Pope asked Pilkington to stay with him at Twickenham for a fortnight, but subsequently had occasion, in conjunction with Bolingbroke and Barber, to remonstrate with Swift upon his lack of discrimination in recommending such an ‘intolerable coxcomb.’ In the same way as his wife (than whom he had far less wit), Pilkington seems to have won Swift's good graces by his seeming insensibility to the dean's occasional fits of ferocity. Thus, when Swift emptied the dregs of a bottle of claret and told Pilkington to drink them, as he ‘always kept a poor parson to drink his foul wine for him,’ Pilkington submissively raised his glass, and would have drunk the contents had not Swift prevented him. In 1732 Swift presented to Mrs. Barber his ‘Verses to a Lady who desired to be addressed in the Heroic Style,’ which the lady conveyed to the press through the medium of Pilkington. When, however, some expressions in the poem provoked the wrath of Walpole, Pilkington had no scruple in betraying both Barber, the printer, and Benjamin Motte [q. v.], the bookseller. This completely opened Swift's eyes as to the real character of his protégé, whom he subsequently described to Barber as the falsest rogue in the kingdom. This view of his character is confirmed by Pilkington's treatment of his wife, even if we do not accept the conjecture that he forged some offensive letters written to Queen Caroline from Dublin in 1731, and purporting to be from Swift. The latter certainly came to regard Pilkington as the author of these letters, which prejudiced him greatly in the eyes of the court, and which he warmly but uselessly disclaimed. In 1733 Pilkington inveigled Motte into issuing a counterfeit ‘Life and Character of Dean Swift, written by himself,’ in verse, which was a further source of annoyance both to Swift and his publisher. During his year of office as chaplain to the lord mayor, Pilkington managed to extort more from his master and the aldermen than any of his predecessors (see Barber's Letter to Swift); but when his devious courses estranged influential patrons, such as Swift and Barber, he fell into evil habits and obscurity, from which he only emerged to write a few tirades against his wife. After his separation from his wife his son, John Carteret Pilkington, espoused the cause of his mother. Nothing further appears to be known about Matthew, who must be carefully distinguished from the author of the ‘Dictionary of Painters,’ and from Matthew Pilkington, prebendary of Lichfield, with both of whom he has been confused.
[Gent. Mag. 1748, 1749, 1750, passim; Chalmers's Biogr. Dictionary; Monck Mason's Hist. of St. Patrick's, 1820; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Lady's Monthly Museum, Aug. 1812; Nichols's Lit. Illustrations; Craik's Life of Swift, pp. 443, 469; Swift's Works, ed. Hawkesworth and Scott; Pope's Works, ed. Elwin, v. 332; Baker's Biogr. Dramatica; Didot's Biographie Générale; Mrs. Pilkington's Memoirs, and various squibs relating to her husband's action for divorce in the British Museum; J. C. Pilkington's Memoirs, pp. 3–5.]
PILKINGTON, LEONARD (1527?–1599), master of St. John's College, Cambridge, fifth son of Richard Pilkington, lord of Rivington Manor, and Alice, daughter of Laurence Asshawe or Hassall of Charnock Heath, and brother of James Pilkington [q. v.], was descended from an ancient Lancashire family, and received his education at St. John's College, Cambridge. He proceeded B.A. in 1543–4, and on 24 March 1545–6 was admitted a fellow of his college. In 1552 he was appointed preacher of his college, being then in deacon's orders. After the accession of Mary he was ejected from his fellowship, and fled with his brother to Frankfort, where he joined the reformed church, composed chiefly of refugees, in that city. On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to Cambridge, and was a second time elected (27 Dec. 1559) senior fellow and preacher of the college. On 20 March 1560–1 he was collated to the rectory of Middleton in Teesdale; and on 19 Oct. following, on his brother's promotion to the see of Durham, was elected to succeed him as master of St. John's College. In the same year he was licensed one of the university preachers, was admitted B.D., and appointed to the regius professorship of divinity. This latter appointment he resigned, however, in the following year, being, as Baker conjectures, ‘either weary of the charge or not so equal to the business.’ The rectory of Whitburn in the county of Durham in some measure compensated for the loss; but he took so little pains to conceal his puritan sympathies within his own college that his retention of the mastership became difficult, and when, in 1564, it became known that Elizabeth was intending to visit the university, he deemed it prudent to resign. His brother's influence obtained for him a canonry in the cathedral of Durham (1 Aug. 1567); but having failed to present himself on the occasion of a visitation by the chancellor of the diocese, he was excommunicated (6 Feb. 1577–8), although absolved a few days after. In 1581–2 he visited his college at Cambridge, and was twice entertained at the expense of the society. In 1592 he
