Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pye, Thomas (1560-1610)

555697Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 47 — Pye, Thomas (1560-1610)1896William Albert Samuel Hewins

PYE, THOMAS (1560–1610), divine, the son of Richard Pye of Darlaston, Staffordshire, was born there in March 1560. Matriculating at Balliol College, Oxford, on 20 Dec. 1577, he became chaplain of Merton College in 1581, B.D. on 21 June 1585, and D.D. on 4 July 1588. He was appointed rector of Earnley-with-Almodington, Sussex, and canon of Chichester in 1586, and vicar and schoolmaster of Bexhill, Sussex, in 1589. In 1606 he rebuilt the tower of Darlaston church. He died at Bexhill early in 1610. By his will, dated 20 Dec. 1609, and proved on 20 March 1610, he directed that he should be buried in the school-house lately repaired and paved by him, and bequeathed a sum of money to the poor of Brightling, near Battle, Sussex. He was ‘accounted an eminent linguist, excellent in sacred chronology, in ecclesiastical histories, and polemical divinity’ (Wood).

Pye published: 1. ‘A Computation from the Beginning of Time to Christ by Ten Articles,’ London, 1597, 4to. 2. ‘A Confirmation of the same for the times controverted before Christ; As also that there wanteth a year after Christ in the usual Computation,’ printed with the above, and both afterwards issued with the title ‘An Hour Glass.’ 3. ‘Epistola ad ornatiss. virum D. Johan. Howsonum S.T.D. Acad. Oxon., Procancellarium, qua Dogma ejus novum et admirabile de Judæorum divortiis refutatur, et suus S.S. Scripturæ nativus sensus ab ejus glossematis vindicatur,’ London, 1603, 4to. 4. ‘Usury's Spright conjured; or a Scholasticall Determination of Usury,’ London, 1604, 4to. 5. ‘Answer to a Treatise written in Defence of Usury,’ London, 1604. Wood also mentions a manuscript ‘Epistola responsoria ad clariss. virum, D. Alb. Gentilem.’

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 59; Plot's Staffordshire, p. 297; Shaw's Hist. of Staffordshire, ii. 92; Pitt's Hist. of Staffordshire, p. 149; Hackwood's Hist. of Darlaston, pp. 53, 54, 60, 64, 82, 91, 137; Simms's Bibliotheca Staffordiensis, p. 369; Foster's Alumni Oxon. (early ser.), iii. 1222; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. s.v. ‘Pyus.’]