otherwise East Greenwich, and in his inner Apart

ment near the Oratory, in the Presence of the said “ Henry Norris, Christopher

. Hales, Attorney General “ of the said Lord the King, and others of the Privy $ Chamber of the said Lord the King, he gave

and “ delivered his Great Seal, in the aforesaid Bag, sealed “ and reposited in the said Box, to his much beloved % Counsellor, Thomas More, Knt. to be kept, exer“ cised and occupied ; and then and there did con“ stitute and appoint the said Thomas More his Chan

c6 cellor

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MEMOIRS of the LORD CHANCELLORS, &C. fays another Author, that he a Man of great Wit, and good

was above the Age he lived • scholastick Learning, he was ! in; he came to a Censure for ? generally thought so very un• the most simple and ridiculous equal to the Place, that his Rea o Follies that ever entered into move was the only Recompence

the Heart of a wise Man ; his ! and Satisfaction that could be • Crimes were Bribery and Cor- ( made for his Promotion.' ruption, for both which he had

November the first, it • often condemned others as a was committed, with the

1625. Judge, and now comes to suf Title of Lord Keeper, to Sir ! fer as a Delinquent. He was Thomas Coventry, who was creso full of his own Conviction ated a Peer: Lord Clarendon that he threw himself and Cause gives us this Account of that at his Judges Feet ; before he great Man, Sir Thomas Coventry was condemned his Submiffi

was Lord Keeper of the Great on and Supplication to the Seal, and newly made a Baron. Lords has been reckoned a fine ! He was a Son of the Robe, his Piece of moving Oratory; but it is • Father having been a Judge of too long to be here introduced. ! the Court of Common P.leas

And the Seal was for a short who took Care to breed him, time delivered to three Commif

though his First-born, to the fioners, Henry Viscount Mande- ! Study of the Common Law, ville, Ld. President of the Coun- ! by which he himself had been cil; the Duke of Richmond, and promoted to that Degree; and

O
Sir Julius Cæfar, Knt. Master in which, in the Society of the

' of the Rolis.

! Inner Temple, his Son made a July the roth, Dr. • notable Progress, by an ear1621.

John Williams, Bishop ! ly Eminency in Practice and of Lincoln, received it with the Learning; infomuch that he was Title of Lord Keeper, who held ? Recorder of London, Sollicitor it till the Year 1625. Lord • General, and King's Attorney, Clarendon remarks, : That, the • before he was forty Years of

Age ;

a

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s cellor of England, with all the Fiefs, Profits, Re

gards, Robes, Diets, Commodities and Advantages,

due, belonging, or pertaining from antient Times " to the said Office.

" And the said Thomas More received the said Seal “ from the aforesaid Lord the King, in the Presence

" of the abovenamed, and on the next Day, Tuejday ." the 26th Day of the fame Month of Otober, the

$ aforesaid Lord Chancellor, being inducted about ten ” of the Clock in the Forenoon of the same Day, into

is the

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from CARDINAL WOLSEY's Time. ! Age; a rare Afcent! All which ? vance the King's Service. Upon " Offices he discharged with great ! the Meeting of the Long Par

Abilities and singular Reputa- liament, in the Year 1540, • tion of Integrity. Lord con finding he was likely to be

ventry discharged this Place accused of High Treason, he
with an universal Reputation, withdrew himself, and shortly

'
being a very wise and excellent after passed into Holland.
Person, being generally esteemed Jan. the 23d it was de-

1640. throughout the Kingdom; and livered to Sir Edward Lit

sure, Justice was never better tļeton, Knt. Lord Chief Justice of ! administred for about the Space the Comron Pleas, with the Title • of 16 Years, even to his Death, of Lord Keeper, who held it to his some Months before he was Death: But the fatal Civil Wars : fixty Years of Age ; which breaking out, the Parliament ap

was another important Cir- pointed Commissioners thereof. : cumstance of his Felicity, that August the 30th, King

great Office being so flippery, Charles the In committed 1645. • that no Man had died in it the Seal to the Care of Sir Rich. : before for the Space of fortyard Lane, Knt. Chief Baron of • Years. From this great Man the Exchequer, at Oxford, who the prefent Right Hon. William held it till his Death; and the Earl of Coventry is descended. Account we have of him is,

January the 23d, the ! That he followed the Royal 1639.

