tion,’ preached at Leicester, appeared in 1630. He was soon afterwards appointed a royal chaplain, and preached before the king. In 1640 he preached before the council at York. In 1644 he resigned his living at Packington to his son Thomas, and, during the early days of the civil wars, complained that he was five times robbed and plundered of his goods and cattle. In 1650 he contributed two poems to ‘Lachrymæ Musarum’ on the death of Henry, lord Hastings, and in 1652 commendatory verse to Benlowes's ‘Theophila.’ In 1659 he collected some sacred verse and sermons preached before the war in ‘Sermons and Devotions, Old and New, revewed and publisht … with a Discourse of Duels,’ dedicated to Thomas, viscount Beaumont, and Robert, ‘heir to Mr. Rich. Sutton of Tongue in Leicestershire.’ He doubtless died very soon afterwards.
A collection of unprinted poems by Pestell or his father was lent by a descendant to Nichols, who printed many of them in his ‘History of Leicestershire.’ Nichols's excerpts include an elegy on Francis Beaumont. The volume of verse entitled ‘Scintillulæ Sacræ,’ of which two copies are among the Harleian MSS. (Nos. 6646 and 6922), is attributed to Pestell, but some part at least is probably by his son Thomas.
He married a daughter of Mrs. Katherine Carr. His elder son, Thomas Pestell (1613–1701), born at Cole-Orton, Leicestershire, was admitted pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, 29 Aug. 1628. Migrating to Queens', he graduated B.A. in 1632 and M.A. in 1636. He rather than his father seems to have written a Latin comedy, entitled ‘Versipellis,’ which was acted at Cambridge in 1638. It was not printed. Pestell succeeded his father at Packington in 1644, and was ejected in 1646 by the Westminster assembly; he was subsequently rector of Markfeld and confrater of Wigston's Hospital, Leicester. He contributed verses to ‘Lachrymæ Musarum’ (1650) in memory of Henry, lord Hastings.
The second son, William (d. 1696), who graduated B.A. in 1634 and M.A. in 1638 from Queens' College, Cambridge, became in 1644 rector of Cole-Orton, whence he and his wife were driven by the parliamentary soldiers under Sir John Gell. He appears to have resumed his benefice at the Restoration, and in 1667 was instituted to Ravenstone in addition. He was buried at Cole-Orton. He was author of a poetic ‘Congratulation to his sacred Majesty on his Restoration,’ 1661.
[Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 737–8, 927, 940; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum, in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24488, f. 328.]
PETER (d. 1085), bishop of Lichfield, was chaplain of William I, and custodian of the see of Lincoln in 1066 (Chron. Monast. de Abingdon, i. 492, Rolls Ser.). He was consecrated by Lanfranc at Gloucester, probably in 1072. In 1075, at a synod held by Lanfranc in London, a decree was passed for the removal of certain bishoprics to more populous places. In accordance with this decree Peter removed the see of Lichfield to Chester. There he made the church of St. John's his cathedral church, instituting a dean and canons, for whose maintenance he provided. The see was situated at Chester only until 1106, but some of the canonries inaugurated by Peter remained there until 1541, when the modern see of Chester was created. In 1076 Peter was sent by Lanfranc to assist the archbishop of York in certain consecrations (AnglgSaxon Chron. i. 387, Rolls Ser.) In 1085 he died, and was buried at Chester, being the only bishop of the earlier foundation who was buried there.
[Chron. Monast. de Abingdon, i. 492 (Rolls Ser.); Ann. Monast. i. 185 (Rolls Ser.); Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 433, 445, 457; Le Neve's Fasti; Gervase of Canterbury's Actus Pont. ii. 366; Florence of Worcester in Petrie's Monumenta, p. 624 a; William of Malmesbury, pp. 68, 308–9; Higden's Polychron. vii. 292; Stubbs's Regist. Sacr. Angl. p. 22; Freeman's Norm. Conq. iv. 417 seq.]
PETER of Blois (fl. 1190), archdeacon of Bath and author, was born at Blois probably about 1135. His parents, who were dead before 1170, belonged to noble families of Brittany, and his father, though not wealthy, enjoyed an honourable position (Epp. 34, 49). He had two brothers—William, who was author of some comedies and other pieces, and for a time abbot of Matine (Maniaci) in Calabria (ib. 90, 93); to the other's son one of his epistles (No. 12) is addressed. He had also two sisters—one called Christiana (ib. 36), and the other mother of Ernald, abbot of St. Laumer at Blois (ib. 131, 132). He calls William, prior of Canterbury, and Pierre Minet, bishop of Périgord from 1169 to 1182, his cousins (ib. 32, 34). It is unlikely that he was ever, as sometimes stated, a pupil of John of Salisbury [q. v.] (Schaarschmidt, J. Sarisberiensis, p. 59), but he perhaps studied at Tours, and was possibly a fellow-student of Uberto de Crivelli (Pope Urban III) under Robert of Melun [q. v.] (Stubbs, Epistolæ Cantuarienses, 556, n. 3). In Epistle 101 he describes his own studies as a boy, mentioning that he had to get the letters of Hildebert of Le Mans by heart, and read Trogus Pompeius, Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus, Livy, and other historians. Towards
