April 30 – Sir John Puckering

On this day in Tudor history, 30th April 1596, Elizabethan lawyer, administrator and Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir John Puckering, died from apoplexy, a stroke, at the age of fifty-two. He was buried at Westminster Abbey in St Paul's Chapel.

Here are some facts about Sir John Puckering:

• Puckering was born in 1543/1544 and was the eldest son of William Puckering of Flamborough, Yorkshire, and his wife, Anne Ashton.
• In 1559, Puckering entered Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the bar in 1567.
• He took Jane Chowne as his wife in 1569 and they had a son, Sir Thomas Puckering, 1st Baronet, and four daughters.
• By 1575, Puckering was governor of Lincoln's Inn and a Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire, and in 1578 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Camarthen circuit.

• In 1580, he was made serjeant-at-Law and in 1586, he prosecuted the Babington Plot conspirators and in 1587 he appeared for the crown at the trial of Elizabeth I's secretary William Davison. Davison had got into trouble for allegedly sealing Mary Queen of Scots’ death warrant and passing it on to Elizabeth I’s council without her permission. He was also involved in the trials of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, and Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy of Ireland.
• In 1581, he became a Member of Parliament and he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1584 and again in the next Parliament.
• In 1590, Puckering became Recorder of Warwick and in 1592 he was appointed to Elizabeth I's privy council, made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and was knighted.
• Puckering hosted the queen at his country home in Kew in 1595.
• He died intestate on 30th April 1596.

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