Great Seal was delivered • Cause, and affifted in the Deto Sir Thomas Finch, Knt. Lord • fence at Oxford, when besieg: Chief Justice of the Common ed by the Parliament's Army, Pleas; • A Man, says Lord Cla- " under the Command of the i rendon, exceedingly obnoxious ! Earl of Fairfax' ! to the People upon the Busi- King Charles the IId,

ness of Ship-money, and not of in his Éxile, intrúited it 1653. Reputation and Authority ę with Sir Edward Herbert, it be

enough to countenance and ad. ing delivered to him by his Ma.

jelty

“ the Place and Seat of the Court of Chancery in the “ Great Hall of the Palace of Westminster, by the for most Serene Princes, Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and “ Charles Duke of Suffolk, and a great many other · Nobles and Chiefs of the Kingdom of England, at " the Command of the Lord the King: And, after a • noble Exhortation had on the Part of the Lord the “ King by the aforesaid Duke of Norfolk, as well to “ the said Lord Chancellor as to the People, and the “ Answer thereunto made by the said Lord Chan

« cellor,

MEMOIRS of the LORD CHANCELLORS, &c. jesty at Paris. This Gentleman Work, called, The History of the was a near Relation of the Lord Rebellion. Bishop Burnet, in his Herbert of Cherbury, (who wroté Character of this great Man, says, the Life of K. Henry the VIIIth,) • He was like to grow eminent which Title, though it had been " in the Profeffion of the Law fome Years extinct, is now revived when the Civil Wars begun, in the Person of the Right Hon. * about which Time he went to Henry- Arthur Herbert, Érq; who '' his aged Father in Wiltshire ; was lately created Lord Herbert; who, one Day as they were and is a worthy Descendant of walking together, told him,

" this antient Family.

• That Men of his Profesion did January the 13th, the often stretch Law and Preroga1657

King delivered the Great tive, to the Prejudice of the LiSeal to Sir Ed-vard Hyde, Knt. berty of the Subject, to recommend Chancellor of the Exchequer to and advance themselves ; fo his Royal Father, who was ho- charged him, That be foould noured with the Title of Lord

never facrifice the Laws and Chancellor of England, at Bruges Liberties of his Country to his

· in Flanders, the 24th of Jan. own Interests, or to the Will of following, (and created Earl of

« his Prince.' He repeated this Clarendon) who held it after the twice, and immediately fell inRifforation till the Year 1667 ; to a Fit of the Apoplexy, of during whose Time the Court of which he died in a few Hours. Wards, &c. was suppressed by His Lordship was a good ChancelAct of Parliament, which brought lor, and very impartial in the Ada great deal of Business into this ministration of Justice. He would Court : But the Torrent of the 'never make a Visit to the King's Times run high against the Earl; Mistress, nor fuffer any thing to for he was banihed by Act of pass the Seal in which she was Parliament, and died in Exile. mentioned, and very often preBy the Command of K. Charles vailed on the King to alter the the Ild, he wrote that excellent Resolutions he had taken in the

Cabal

cellor, he took his corporal Oath on the Holy Evangelifts.

" And then and there, in the Presence of the afore: “ said Dukes, and likewise of Thomas Marquis of Dora

set, Henry Marquis of Exeter, John Earl of Oxford, Henry Earl of Northumberland, George Earl of Shrop

faire, Galfrid Earl of Westmoreland, John Bishop of “ Lincoln, Cuthbert Bishop of London, John Bishop " of Bath and Wells, Robert Ratcliff, Knt. Viscount “ Fitz-Walter ; Thomas Boleyn, Knt. Viscount Roch

ford; from CARDINAL WOLSEY's Time. Cabal that had met at her Lodg- ' Whatever Misfortunes he might. ings. This virtuous Minister • have in his Life, whatever Ethought it became him, that the • nemies he might have had, or World should see, he did not al- • whatever Errors he might have ways comply with the King in his • committed (which few Men in Views. As many who had suf- his high Station escape quite

