Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Partridge, Miles
PARTRIDGE, Sir MILES (d. 1552), courtier, is said by Burke (Landed Gentry, 1894, ii. 1570) to have been a relative of William Partridge of Wishanger in Miserden, Gloucestershire, but his name does not appear as a member of that family in the visitation of 1623. It is not unlikely that he was connected with the numerous Gloucestershire Partridges, as he served as sheriff for the county in 1546–7, and was granted the manor of Almondsbury in 1544 (Rudder, Gloucestershire, p. 223). During the reign of Henry VIII he made himself notorious as a gamester, and on one occasion, when playing with the king, he staked on one throw of the dice 100l. against the bells of the Jesus Chapel in St. Paul's Churchyard; Partridge won, and had the bells taken down and broken (Greyfriars Chronicle, Camden Soc. p. 73; Stow, Survey, ed. 1816, p. 123; Dugdale, St. Paul's, p. 130; Wheatley and Cunningham ii. 29). After Edward VI's accession, Partridge attached himself to the Duke of Somerset; he accompanied the Protector to Scotland in 1547, fought at the battle of Pinkie on 10 Sept., and was knighted at Roxburgh on 28 Sept. After Somerset's fall, Partridge became implicated in the plot against his successor; on 7 Oct. 1551 he was accused by Sir Thomas Palmer [q. v.] of having undertaken to raise London and seize the great seal, with the help of the apprentices. His guilt is not beyond dispute, for both Palmer and Northumberland subsequently confessed that the evidence was false (Froude, v. 35). He was, however, arrested on 16 Oct., and imprisoned in the Tower, whence he was afterwards removed, on the plea of ill-health, to the lieutenant's house on Tower Hill, and his wife was allowed to attend him. A commission was appointed for his trial on 29 Nov. He was convicted of felony, and hanged on Tower Hill on Friday 26 Feb. 1551–2, being little pitied, says Strype, as he was credited with the evil deeds of Somerset.
Partridge was at one time possessed of the manor of Kew, Surrey. His wife's name was Jane, and after his death she was granted the manor of Kenn, Devonshire. By her he had two daughters, Margery and Katherine, who in 1553 obtained restitution by act of parliament (Journals of House of Commons, i. 32); one of them married William Stokebrege, grocer, and in 1563 George Barton, rector of St. Mary Abchurch, was imprisoned for committing adultery with her (Stow, Memoranda, apud ‘Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles,’ Camd. Soc. p. 157).
[Authorities quoted; Strype's Eccl. Mem. II. i. 186, 495, ii. 247; Acts of the Privy Council, 1550–1552 passim; Lit. Remains of Ed. VI (Roxburghe Club), pp. 219, 353, 355, 372, 394, 396; Tytler's Ed. VI, ii. 48; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 336; Stow's Annals, p. 607; Grafton's Chron. pp. 1316, 1320; Holinshed, iii. 1067, 1081; Foxe's Acts and Mon. vi. 292, 297; Machyn's Diary, pp. 10, 55, Troubles connected with the Prayer Book, p. 122, Wriothesley's Chron. ii. 58, 66–75, Narratives of the Reformation, p. 158, all published by the Camden Soc.; Hatfield MSS. i. 68; Froude's Hist. v. 33, 57; Atkyns's Gloucestershire, p. 40; Hasted's Kent, ed. 1886, vol. i.; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 230, 286.]