According to John Aubrey's very colourful "Brief Life", he could "neither read nor write" but "had a stamp for his name." Aubrey says: "He was of good naturall parts, but very colericque. In Queen Mary's time, upon the return of the Catholique religion, the nunnes came again to Wilton Abbey; and this William, Earl of Pembroke, came to the gate which lookes towards the court by the street, but now is walled up, with his cappe in his hand, and fell upon his knees to the Lady Abbess and nunnes, crying peccavi. Upon Queen Mary's death, the Earl came to Wilton (like a tigre) and turned them out crying, "Out, ye jades! to worke, to worke—ye jades, goe spinne!"