William Punter

William Punter was the Precentor of Westminster Abbey from 1570-97. He would have been responsible for chanting at a service and ordering items such as candles. He died in 1597 and was buried somewhere in the cloisters but the exact location is not known. William Camden, in his 1600 guide to the Abbey, gives the following epitaph for him (here translated from the Latin):

"Now Punter sings among the citizens of heaven and the blessed souls, in the presence of the Most High God. He delighted the earth by his life, his recitation and his singing, but now in heaven he lives, now recites, now sings. Thus he survives in three places, for now his bones are in this cloister, his praise in the choir, and his soul in heaven".

The illustration is Westminster Abbey Muniment 39083, being Punter's bill for the carriage of copes from Greenwich to Westminster in about 1571.