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BRACKLEY, THOMAS EGERTON, VISCOUNT (c...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRACKLEY, See also:THOMAS See also:EGERTON, See also:VISCOUNT (c. 1540—1617) , See also:English See also:lord See also:chancellor, was a natural son of See also:Sir See also:Richard Egerton of See also:Ridley, See also:Cheshire. The exact date of his See also:birth is unrecorded, but, according to See also:Wood,' when he became a commoner at Erase-See also:nose See also:College,See also:Oxford, in 1556, he was about seventeen. He entered See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn in 1559, and was called to the See also:bar in 1572, being chosen a See also:governor of the society in 158o, See also:Lent reader in 1582, and treasurer in 1588. He See also:early obtained legal renown and a large practice, and tradition relates that his skilful conduct of a See also:case against the See also:crown gained the See also:notice of See also:Elizabeth, who is reported to have declared: " In my troth he shall never plead against me again." Accordingly, on the 26th of See also:June 1581, he was made See also:solicitor-See also:general. He represented Cheshire in the parliaments of 1585 and 1586, but in his See also:official capacity he often attended in the See also:House of Lords. On the 3rd of See also:March 1589 the See also:Commons desired that he should return to their house, the Lords refusing on the ground that he was called by the See also:queen's See also:writ to attend in the Lords before his See also:election by the House of Commons .2 He took See also:part in the trial of See also:Mary, queen of Scots, in 1586, and advised that in her See also:indictment she should only be styled " commonly called queen of Scots," to avoid scruples about judging a See also:sovereign. He conducted several other See also:state prosecutions. On the and of June 1592 he was appointed See also:attorney-general, and was knighted and made See also:chamberlain of See also:Chester in 1593. On the loth of See also:April 1594 he became See also:master of the rolls, and on the 6th of May 1596 lord keeper of the See also:great See also:seal and a privy councillor, remaining, however, a commoner as Sir Thomas Egerton, and presiding in the Lords as such during the whole reign of Elizabeth. He kept in addition the mastership of the rolls, the whole See also:work of the See also:chancery during this See also:period falling on his shoulders and sometimes causing inconvenience to suitors.3 His promotion was welcomed from all quarters. " I think no See also:man," wrote a contemporary to See also:Essex, " ever came to this dignity with more See also:applause than this worthy See also:gentleman."' Egerton became one of the queen's most trusted advisers and one of the greatest and most striking figures at her See also:court.

He was a leading member of the numerous See also:

special commissions, including the ecclesiastical See also:commission, and was the queen's interpreter in her communications to See also:parliament. In 1598 he was employed as a See also:commissioner for negotiating with the Dutch, obtaining great See also:credit by the treaty then effected, and in 1600 in the same capacity with See also:Denmark. In 1597, in consequence of his unlawful See also:marriage with his second wife, in a private house without banns, the lord keeper incurred a See also:sentence of See also:excommunication, and was obliged to obtain See also:absolution from the See also:bishop of See also:London.6 He was a See also:firm friend of the See also:noble but erratic and unfortunate Essex. He sought to moderate his violence and rashness, and after the See also:scene in the See also:council in See also:July 1598, when the queen struck Essex and bade him go and be hanged, he endeavoured to reconcile him to the queen in an admirable See also:letter which has often been printed.6 On the arrival of Essex in London without leave from See also:Ireland, and his consequent disgrace, he supported the queen's just authority, avoiding at the same See also:time any undue severity to the offender. Essex was committed to his custody in See also:York House from the 1st of See also:October 1599 till the 5th of July 1600, when the lord keeper used his See also:influence to recover for him the queen's favour and gave him kindly warnings concerning the See also:necessity for caution in his conduct. On the 5th of June 1600 he presided over the court held at his house, which deprived Essex of his offices except that of master of the See also:horse, treating him with Athenae Oxon. (See also:Bliss), ii. 197. s D'Ewes's Parliaments of Elizabeth, 441, 442. 3 Cal. of St. Pap., Dom., 1601-1603, p. 191.

