William Patten

William Patten (c. 1510 – after 1598) fue un autor, erudito y funcionario gubernamental durante los reinados del rey Eduardo VI y la reina Isabel I. Carrera temprana William Patten (b. circa 1510 – d. in or after 1598) nació en Londres, hijo de Richard Patten (d. 1536), trabajador textil, y Grace, hija de John Baskerville. Su abuelo, Richard Patten de Boslow, Derbyshire, era hermano de William Waynflete (alias Patten), obispo de Winchester. La madre de William Patten, Grace, se dice que falleció antes que su esposo. Su hermana, Alice (d.1557/8), fue la esposa de Armagil Waad, a quien Patten se refirió como un 'amigo' en su Expedition into Scotland (ver abajo). Se dice que Patten asistió a Gonville Hall, Cambridge, y desde 1528 fue capellán menor y desde 1533 secretario parroquial de St Mary-at-Hill, Billingsgate, Londres. En 1544 Patten estuvo en Francia sirviendo como secretario del conde de Arundel. En 1547 acompañó al ejército de Somerset a Escocia en calidad de juez de la mariscalía por nombramiento del conde de Warwick: [I]t pleased my very good Lord, the Earl of Warwick, Lieutenant of the Host (who thereby had power to make Officers), to make me one of the Judges of the Marshalsy [i.e., in connection with the High Marshal of the Army, Lord Grey], as Master William Cecil now Master of the Requests [and afterwards Lord Burghley] was the other. Whereby, we both (not being bound so straightly, in days of travel, to the order of march; nor otherwhile, but when we sat in Court, to any great affairs) had liberty to ride to see the things that were done, and leisure to note occurrences that came. The which thing, as it chanced, we both did: but so far from appointment between us, as neither was writing of the other’s doing till somewhat before our departure homeward. Marry, since my coming home, indeed, his gentleness being such as to communicate his notes to me, I have, I confess, been thereby, both much a certained [confirmed] in many things I doubted, and somewhat remembered [put in mind] of that which else I might hap to have forgotten.