Christopher Perkins (priest)
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Sir Christopher Perkins (or Parkins) (1547? – 1622) was an English
Jesuit
turned diplomat and MP.
Life
He was educated at Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 7 April 1565; but on 21 October next year he entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, aged 19. According to
Lord Burghley
's favour.
Return to England
In 1587 he was resident at
King of Poland
as proof of his innocence and abandoned his religious vows and former faith. On 9 May he was granted expenses for a mission to Poland and Prussia.
Diplomatic Agent
From this time Perkins was frequently employed as a diplomatic agent to Denmark, Poland,
Elbing, Lübeck, and other Hanse towns, and spent some time in Poland. He says he was acceptable to the Poles generally, and the king tried to induce him to enter his service; but (on his own account) the clergy were bitterly hostile, and the Pope offered put a price on his head. In 1598 he was again sent to Denmark, returning on 8 December; in 1600 he was employed in negotiating with the Danish emissaries at Emden. He acted as principal adviser to the government in its mercantile relations with the Baltic countries; on 3 January 1593 he was on a commission to decide without appeal all disputes between the English and subjects of the French king in reference to piracy
, and on 3 July was on another to inquire into and punish all abettors of pirates.
Numerous Titles
He was appointed as
Sir Daniel Donne, master of requests, whom he succeeded in 1617. In 1620 he subscribed to the Virginia Company
.
He died late in August 1622, and was buried on 1 September on the north side of the long aisle in Westminster Abbey.
Family
Perkins married, possibly for the second time, on 5 November 1617, at
Countess of Buckingham, whose son, George Villiers, became Duke of Buckingham, and mother, by her first husband, of Anne, second wife of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex
. She survived him.
See also
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Perkins, Christopher". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