' See also:

Birch's Mem. of Queen Elizabeth, i. 479. Hist. See also:MSS. See also:Comm. 11th See also:Rep. p. 24.. 6 T. Birch's Mem. of Queen Elizabeth, ii. 384.leniency, not pressing the See also:charge of See also:treason but only that of disobedience, and interrupting him with See also:kind intentions when he attempted to justify himself. After the trial he tried in vain to bring Essex to a sense of See also:duty. On the 8th of See also:February 16o1, the See also:day fixed for the See also:rebellion, the lord keeper with other See also:officers of state visited Essex at Essex House to demand the See also:reason of the tumultuous assemblage.

His efforts to persuade Essex to speak with him privately and explain his "griefs," and to refrain from violence, and his See also:

appeal to the See also:company to depart peacefully on their See also:allegiance, were ineffectual, and he was imprisoned by Essex for six See also:hours, the See also:mob calling out to kill him and to throw the great seal out of the window. Subsequently he abandoned all See also:hope of saving Essex, and took an active part in his trial. On the 13th of February he made a speech in the See also:Star Chamber, exposing the wickedness of the rebellion, and of the See also:plot of Thomas See also:Lea to surprise Elizabeth at her chamber See also:door.' In July 1602, a few months before her See also:death, Elizabeth visited the lord keeper at his house at Harefield in See also:Middlesex, and he was one of those See also:present during her last hours who received her faltering intimation as to her successor. On the See also:accession of See also:James I., Sir Thomas Egerton was re-appointed lord keeper, resigning the mastership of the rolls in May 1603, and the chamberlainship of Chester in See also:August. On the 21st of July he was created See also:Baron See also:Ellesmere, and on the 24th lord chancellor. His support of the See also:king's See also:prerogative was too faithful and undiscriminating. He approved of the harsh See also:penalty inflicted upon See also:Oliver St See also:John in 16r5 for denying the legality of benevolences, and desired that his sentencing of the prisoner " might be his last work to conclude his services." s In May 1613 he caused the committal of See also:Whitelocke to the See also:Fleet for questioning the authority of the See also:earl See also:marshal's court. In 1604 he came into collision with the House of Commons. Sir See also:Francis See also:Goodwin, an outlaw, having been elected for See also:Buckinghamshire contrary to the king's See also:proclamation, the chancellor cancelled the return when made according to See also:custom into chancery, and issued writs for a new election. The Commons, however, considering their privileges violated, restored Goodwin to his seat, and though the See also:matter was in the present instance compromised by the choice of a third party, they secured for the future the right of judging in their own elections. He was at one with James in desiring to effect the See also:union between See also:England and See also:Scotland, and served on the commission in 1604; and the English merchants who opposed the union and community of See also:trade with the Scots were " roundly shaken by him." In 16o8, in the great case of the See also:Post Nati, he decided, with the assistance of the fourteen See also:judges, that those See also:born after the accession of James I. to the See also:throne of England were English subjects and capable of holding lands in England; and he compared the two dissentient judges to the apostle Thomas, whose doubts only confirmed the faith of the See also:rest. He did not, however, always show obedience to the king's wishes.

He op-posed the latter's See also:

Spanish policy, and in July 1615, in spite of James's most See also:peremptory commands and threats, refused to put the great seal to the See also:pardon of See also:Somerset. In May 1616 he officiated as high steward in the trial of the latter and his countess for the See also:murder of See also:Overbury. He was a rigid churchman, hostile to both the Puritans and the See also:Roman Catholics. He fully approved of the king's unfriendly attitude towards the former, adopted at the See also:Hampton Court See also:conference in 1604, and declared, in admiration of James's theological reasoning on this occasion, that he had never understood before the meaning of the legal See also:maxim, Rex est mixta persona cum Sacerdote. In 16o5 he opposed the See also:petition for the restitution of deprived Puritan ministers, and obtained an See also:opinion from the judges that the petition was illegal. He supported the party of See also:Abbot against See also:Laud at Oxford, and represented to the king the unfitness of'the latter to be See also:president of St John's College. In 16o5 he directed the judges to enforce the penal See also:laws against the Roman Catholics. His vigorous and active public career closed with a great victory gained over the See also:common See also:law and his formidable Cal. of St. Pap., Dom., 1598-1601, pp. 554, 583. 6 State Trials, u. 909.

