Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/301

 1624 he was minor canon and chaunter of Chester Cathedral.

His compositions were not distinguished by much originality (, Hist. iii. 326, 347). He published: 1. ‘The First Book of Songs or Ayres of four parts; with Tableture for the Lute or Orpherion, with the Violl da Gamba,’ 1605. 2. ‘The First Set of Madrigals and Pastorals of three, four, and five parts,’ 1613. 3. ‘The Second Set of Madrigals and Pastorals of three, four, five, and six parts, apt for vyolls and voyces,’ 1624. A pavan by a Lord Derby appears in the same volume. Pilkington contributed two sacred songs to Leighton's ‘Teares and Lamentations,’ 1614. His part-song ‘Rest, sweet nymphs,’ has been republished in the collections of Hullah and Stafford Smith. ‘When Oriana walked’ is included in Hawes's ‘Triumphs,’ and five others in Oliphant's ‘Madrigals.’

Pilkington was the father or near relative of Thomas Pilkington (1615?–1650?), also a chorister of Chester Cathedral, and said to be one of the musicians to Henrietta Maria. Thomas was the inventor of the orphion, and ‘did command all instruments with his unequall'd hand’. He died during the interregnum, aged about 35, and was buried at Wolverhampton. Sir Aston Cokayne celebrated his merits in an epitaph and an elegy.

[Wood's Fasti, i. 269; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Hawkins's Hist. pp. 493, 522, 571; Burney's Hist. iii. 326, 347; Chester accounts, by the courtesy of Mr. St. John Hope, at the Society of Antiquaries; Pilkington's History of the Pilkington Family, 1894; authorities quoted.] 

PILKINGTON, GILBERT (fl. 1350), is the reputed author of ‘The Tournament of Tottenham,’ a burlesque in verse on ‘the parade and fopperies of chivalry.’ An amusing description is given, in homely language, of the efforts of ignorant rustics to reproduce all the ceremonies of the tournament by way of prelude to a rustic wedding. The earliest manuscript of the piece is in the Cambridge University Library, Ff. v. 48, and dates from the fourteenth century. It is followed by a sequel entitled ‘The Feest.’ Both bear the signature of Gilbert Pilkington, but it is doubtful if he were more than the copyist. In the same manuscript, which once belonged to George Withers, the poet, the words ‘Quod dominus Gilbertus Pylkyngton’ are appended to two other poems, one entitled ‘Passio Domini,’ and the other ‘The Story of Robin Hood and Little John.’ But of these, too, Pilkington may only have been the copyist. A fifteenth-century copy of ‘The Tournament’ is in Harl. MS. 5396. William Bedwell [q. v.] once possessed the Cambridge manuscript of the piece, and printed it in 1631, in the belief that Pilkington was not only the author, but his own predecessor in the vicarage of Tottenham. The latter theory is not confirmed by any contemporary evidence. The title-page of Bedwell's edition runs: ‘The Tvrnament of Tottenham, or the wooing, winning, and wedding of Tibbe, the reev's daughter there. Written long since in verse by Mr. Gilbert Pilkington, at that time, as some have thought, Parson of the Parish. Taken out of an ancient manuscript and published for the delight of others, by Wilhelm Bedwell, now Pastour there. Printed by John Norton, 1631.’ Bedwell appended a description of Tottenham, with a fresh title-page. ‘The Tournament’ was reprinted with Richard Butcher's ‘Survey of Stamford,’ London, 1717, and again, 1718, 8vo; by Bishop Percy in his ‘Reliques’ (ed. Wheatley, ii. 17–28); by Ritson in his ‘Ancient Songs and Ballads,’ 1829; by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt in his ‘Popular English Poetry’ (iii. 82 sq.); and separately by Thomas Wright, with the sequel, ‘The Feest,’ in 1836.

[Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, 1871, iii. 115–16; Ritson's Bibl. Anglo-Poetica; Cat. of MSS. in Cambr. Univ. Library.] 

PILKINGTON, JAMES (1520?–1576), first protestant bishop of Durham, the third son of Richard Pilkington of Rivington Hall, in the parish of Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, was born there about 1520. His mother was Alice, daughter of Laurence Asshawe or Hassall, and sister to Roger Hassall of Charnock Heath, Lancashire (, Durham Pedigrees, p. 255). Leonard Pilkington [q. v.] was a younger brother. When he was sixteen he entered at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, whence he migrated to St. John's College. He graduated B.A. in 1538–9, and was elected fellow of St. John's on 26 March 1539. In 1542 he proceeded M.A., and in 1551 B.D. On 3 April 1548 he became one of the preachers of St. John's College, and on 3 July following was admitted a senior fellow of the college, of which he was appointed president in 1550. Strongly inclined by education and conviction in favour of the Reformation, he forwarded the change of religion by taking part in a ‘disputation’ on transubstantiation held at Cambridge on 24 June 1549, and by lecturing in the public schools of the university on the Acts of the Apostles. Edward VI, in December 1550, appointed him vicar of Kendal in Westmoreland, but