Francis Cutting

Francis Cutting (c.1550–1595/6) was an English lutenist and composer of the Renaissance period. He is best known for "Packington's Pound" and a variation of "Greensleeves" called "Divisions on Greensleeves", both pieces originally intended for the lute. Cutting was employed as a musician for the Howard family, which included Philip Howard, earl of Arundel. Little is known of the composer's early life, but he had ten children with his wife, Elizabeth, eight of whom appear in the parish registers of St Clement Danes, Westminster, the parish in which Arundel House, the London residence of the Howards, was located.