Phoenix-squares

antagonist, Sir See also:

Edward See also:Coke. The chancellor's court of See also:equity had originated in the necessity for a tribunal to decide cases not served by the common law, and to relax and correct the rigidity and insufficiency of the latter's See also:procedure. The two jurisdictions had remained See also:bitter rivals, the common-law bar complaining of the arbitrary and unrestricted See also:powers of the chancellor, and the equity lawyers censuring and ridiculing the failures of See also:justice in the courts of common law. The disputes between the courts, concerning which the king had already in 1615 remonstrated with the chancellor and Sir Edward Coke,' the lord See also:chief justice, came to a crisis in 1616, when the court of chancery granted See also:relief against judgments at common law in the cases of See also:Heath v. Rydley and See also:Courtney v. Granvil. This relief was declared by Coke and other judges sitting with him to be illegal, and a See also:counter-attack was made by a See also:praemunire, brought against the parties concerned in the suit in chancery. The See also:grand See also:jury, however, refused to bring in a true See also:bill against them, in spite of Coke's threats and assurances that the chancellor was dead, and the dispute was referred to the king himself, who after consulting his counsel and on See also:Bacon's See also:advice decided in favour of equity. The chancellor's See also:triumph was a great one, and from this time the equitable See also:jurisdiction of the court of chancery was unquestioned. In June 1616 he supported the king in his dispute with and dismissal of Coke in the case of the commendams, agreeing with Bacon that it was the See also:judge's duty to communicate with the king, before giving judgments in which his interests were concerned, and in See also:November warned the new lord chief justice against imitating the errors of his predecessor and especially his love of "popularity."2 See also:Writing in 1609 to See also:Salisbury, the chancellor had described Coke (who had See also:long been a See also:thorn in his flesh) as a " frantic, turbulent and idle broken brayned See also:fellow," apologizing for so often troubling Salisbury on this subject, "no See also:fit exercise for a chancellor and a treasurer."3 He now summoned Coke before him and communicated to him the king's dissatisfaction with his Reports, desiring, however, to be spared further service in his disgracing. After several petitions for leave to retire through failing See also:health, he at last, on the 3rd of March 1617, delivered up to James the ' great seal, which he had held continuously for the unprecedented See also:term of nearly twenty-one years. On the 7th of November 1616 he had been created Viscount Brackley, and his death took See also:place on the 15th of March 1617.

See also:

Half an See also:hour before his decease James sent Bacon, then his successor as lord keeper, with the See also:gift of an earldom, and the presidentship of the council with a See also:pension of L3000 a See also:year, which the dying man declined as earthly vanities with which he had no more concern. He was buried at Dodleston in Cheshire. As Lord Chancellor Ellesmere he is a striking figure in the long See also:line of illustrious English judges. No instance of excessive or improper use of his jurisdiction is recorded, and the famous case which precipitated the contest between the courts was a clear See also:travesty of justice, undoubtedly fit for the chancellor's intervention. He refused to See also:answer any communications from suitors in his court,4 and it was doubtless to Ellesmere (as weeding out the " enormous See also:sin " of judicial corruption)5 that John See also:Donne, who was his secretary, addressed his fifth See also:satire. He gained See also:Camden's admiration, who records an See also:anagram on his name, " Gestat Honorem." Bacon, whose merit he had early recognized, and whose claims to the See also:office of solicitor-general he had unavailingly supported both in 1594 and ,6o6, calls him " a true See also:sage, a See also:salvia in the See also:garden of the state," and speaks with gratitude of his " fatherly kindness." See also:Ben See also:Jonson, among the, poets, extolled in an See also:epigram his " wing'd judgements," " purest hands," and constancy. Though endowed with considerable oratorical gifts he followed the true judicial tradition and affected to despise eloquence as " not decorum for judges, that ought to respect the Matter and not the Humours of the ' Cal. St. Pap., Dom., 1611-1618, p. 381. 2 Cal. St.

