Walter Pye (lawyer)

Pye was baptised on 1 October 1571 the eldest son of Bridget (née Kyrle) Pye and Roger Pye of The Mynde[1] at Much Dewchurch in Herefordshire. His brother Robert Pye was also an MP and his maternal grandfather was Thomas Kyrle of Walford.[1]

He was educated at St John's College, Oxford and became a barrister at Middle Temple.[2]

He succeeded to his father's estates in 1591 and was elected MP for Scarborough in 1597.[1] He was favoured by Buckingham and was made justice in Glamorgan, Breconshire and Radnorshire on 8 February 1617. In 1621 he became attorney-general of the Court of Wards.[3] Also in 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for Brecon. He was re-elected for Brecon in 1624 and in 1625. In 1626 he was elected MP for Brecon and for Herefordshire and chose to sit for Herefordshire. He was re-elected MP for Herefordshire in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.[4] He was knighted at Whitehall on 29 June 1630.[5]

On 22 July 1602, Pye married Joan Rudshall (d. 1625), daughter of William Rudshall of Rudshall, Gloucestershire. Together, they were the parents of seven sons and eight daughters, including:[2]

• Joanna Pye (b. 1606), who married Thomas Beale.[6]
• Anne Pye (1608–1689), who died unmarried.
• Sir Walter Pye (1610–1659), who married Elizabeth Sanders, daughter of John Sanders.[7]
• Alice Pye (1612–1662), who married Sir Henry Lingen.[8]
• Mary Pye (b. 1618), who married Sir Thomas Tomkins in 1633.[9]
• John Pye (1620–1701), who married Blanche Lingen, sister to Sir Henry Lingen.[9]
• Frances Pye (1621–1701), who married Henry Vaughan, of Bredwardine. After his death, she married Edward Cornewall of Moccas Court.[9]

After the death of his first wife, he married Hester (née Ireland) Crispe (1568–c. 1643), daughter of John Ireland of London and widow of Ellis Crispe, alderman of London, on 31 October 1628. From her first marriage, she was the mother of Sir Nicholas Crispe, 1st Baronet and Tobias Crisp, among others.[10]

Pye died on 26 December 1635, at the age of 64, and was buried at Much Dewchurch where there is an elaborate alabaster monument to his memory.[3] His widow died c. 1643.[2]

• Ferris, John. P.; Coates, Ben (2010), "Pye, Walter I (1571-1635), of The Mynde, Much Dewchurch, Herefs. and Greyfriars, Christchurch, London.", in Thrush, Andrew; Ferris, John P. (eds.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629
• Firth, Charles Harding (1896), "Pye, Robert" , in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 47, London: Smith, Elder & Co, pp. 71–72
• Shaw, William Arthur (1906), The Knights of England: A complete record from the earliest time to the present day of the knights of all the orders of chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of knights bachelors, incorporating a complete list of knights bachelors dubbed in Ireland, vol. 2, London: Sherratt and Hughes, p. 198
• Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.

• Atherton, Ian (2004), "Pye, Sir Walter (bap. 1571, d. 1635)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22924 (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)