• fered in the King's Cause were • clear of) we presume to think, disappointed, in not having he deserves from all impartial Places, they blamed the Earl, Men, the Praise of an honest,

• because they were given to those • just, and able Servant to the who were looked upon as not • Church and Crown, and to be the King's Friends ; to this the ranked amongst the great and

• Earl said, Promises brought the good Ministers of State.' From King Home, and it was keeping this noble Lord the present Right them must keep him at Home. It Hon. Henry Earl of Clarendonand was also given out, That he ad- Rochester is descended. vised the King to gain his Ene- Augusl the 13th, Sir mies, fince he was sure of his Orlando Bridzeman, Knt. .

1667. Friends : But Bishop Burnet says, Lord Chief Juftice of the Com• The Earl always denied it : mon Pleas, received it with the • But it was doubtful, after the Title of Lord Keeper. But, ac

King had disgraced him, whe- cording to a learned Prelate, His " ther he did not faften it on • Study and Practice lay fo en• him, to make him more o- tirely in the Common Law, « dious; for he said many hard that he never seemed to ap• Things of him, for which he prehend what Equity was: Nor 6. was much blamed in most of i had he a Head more for Busi

but little believed.' nefs than for such a Court. He Those who composed the Preface was a Man of great Integrity; to his Lordship's History of the he had very serious Impress

• Grand Rebellion, among several fions of Religion on his Minds other Matters, says this of him: i he had been always on the

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• them,

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• Side

ford; William Sandys, Knt. Lord of Sandys ; and “ of many others of the Lord the King's Council, “ the said Lord Chancellor had the said Seal, kept “ in the aforesaid Box, under the Seals of the Lord the “ King, Master John Taylor and Stephen Gardiner,

as aforesaid, taken out, and several Briefs of Course “ figned ; and afterwards returned the Seal aforesaid " into the said Bag, which he had sealed with his

owri proper Signet; and retained it in his own Custody.

Be

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MEMOIRS of the Lord CHancellors, &c. • Side of the Church, yet he had ful Opposer ; but the Abused

great Tenderness for the Non- « found Relief suitable to their conformisas.'- See Bp. Burnet's • Distress, and those by whom Hift. of his own Times. Vol. I. they were abused a severe Re. 1672.

Nov, the 17th, the fa.. prehension to their Crimes.

mous Earl of Shaftsbury The mischievous Consequences, received it, with the Title of • which commonly arise from Lord Chancellor. Several Au- • the Delays and other Practices thors say, that he was a good

of that Court, were, by ingeChancellor, and his Abilities no nuous and judicious ManageMan yet called in Question. The ment, very much abated, and Speech he made to Mr. Serjeant 'every Thing weighed and de Thurland, when he was made Ba- • termined with exact Judgment ron of the Exchequer; fully shews • and Equity. During the Time how niuch he had theTranquillity of his Chancellorship he mainof the People at Heart. Rawleigh tained all Things suitable to the Redivivus says of him, “And Greatness of his Place, The Man• with what Prudence, Candour, ner of his Proceeding on the first • Honour, and Integrity he ac- Day of each Term to Westminster . quitted himself in that great was agreeable to the antient and

and weighty Employment, the laudable Cuftom, all the Officers • Tranfaéiions of the Court of of the Court, the Judges, Mr. At

Chancery, during the Time of torney and Sollicitor General, &c. • his Chancellorship, will belt te- going before him according to • stify. Justice then run in an their

several Degrees, which is ftin equal Channel ; so that the followed. Froń this great Man • Caufe of the Rich was not fuf- the present Right. Hon. Anthony • fered to swallow up the Right - Earl of Shaftsbury is descended. • of the Poor; nor was the strong Nov. the 9th, Sir Heor cunnig Opposition permitted reage Finch, Knt. receiv

1673. • to devour the weak or untile ed the Scat with the Title of

Lord:

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