.

The name of Richard Pate (or Pates as it sometimes occurs) is to be found in many of the important decisions and transactions in Gloucester, and his death must have been keenly felt here. In his old age he was known for his 'great honestie and sufficiency'. and died, much respected, on the 29 October 1588, aged 73. He was buried in the south transept of the Cathedral, close to the monument to Alderman Blackleech, and his own monument was restored by his old College in 1688. Unfortunately the portrait on it, together with that of his family, is now barely discernible, and so we cannot compare it with the picture of him which we now possess. What is described as 'a fine portrait' of him, said to be contemporary and painted by an unknown artist, is in Corpus Christi common room. It would seem to have been painted in 1550, and his age was rightly given as 34.

Richard Pate made a number of bequests to Gloucester, including twenty shillings yearly for twenty years 'out of my Capitall messuage in Glouc. wherein I now dwell amongst forty of the poorest men and weemen within the said Cittie by even porcons'. He also left twenty marks for repairs to be done to the north and east gates of the City. As a result of this we learn that the Corporation 'finding an inconvenience that the Northgate of the said City was often broken whereby the prisoners escaped there, Being encouradged by this legacy of xx mks by Mr. Pates caused to be newe erected & builded a faire howse on the eastside of the said Northgate for the gailor's howse forev'. He also left money for St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but it seems that as many of his bequests were of terminable interest, they have long ago expired.

It is not clear exactly where he lived in Gloucester, but in 1548 we know that he was living in the parish of St. Mary de Grace, and there is also evidence that his house was in Maverdine Lane. He was also living in Gloucester in 1578 when his daughter, Margaret, widow of Richard Brooke, lay on her death-bed in his house, surrounded, it seems, by considerable luxury and with no shortage of servants. Today he is perhaps better remembered in Cheltenham than in Gloucester, for the school which he founded has perpetuated his name. His wife Maud, daughter of John Rastell, outlived him. His daughters predeceased him and he left no male children.