mentary History, xxii. 445; Ludlow Memoirs, ed. 1894, ii. 286; Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ii. 254).
Pierrepont was defeated at the election for Nottinghamshire in 1661, and retired from political life. In December, 1667, however, he was appointed by the commons one of the nine commissioners for the inspection of accounts, known as the Brook House committee (Burnet, i. 491; Marvell, Works, ed. Grosart, ii. 230). He died in the summer of 1678 (Savile Correspondence, pp. 67, 68). Collins, who dates his death 1679, states his age as 71 (Peerage, ed. Brydges, v. 628).
In the traditional history of the family Pierrepont is known by the title of ‘Wise William,’ and his career justifies the epithet. He had five sons and five daughters. Robert, the eldest son, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Evelyn—a lady whose great acquirements are mentioned by her friend, John Evelyn—and died in 1666. Robert's three sons, Robert, William, and Evelyn (afterwards first Duke of Kingston) [q. v.], were respectively third, fourth, and fifth earls of Kingston. Gervase, William Pierrepont's third son, born in 1649, was created Lord Pierrepont of Ardglass in Ireland on 21 March 1703, and Lord Pierrepont of Hanslope in Buckinghamshire on 19 Oct. 1714. He died without issue on 22 May 1715, and these titles became extinct.
Of the daughters, Frances, the eldest, married Henry Cavendish, earl of Ogle, and afterwards duke of Newcastle. The second, Grace, married Gilbert, third earl of Clare. The third, Gertrude, became the second wife of George Savile, marquis of Halifax (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, under ‘Manvers,’ vol. v.; Life of the Duke of Newcastle, ed. 1886, pp. 217, 218).
The ‘Harleian Miscellany’ contains a ‘Treatise concerning Registers to be made of Estates, Lands, Bills,’ &c., attributed to Pierrepont (iii. 320, ed. Park).
[Authorities referred to in the article. A short life of Pierrepont is given by Mark Noble in his list of Cromwell's Lords; Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell, ed. 1787, i. 383; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage.]
PIERS, HENRY (d. 1623), author, was son of William Piers (d. 1603) [q. v.], constable of Carrickfergus. He paid a visit to Rome, became a Roman catholic, and wrote observations on Rome and various places on the continent. The manuscript remained in the possession of his descendants, and a copy belonging to Sir James Ware subsequently came to the Duke of Chandos's Library. An edition of this work is now in preparation by the author of the present notice. Piers died in 1623, having married Jane, daughter of Thomas Jones (1550?–1619) [q. v.], protestant archbishop of Dublin and chancellor of Ireland. He was succeeded by his son William, who was knighted, married Martha, daughter of Sir James Ware the elder, and was father of
Sir Henry Piers (1628–1691), chorographer. The latter was created a baronet in 1660. At the instance of Anthony Dopping [q. v.], protestant bishop of Meath, he wrote a description of the county of West Meath, where he resided on the family property, Tristernagh Abbey. This treatise was printed for the first time by Charles Vallancey at Dublin in 1774. Letters of Piers are extant in the Ormonde collection. He died in June 1691, having married Mary, daughter of Henry Jones (1605–1682) [q. v.], protestant bishop of Meath. He was succeeded as second baronet by his son William, and the title is still extant.
James Piers (fl. 1635), writer, probably a son of Henry Piers (d. 1623), went to France, graduated D.D., and became ‘royal professor of philosophy in the Aquitanick College’ at Bordeaux. He published: 1. ‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Beatæque Virginis Mariæ Brevis … in Logicam Introductio, etc.,’ Bordeaux, 1631, 8vo. 2. ‘Disputationes in Universam Aristotelis Stagiritæ Logicam,’ Bordeaux, 1635, 8vo.
[Calendars of State Papers, Elizabeth and James I; Ware's Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris, ii. 102, 103, 199; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, 1754; Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis, 1774; Grand Juries of Westmeath, 1851.]
PIERS or PEIRSE, JOHN (d. 1594), successively bishop of Rochester and Salisbury and archbishop of York, was born of humble parentage at South Hinksey, near Oxford, and was educated at Magdalen College School. He became a demy of Magdalen College in 1542, and graduated B.A. in 1545, M.A. 1549, B.D. 1558, and D.D. 1565–6. He was elected probationer-fellow of Magdalen in 1545, and full fellow in 1546. In the following year he became a senior student of Christ Church, on the condition of returning to his old college if at the end of a twelve-month he desired to do so. This he did, and was re-elected fellow in 1548–9. He took holy orders, and in 1558 was instituted to the rectory of Quainton, Buckinghamshire. In this country cure, having only the companionship of rustics, according to Wood, he fell into the habit of tippling with them in alehouses, and ‘was in great hazard of losing all those excellent gifts that came after to be well esteemed and rewarded in him’ (Wood, Athenæ, ii. 835). He was weaned
