Comœdiam Acolasti. The Comedy of Acolastus translated into oure Englysshe tongue after suche maner as chylderne are taught in the Grammer Schole, fyrst worde for worde … and afterwarde accordynge to the sence … with admonitions … for the more perfyte instructynge of the lerners, and … a brefe introductory to … the dyvers sortes of meters,’ Latin and English, London (Tho. Berthelet), 1540, 4to (Brit. Mus.); dedicated to Henry VIII. This work was originally written in Latin by William Fullonius. 3. ‘Annotationes verborum.’ 4. ‘Annotationes participiorum.’ 5. ‘Epistolæ ad diversos.’
He probably, either with or without his name, printed other works. One John Williamson, jun., writing to Cromwell, says: ‘Please it you also to know that I have sent you oon hundreth bookes entitled “Le Myrour de Verite,” whiche I have receyved this present daie of Maister Palgrave’ (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd ser. ii. 212).
Davy, on the authority of Watt, erroneously ascribes to Palsgrave, through a curious blunder, the authorship of ‘Catechismus. Translated by W. Turner, Doctor of Phisicke,’ London, 1572, 8vo (Athenæ Suffolcienses, i. 93). The real title of this work is ‘The Catechisme … used in the dominions that are under … Prince Frederike the Palsgrave of the Rhene,’ London (R. Johnes), 1572, 8vo.
[Addit. MSS. 19105, f. 57 b, 19165, f. 93; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), pp. 435, 470 (Dibdin), iii. 3632; Baker's Biogr. Dram. 1812, i. 560, ii. 4; Bale's Scriptt. Brit. Cat. pars i. p. 710; Beloe's Anecd. vi. 344; Brewer and Gairdner's Letters and Memorials of Henry VIII; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 119, 545; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 228; Foster's Alumni Oxon. early series, iii. 1111; Kennett MS. 46, f. 36; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), pp. 636, 839, 849, 1769; Palgrave Family Memorials, by Palmer and Tucker, p. 203; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 703; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 571; Miss Wood's Letters, i. 180, 202.]
PALTOCK, ROBERT (1697–1767), romance-writer, born in 1697, was only son of Thomas Paltock of St. James's, Westminster. His father was the third husband of his mother, Anne, whose first and second husbands were respectively Mr. Johnson of Woodford, Essex, and Edward Curle or Curll (d. 1691), jeweller, of Red Lion Square, Holborn. His grandfather, John Paltock (1624–1682), attorney, of Thavie's Inn, London, who married on 14 Sept. 1648 Elizabeth (1631–1707), fourth daughter of Francis Steward of Braughing, Hertfordshire (Chester, London Marriage Licenses, ed. Foster, col. 1013; Clutterbuck, Hertfordshire, iii. 150), benefited greatly under the will (P.C.C. 81, Penn) of his uncle, Thomas Paltock (d. 1670), of Botwell, in the parish of Hayes, Middlesex, and of Kingston-upon-Thames, and left property in London, Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire (will in P.C.C. 89, Cottle). After the death of Robert's father in 1701 (cf. Letters of Administration, P.C.C. 12 April 1701) his mother lived chiefly at Enfield, Middlesex. Robert seems to have been a favourite with his paternal grandmother, for in her will, proved on 7 Feb. 1706–7, she left him, on his coming of age, one hundred and fifty pounds and her house at Enfield, provided that her daughter, Elizabeth Paltock, should die without lawful issue (will in Commissary Court of London, Bk. 1706–7, f. 247). Robert's mother died at Enfield in January 1711–12 (Parish Register), leaving her son to the care of her ‘loving friends,’ Robert Nightingale and John Grene, or Green, of Enfield (will in P.C.C. 75, Barnes). Like many of his kinsfolk, Robert became an attorney, and for several years resided in Clement's Inn, London. From the will of his brother-in-law, Brinley Skinner (d. 1764) of Ryme Intrinsica, Dorset, sometime consul at Leghorn, it is clear that before August 1759 Paltock had quitted Clement's Inn for a residence in Back Lane, St. Mary, Lambeth (will in P.C.C. 485, Simpson).
Paltock died in Back Lane on 20 March, 1767 (cf. Letters of Administration, P.C.C. 15 April 1767), and was buried at Ryme Intrinsica (Hutchins, Dorset, 3rd ed. iv. 493–4). By his marriage to Anna, daughter of John Skinner, Italian merchant, of Austin Friars, London (ib. ii. 609), he had issue John (1731–1789), a Bengal merchant; Robert (b. 1737), surgeon at Ryme Intrinsica, who became possessor of the Skinner property there on the death of his cousin, Eleanor Boddington, in March 1795 (ib. iv. 492); Anna, who ‘married a clergyman with eight children;’ and Eleanor, who married twice. Mrs. Paltock was buried at St. Mary, Lambeth, on 14 Jan. 1767 (Par. Reg.)
Paltock's fame rests enduringly on his original and fascinating romance, entitled ‘The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man … With an Introduction by R. S., a passenger in the Hector,’ 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1751; with plates by Boitard. It is dedicated to Elizabeth, countess of Northumberland, whom Paltock took (so he gallantly assured her) as the prototype of his enchanting heroine Youwarkee. The introduction and dedication are signed with the initials ‘R. P.,’ and for many years the author's full name was unknown. But in
