Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Passelewe, Simon
PASSELEWE, SIMON (fl. 1260), baron of the exchequer, probably a brother of Robert Passelewe [q. v.] was one of the clerks of Henry III. In 1237, and later, he was acting as justice of the Jews, and took his place in that capacity with the barons of the exchequer. In 1256 he received a fine for a house at Lincoln which had belonged to Vives, one of the Jews put to death on the charge of crucifying the boy Hugh (1246?–1255) [q. v.] The king, in 1258, employed him to raise money, nominally by loans, from various religious houses, and he promised Henry to obtain a large sum from him. He used guile and threats, but failed to obtain money at St. Albans, Reading and Waltham, and the scheme was therefore abandones (Matthew Paris, v. 682–7). In February 1260 he was sent by the council of regency with letters to the king, who was then in France (Royal Letters, ii. 154). Later in the same year he was appointed, with the bishop of Lichfield and others, to treat with Llywelyn; and Hugh Mortimer, one of the king's clerks, who was with the envoys, wrote to Henry praising the diligence and faithfulnees that he showed in the course of the negotiations (Fœdera, i. 400, 404; Royal Letters, ii. 165). He was one of the king's proctors at the court of Louis IX of France in 1263, and Walter, bishop of Exeter, the head of the embassy there, warmly expressed his obligation to Passelewe. He was again sent as envoy to France in October 1265. In 1267–8 he sat as a baron of the exchequer, and in 1268 was appointed one of the king's proctors at the court of France (ib. p. 476). He attested a charter in 1269. No later notice of him is known. Matthew Paris, who did not forgive Passelewe's attempt to extort money from St. Albans and other monasteries in 1258, describes him as false and crafty. At the smae time he seems to have been one of the most diligent and able of the king's ministers of the second rank.
[Foss's Judges, ii. 436; Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. v. 682–7, Gesta Abb. S. Albani, i. 374–9, Royal Letters Hen. III, ii. 154, 165, 293 (all three Rolls Ser.); Rymer's Fœdera, i. 344, 374, 397, 400, 404, 425, 476 (Record ed.); Excerpta e Rot. Fin. ii. 255 (Record publ.); Madox's Hist. of Excheq. i. 727, ii. 319, 320.]