PEPPER, Cuthbert (d.1608), of East Cowton, near Richmond, Yorks.

Pepper, who sat twice for Richmond during his recordership, was a lawyer from a minor Yorkshire family. His appointment as attorney in the north following the death of William Paler, who had been ailing for some time, was as much ‘in respect of his years and strength of body’, as of his legal qualifications. He died 11 Aug. 1608, having made his will 24 Sept. 1606. He expressed the hope, through Christ, to be ‘adopted a co-heir in the Kingdom where the Holy and Blessed Trinity shall be praised eternally’. His daughter Dorothy received £500, his younger sons annuities of £50 each, and his mother an annuity of £15. He was succeeded by his eldest son Robert, the sole executor, who lost no time in writing to inform Lord Salisbury that his father, on his deathbed, ‘earnestly prayed his Lordship’s favour for his children’.Al. Cant. iii. 343; Richmond Wills and Inventories (Surtees Soc. xxvi), 180; HMC Hatfield, vii. 506; York wills 31/72; C142/310/64; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 451.