Elstracke's engravings are so very similar to those of the Van de Pas family that it may reasonably be conjectured that he learned his art in the school of the elder Van de Pas at Cologne or Utrecht. The same may be said of Delaram; and both may possibly have worked together with Pass in England as members of the same firm. The commercial activity of the Van de Pas family undoubtedly gave the first real impetus to the art of copperplate engraving in England; Simon Pass's work being well continued by his pupils, John Payne (d. 1647?) [q. v.] and David Loggan [q. v.] In 1622 Pass received a commission to go to the court of the king of Denmark at Copenhagen. Here he was appointed principal engraver to the king and resided until his death, which took place some time before 15 July 1647. He appears to have been unmarried.
William (Willem) Van de Pas (or Passe) (1598?–1637), third son of Crispin van de Pas the elder, was born at Cologne about 1598, and, like his brothers, educated by his father at Utrecht. Up to 1620 he worked with his father there, but in 1621 he settled in London, probably in consequence of his brother Simon's approaching removal to Copenhagen. He produced several portraits, including some large groups of the families of James I and Frederick, king of Bohemia, and also title-pages and book illustrations. He contributed to the ‘Herωologia.’ He was married before he came to England, and appears to have been, as all his family probably were, of the Mennonite persuasion; for on 6 April 1624 he went through the ceremony of baptism, being aged 26, at the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, London. He baptised a son Crispin, the third of the name, at the same church, on 8 April 1624, and a daughter Elisabeth on 25 Sept. 1625. He was living in London in October 1636, but was dead before 7 Dec. 1637, when in a family deed mention is made of his orphan son.
[Franken's L'Œuvre Gravé des Van de Passe; Oud Holland, iii. 305, 306, x. 97; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of English Engravers (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 33403).]
PASSELEWE or PASSELE, EDMUND de (d. 1327), baron of the exchequer, belonged to a family many members of which appear in the rolls as holding judicial and other official positions during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries [cf. Passelewe, Robert, and Passelewe, Simon]. Different Passelewes held land in the march of Wales and in the fen country. Edmund Passelewe belonged to the Sussex branch of the clan, and was therefore closely connected with Robert Passelewe [q. v.] treasurer of Henry III. Edmund was probably son of another Robert Passelewe. Simon Passelewe [q. v.] the judge, was also probably his uncle or near kinsman. Among his contemporaries were John and Peter Passelewe. Edmund was a considerable landowner in Kent and Sussex, holding, for example, half a knight's fee in Wittersham and a third of a knight's fee in Smeeth, both in Kent, and the manor of Cramesham in Sussex of the archbishop of Canterbury. In 1310 he did homage for these lands to Archbishop Winchelsea (Peckham Register, iii. 999), a date which may be regarded as not far distant from the time of his entering into their possession. In 1313 he agreed that his lands and chattels in Kent should be chargeable for the large debt of 100l. to Thomas de Grele (Cal. Close Rolls, 1307–13, p. 584). In 1318 he made his lands and chattels in Sussex security for a debt to Robert de Bardelby (ib. 1313–18, p. 597). Part of his estate he ultimately devoted to pious uses.
In 1288 Edmund was appointed a member of a commission to inquire into some damage done to the Isle of Thanet by an inundation of the sea. In 1309 he was appointed, with Roger de Scotre, to be intendant to the king's affairs of pleas and other business whereof they may be charged (ib. 1307–13, p. 231). Dugdale calls him a serjeant. Henceforward he was constantly employed as a justice of assize. In June 1311 he was first summoned as a judge to parliament (ib. p. 362). In January 1321 he was appointed with his colleague, Walter Stirchelee, to hear pleas of the crown at an assize held in the Tower of London (‘Ann. Paulini’ in Stubbs's Chron. of Edw. I and Edw. II, i. 290–1). On 20 Sept. 1323 he was appointed a baron of the exchequer, and continued to hold that office until the end of the reign. He died in 1327. He was a layman and a knight. A widow and two sons survived him.
[Abbreviatio Placitorum, p. 325 a, ii. 1261 c, i. 132, 207 b; Rot. Originalium Abbreviatio; Parl. Writs, vol. ii.; Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales. The main facts are collected in Foss's Judges of England and Biographia Juridica, p. 503. They may be further supplemented from the Cal. of Close Rolls; Stubbs's Chron. of Edw. I and Edw. II, Register of Peckham's Letters (both in Rolls Ser.).]
PASSELEWE or PASSELEU, ROBERT (d. 1252), deputy-treasurer, was a clerk in the employ of Falkes de Breauté [q. v.] and was, in 1224, sent by him, Ranulf, earl of Chester, and other malcontents to represent to the pope their grievances against Hubert de Burgh [q. v.] the justiciar. The