Pap., Dom., 1611-1618, p. 407. 6 See also:

Lansdowne MS. 91, f. 41. 4 Hist. MSS. Comm. app. pt. vii. p. 156. 6 See also:Life of Donne, by E. See also:Gosse, i. 43.

Hearers."6 Like others of his day he hoped to see a codification of the laws,? and appears to have had greater faith in judge-made law than in statutes of the See also:

realm, advising the parliament (October 27, 16o1) " that laws in force might be revised and explained and no new laws made," and describing the See also:Statute of See also:Wills passed in See also:Henry VIIL's reign as the " ruin of See also:ancient families " and " the See also:nurse of forgeries." In the See also:thirty-eighth year of Elizabeth he See also:drew up rules for procedure in the Star Chamber,$ restricting the fees, and in the eighth of James I. ordinances for remedying abuses in the court of chancery. In 1609 he published his See also:judgment in the case of the Post Nati, which appears to be the only certain work of his authorship. The following have been ascribed to him: The Privileges and Prerogatives of the High Court of Chancery (1641); Certain Observations concerning the Office of the Lord Chancellor (1651) —denied by Lord Chancellor See also:Hardwicke in A Discourse of the Judicial Authority of the Master of the Rolls (1728) to be Lord Ellesmere's work; Observations on Lord Coke's Reports, ed. by G. See also:Paul (about 1710), the only See also:evidence of his authorship being apparently that the MS. was in his See also:handwriting; four MSS., bequeathed to his See also:chaplain, Bishop See also:Williams, viz. The Prerogative Royal, Privileges of Parliament, Proceedings in Chancery and The See also:Power of the Star Chamber; Notes and Observations on Magna Charta, &c., See also:Sept. 1615 (Hari. 4265, f. 35), and An Abridgment of Lord Coke's Reports (see MS. See also:note by F. Hargrave in his copy of Certain Observations concerning the Office of Lord Chancellor, Brit. See also:Mus. 510 a 5, also Life of Egerton, p. 8o, note T, See also:catalogue of Harleian collection, and See also:Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, 18o6, ii.

170). He was thrice married. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas See also:

Ravenscroft of Bretton, Flintshire, he had two sons and a daughter. The See also:elder son, Thomas, predeceased him, leaving three daughters. The younger, John, succeeded his See also:father as 2nd Viscount Brackley, was created earl of See also:Bridge-See also:water, and, marrying See also:Lady Frances See also:Stanley (daughter of his father's third wife, widow of the 5th earl of See also:Derby), was the ancestor of the earls and See also:dukes of See also:Bridgewater (q.v.), whose male line became See also:extinct in 1829. In 1846 the titles of Ellesmere and Brackley were revived in the See also:person of the 1st earl of Ellesmere (q.v.), descended from Lady Louisa Egerton, daughter and co-See also:heir of the 1st See also:duke of Bridgewater. No adequate life of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere has been written, for which, however, materials exist in the Bridgewater MSS., very scantily calendared in Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. p. 24, and app. pt. vii. p. 126.

A small selection, with the omission, however, of See also:

personal and See also:family matters intended for a See also:separate projected Life which was never published, was edited by J. P. See also:Collier for the Camden Society in 184o.

End of Article: BRACKLEY, THOMAS EGERTON, VISCOUNT (c. 1540—1617)

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