His first book, an edition of the ‘Regimen Sanitatis Salerni,’ appeared in 1528, and from that date Paynell's activity as a translator was incessant.
In 1530 a Thomas Paynell was admitted member of Gray's Inn (Foster, Register, p. 8).
On 16 October in the same year Paynell was licensed to export from England five hundred woollen cloths, and in December he was despatched, with Christopher Mount, on a mission to the protestant princes of Germany; he was present at the diet of Frankfort on 12 February 1539 (State Papers Henry VIII, i.
He seems to have escaped molestation on account of his religious opinions, and remained in favour with Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, to all of whom he dedicated books.
Among others to whom his dedications are addressed were Mary (1496–1533), queen-dowager of France, John de Vere, fifteenth earl of Oxford, Anthony Browne, first viscount Montague, the lord chamberlain, and William Blount, fourth lord Mountjoy He was also an intimate friend of Alexander Barclay, the author of the ‘Ship of Fools.’ He is probably the Thomas Paynell who resigned the living of St. Dionys, Lime Street, London, on 13 Feb. 1549–50 (Strype, Eccl.
When Barnes became prior of the Austin friars at Cambridge, Paynell went thither with him, and together ‘they made the house of the Augustinians very famous for good and godly literature’ (Athenæ Cantabr.
It may be he who was in the king's service at Boston in 1538, and wrote to Cromwell certifying the suppression of the friars' houses there, and urging the application of the building materials to the repair of the haven and town (Ellis, Original Letters, 3rd ser.
A third Thomas Paynell studied at St. Bernard's (afterwards St. John's) College, Oxford, became rector of Cottingham, near Beverley, Yorkshire, and left benefactions to the place by will, which was proved at the prerogative court of Canterbury on 22 March 1563–4 (Wood, Athenæ Oxon.
A Nicholas Paynell of Yorkshire was elected fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1515, and subsequently became public lecturer in mathematics (STRYPE, Eccl.