Ferdinando Pulton (1536–1618) was an English legal writer, the first to attempt a comprehensive book treating

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law i ...

. This was his ''De pace Regis et regni'', first published in 1609. Pulton belonged to

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, but he was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, so that at that time a legal career was denied to him. He was a student at Christ's College, University of Cambridge. He wrote also a ''Collection of Sundrie Statutes'' (1618). This is credited with making the term ''

Star Chamber The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judic ...

'' common in use. An earlier work was his ''Abstract of all the Penal Statutes''. He resided in

Bourton, Buckinghamshire Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

References

* ''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'' *

Notes

1536 births 1618 deaths English legal writers 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers English Roman Catholics {{England-law-bio-stub