(State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, p. 322, 1666–7, p. 467).
Packe's city residence was in Basinghall Street, immediately adjoining Blackwell Hall, the headquarters of the woollen trade (Stowe, Survey of London, 1720, bk. iii. p. 68). He also had a suburban house at Mortlake (Lysons, Environs of London, 1796, i. 375). On 2 March 1649–50 the lease of the manor of Prestwold in Leicestershire was assigned to him by the corporation, who held it in trust for the orphan children of John Acton (City Records, ‘Repertory,’ Foot, fol. 74). Shortly afterwards this manor, with the neighbouring one of Cotes, was assigned to him by Sir Henry Skipwith, the stepfather of these orphans (Nichols, Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 354). After his retirement from public office, he spent the remainder of his life at the mansion of Cotes. He also purchased on 19 Jan. 1648–9, for 8,174l. 16s. 6d., the manor of the bishops of Lincoln at Buckden in Huntingdonshire, which was for some time his occasional residence.
Packe died on 27 May 1682, and was buried in Prestwold church, Leicestershire, where there is a fine monument to his memory on the north wall of the chancel (figured and described in Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 360, and plate 53). The Latin inscription states that he was about eighty-four years old at his death.
Packe was thrice married: first, to Jane, daughter of Thomas Newman of Newbury, merchant draper, by Ann, daughter of John Kendrick, who was mayor of Reading in 1565; secondly, to Anne, eldest daughter of Simon Edmonds, lord mayor of London; and thirdly, to Elizabeth (born Richards), widow of Alderman Herring. He had no issue by his first and third wives; but by his second wife, Anne, who died in 1657, he had two sons, Christopher and Simon, and three daughters, Anne, Mary, and Susanna. His portrait is engraved by Basire, and published by Nichols (History of Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. pl. 50, p. 355), from an original painting by Cornelius Janssens, still in the possession of the family. It represents him in his official robes as lord mayor, with laced band and tassels, and laced ruffles turned over the sleeve of his gown, his right hand resting on a table.
[Nichols's Hist. of Leicestershire (where, however, Packe's parentage is incorrectly given); Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655–6, passim; Ashmole's Berkshire; Masson's Milton, passim; Visitation of London, 1633–4 (Harl. Soc.), p. 17; Stow's Survey of London, ed. Strype, 1754, ii. 231; Harleian Miscellany, iii. 484; information kindly supplied by Alfred E. Packe, esq., and the Rev. A. S. Newman.]
PACKE, CHRISTOPHER (fl. 1711), chemist, set up his laboratory in 1670 at the sign of the ‘Globe and Chemical Furnaces’ in Little Moorfields, London, and styled himself a professor of chemical medicine. He practised as a quack under powerful patronage, including that of the Hon. Robert Boyle and Edmund Dickinson [q. v.], physician to the king, and in 1684 he circulated a list of his specifics.
In 1689 he brought out in goodly folio a translation of the ‘Works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber,’ accompanied by the original copperplates, which he had purchased at Amsterdam. This undertaking occupied him three years, and he secured a large number of subscribers.
His other publications were chiefly designed to promote the sale of his specifics, and are as follows: 1. ‘De Succo Pancreatico; or a Physical and Anatomical Treatise of the Nature and Office of the Pancreatick Juice,’ 12mo, London, 1674; a translation from the Latin of R. de Graaf. 2. Robert Couch's ‘Praxis Catholica; or the Countryman's Universal Remedy,’ with additions by himself, 12mo, London, 1680. 3. ‘One hundred and fifty three Chymical Aphorisms,’ 12mo, London, 1688, from the Latin of Eremita Suburbanus, with additions from that of Bernardus G. Penotus. 4. ‘Mineralogia; or an Account of the Preparation, manifold Vertues, and Uses of a Mineral Salt, both in Physick and Chyrurgery … to which is added a short Discourse of the Nature and Uses of the Sulphurs of Minerals and Metals incuring Diseases,’ 8vo, London, 1693. 5. ‘Medela Chymica; or an Account of the Vertues and Uses of a Select Number of Chymical Medicines … as also an Essay upon the Acetum Acerrimum Philosophorum, or Vinegar of Antimony,’ 8vo, London, 1708; at the end of which is a catalogue of his medicines, with their prices.
A son, Edmund Packe (fl. 1735), calling himself ‘M.D. and chemist,’ carried on the business at the ‘Golden Head’ in Southampton Street, Covent Garden. He published an edition of his father's ‘Mineralogia’ (undated) and ‘An Answer to Dr. Turner's Letter to Dr. Jurin on the subject of Mr. Ward's Drop and Pill, wherein his Ignorance of Chymical Pharmacy is fairly exposed,’ 8vo, London, 1735.
[Packe's works.]
PACKE, CHRISTOPHER, M.D. (1686–1749), physician, doubtless son of Christopher Packe [q. v.] the chemist, was born at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on 6 March 1686. He
