the council of the north. Writing to the king with reference to his pupil in 1529, Palsgrave asserts ‘that according to [my] saying to you in the gallery at Hampton Court, I do my uttermost best to cause him to love learning, and to be merry at it; insomuch that without any manner fear or compulsion, he hath already a great furtherance in the principles grammatical both of Greek and Latin.’ In another letter, addressed to Lady Elizabeth Tailboys the same year, he remarks: ‘The King's Grace said unto me in the presence of Master Parre and Master Page, I deliver, quod he, unto you three, my worldly jewel; you twain to have the guiding of his body, and thou, Palsgrave, to bring him up in virtue and learning.’
In 1529 Palsgrave thanked More for his continued friendliness, and acknowledged that he was more bound to him than to any man, adding: ‘I beseech you for your accustomed goodness to continue until such time that I may once more tread under foot this horrible monster, poverty.’ At this period he told Sir William Stevynson that all he had to live by and pay his debts and support his mother was little more than 50l. for Alderton, ‘and Holbroke be but 20l., Kayston 18l., my prebend in Polles 4l., and my wages 20 marks; and was indebted 92l.’ Stevynson was asked to tell his old pupil, the queen-dowager of France, that Palsgrave desired the benefice of Cawston, Norfolk. In the Record Office there is a draft ‘obligation,’ dated 1529, by which Palsgrave undertakes to pay Thomas Cromwell 7l. 6s. 8d. on his procuring a papal bull, under lead, called a union, for uniting the parish church of Alderton to the prebend of Portpoole in St. Paul's Cathedral.
In 1531 he repaired to the university of Oxford, and the next year was incorporated M.A. there, and took the degree of B.D. (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 121). On 28 Oct. 1532 he informed one William St. Loe that he was about to keep house at Blackfriars, where ‘I could have with me your son, Mr. Russell's son, a younger brother of Andrew Baynton, and Mr. Noryce's son, of the king's privy chamber.’ He intended previously to spend some time at Cambridge ‘for three reasons: (1) I am already B.D., and hope to be D.D.; (2) I could get a man to help me in teaching, as this constant attendance hurts my health. And I go to Cambridge rather than Oxford, because I have a benefice sixteen miles off.’
On 3 Oct. 1533 he was collated by Archbishop Cranmer to the rectory of St. Dunstan-in-the-East, London (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 334), and on 7 Nov. 1545 he was instituted to the rectory of Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire, where he resided until his death, which took place in 1554, before 3 Aug. (Bridges, Hist. of Northamptonshire, ii. 390).
His principal work is: 1. ‘Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse, compose par maistre Jehan Palsgraue Angloys, natyf de Londres et gradue de Paris,’ London, 1530, black-letter, folio, with dedication to Henry VIII. Pynson seems to have printed only the first two parts of two sheets and a half (signed A in four, B in two, C in four), and fifty-nine leaves. After these comes a third part, with a fresh numbering of leaves from 1 to 473. The printing was finished on 18 July 1530 by John Haukys, this work being the only known production of his press. The king's grant to Palsgrave of a privilege of seven years for his book is dated at Ampthill 2 Sept. anno regni XXII. The book was originally intended to be a kind of dictionary for the use of Englishmen seeking to acquire a knowledge of the French tongue. In this respect it has been superseded by later works, but it is now used in England for another purpose, as one of the best depositories of obsolete English words and phrases; and it is of the greatest utility to those who are engaged in the study of the English language in the transition state from the times of Chaucer, Gower, and Wiclif to those of Surrey and Wyat. In his epistle to the king's grace the author says he had written two books before on the same subject, and had presented them to Queen Mary of France, and also to the Prince Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, ‘her most worthy espouse.’ These were probably manuscript books, as no such printed works are known (Addit. MS. 24493, f. 93). Very few copies of the original ‘Lesclarcissement’ are now in existence. Two are in the British Museum, one containing manuscript notes by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas. Perhaps one reason for its scarcity was the determination of the author that other teachers of French should not obtain copies. Consequently he ‘willed Pynson to sell no copies to any other persons than such as he should command to have them, lest his profit by teaching the French tongue might be mynished.’ The copy in the Mazarin Library at Paris is the only one known in France. This was reprinted at the public expense under the auspices of the minister of public instruction and the editorship of F. Génin, Paris, 1852, 4to, pp. 889. It is included in the ‘Collection de Documents Inédits sur l'Histoire de France.’
His other works are: 2. ‘Joannis Palsgravi Londinensis Ecphrasis Anglica in
