Richard Pate’s parentage has not been established but he was a nephew of his namesake the Marian bishop of Worcester. Trained as a lawyer, throughout his life he took an active part in the administration of Gloucestershire. He became an associate and friend of the diplomat Thomas Chamberlain, with whom he invested money in ex-monastic property. In a letter to Paget of July 1545 Chamberlain suggested that Pate ‘could shortly spy something meet’ for Chamberlain or his friends. In 1547 Pate leased Abbot’s Court Place (Hertpury manor) in Gloucester, but he must have made Minsterworth, three and a half miles from the city, his domicile before 1559.3Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. lvi. 201-7; Hist. Jnl. xx. 803; LP Hen. VIII, xx, xxi; CPR, 1547-8, p. 196; 1548-9, pp. 260-1; 1558-60, p. 184.
Pate may have owed his appointment as recorder of Gloucester in 1556 to Chamberlain’s influence, although his marriage had given him a standing in the city and his precursor John Pollard probably favoured the nomination since he had stayed at Pate’s house when in Gloucester for the burning of Bishop Hooper. In 1557 Pate was among the more substantial citizens ordered to appear before the Privy Council for non-payment of the loan of £100. It was as the city’s recorder that Pate was elected to Mary’s last Parliament. On a copy of the Crown Office list for this Parliament, his name is one of those marked with a circle. During the first session of 29 Jan. 1558 he had committed to him the second reading of a bill for the fortifications of Melcombe Regis.4Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. lvi. 208-9; Gloucester Guildhall 1394, ff. 50-50v; Wm. Salt Lib. SMS 264; CJ, i. 48.
Under Elizabeth the sphere of Pate’s work widened, especially after he became law officer for the council in the marches of Wales. He died on 27 Oct. 1588 and was buried in the south transept of Gloucester cathedral, where there is an effigy.5Fosbroke, 136.