ensing w Penal Statutes. Together with some animadversions upct.: a book writ by sir Edward Herbert, lord chief justice of the court of common pleas, entitled, A short
In June 1695, being then in his 74th year, he resigned
his office, and retired to his seat at Saperton-hall in Glocestershire, where he spent the last fourteen years of his
life in ease and quiet. He died in the beginning of the
year 1709, aged eighty-eight. He was a man of great
probity as well as of great skill in his profession, and a
warm friend to the constitution. He was twice married,
first to Mary daughter of sir George Clerk, of Welford in
Northamptonshire, and afterwards to Anne daughter of sir
Thomas Dacres. He left behind him an only son, the
subject of the next article. His writings are collected into
one volume, 8vo, under the title of Parliamentary and Political Tracts, 1734, containing, 1. “The power, jurisdiction, and privilege of Parliament, and the antiquity of
the House of Commons asserted occasioned by an information in the king’s bench, by the attorney-general,
against the speaker of the House of Commons.
” 2. “An
Argument in the great case concerning the Election of
Members to Parliament, between sir Samuel Barnardiston,
plaintiff, and sir William Soame, sheriff of Suffolk, defendant, in the court of king’s bench, in an action upon the
case, and afterwards by error sued in the exchequer chamber.
” 3. “An inquiry into the power of dispensing w
Penal Statutes. Together with some animadversions upct.:
a book writ by sir Edward Herbert, lord chief justice of
the court of common pleas, entitled, A short account of
the Authorities in law upon which judgment was given in
sir Edward Hale’s case.
” 4. “A Defence concerning the
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the realm of England.
” 5. “A
Defence of the late lord Russel’s Innocency, by way of
confutation of a libellous pamphlet, entitled, An Antidote
against Poison with two letters of the author of this book,
upon the subject of his lordship’s trial.
” The first and
chief of these letters we have given above. 6. “The lord
Russel’s Innocency further defended, by way of reply to
an Answer, entitled, The Magistracy and Government of
England vindicated. 1 * 7.
” The lord chief baron Atkyns*s
Speech to sir William Ashurst, lord mayor elect for the
city of London, at the time of his being sworn in their majesties court of exchequer.“Besides these tracts, he wrote
a treatise against the exorbitant power of the court of Chancery, published in 1695, entitled
” An inquiry into the
Jurisdiction of the Chancery in causes of Equity,“and annexed to it
” The case of Sir Robert Atkyns about a Separate Maintenance,“fol. He was also the author of a
tract,
” The true and ancient jurisdiction of the House
of Peers," fol. 1699, but neither are in the above volume.
, lord chief justice of the court of common pleas, a native of Wiltshire,
, lord chief justice of the court of common pleas, a native of Wiltshire, was born in 1734, and educated, if we mistake not, at Winchester, and afterwards at Merton college, Oxford, where he took his degree of M. A. in 1739, but before that had begun to study Jaw in London. His first professional appearance was as one of the four common pleaders belonging to the city of London, who purchase their situations, and are usually called the city counsel. He is said to have been at this time decent in his manners, grave in his appearance, and regular in his attendance, but was not known beyond the practice of the lord mayor’s and sheriff’s courts, and had displayed no particular tokens of future eminence. An accidental event, however, brought him forward into unexpected notice, and subsequent circumstances led him to distinction. At this period sir William Morton was recorder of London. He had quitted the practice of the bar, and confined himself to the duties of that station. He had been brought into parliament by the influence of the duke of Bedford, and had looked with a natural expectation to a seat in one of the courts of law; but at length, disappointed, and growing old, he applied to the court of aldermen for leave to appoint a deputy to assist him in his official duties.
the House of Commons, at the trial of Sacheverell. Upon the accession of George I. he was appointed lord chief-justice of the court of common-pleas, and soon after sworn
From this time, however, our author found himself under a necessity of relinquishing pursuits of this kind, on account of the increasing and urgent business which his abilities as a lawyer brought into his hands; and in a fevr years his merit in the law was distinguished by the highest honours. July 1708, he was chosen recorder of London; and knighted by queen Anne September following. In 1709, he was appointed one of the managers of the House of Commons, at the trial of Sacheverell. Upon the accession of George I. he was appointed lord chief-justice of the court of common-pleas, and soon after sworn of the privy-council. He was created a peer May the 25th, 1725, by the title of lord King, baron of Ockharn, in Surrey; and the great seal being taken from lord Macclesfield, was delivered to him the 1st of June following. He did not, however, make that figure as chancellor, which was expected from the character that raised him to it; and it is said that more of his decrees were repealed by the House of Lords than of any other chancellor in the same space of time. Yet it is allowed that he took extraordinary pains in the discharge of his office, which, impairing his constitution by degrees, brought on atan a paralytic disorder and his distemper increasing, he resigned the seals the 26th Nov. 1733, and died July the 22d following, at his seat at Ockham, leaving behind him two sons and two daughters, and a widow, the daughter of Richard Seys, of Boverton, in Glamorganshire, esq. Lord King was a man of great integrity, knowledge, and diligence, although not of transcendant abilities. He was interred in Ockham church, Surrey, where a monument was erected to his memory.
, a learned lawyer, and lord chief justice of the court of common pleas, was the second son
, a learned lawyer, and lord chief justice of the court of common pleas, was the second son of Robert Wilmot, of Osmaston in the county of Derby, esq. and of Ursula, one of the daughters and coheiresses of sir Samuel Marow, of Berkswell, in the county of Warwick, bart.He was born Aug. 16, 1709, at Derby, where his father then lived, and after having acquired the rudiments of learning at the free-school in that town, under the Ker, Mr. Blackwell, was placed with the Rev. Mr. Hunter at Lichfield, where he was contemporary with Johnson and Garrick. At an after period of his life it could be remarked that there were then five judges upon the bench who had been 'educated at Lichfield school, viz. Willes, Parker, Noel, Lloyd, and Wilmot. In Jan. 1724, he was removed to Westminster-school, and placed under Dr. Freind; and here, and at Trinity-hall, Cambridge, where he resided until Jan. 1728, he laid the foundation of many friendships, which he preserved through a long life. At the university he contracted a passion for study and retirement that never quitted him, and he was often heard to say, that at this time the height of his ambition was to become a fellow of Trinity- hall, and to pass his life in that learned society. His natural disposition had induced him to give the preference to the church; but his father, who was a man of sagacity as well as of reading, had destined him to the study of the law, which he accordingly prosecuted with much diligence at the Inner Temple, and was called to the fear in June 1732. In 1743 he married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Rivett, of Derby, esq.