The Fire of London Disputes Act 1666 was an Act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

(18 & 19 Cha. II c. 7) with the long title "An Act for erecting a Judicature for Determination of Differences touching Houses burned or demolished by reason of the late Fire which happened in London." Following the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

, Parliament established a court to settle all differences arising between landlords and tenants of burnt buildings, overseen by judges of the

King's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of commo ...

, Court of Common Pleas and Court of Exchequer. Portrait of Sir Matthew Hale Kt

The 22 judges who served under the act included the following: * Sir John Archer * Sir Robert Atkyns * Sir Edward Atkins * Sir Orlando Bridgeman * Sir Samuel Brown * Sir William Ellys *

Sir Heneage Finch Sir Heneage Finch (15 December 1580 – 5 December 1631) was an English nobleman, lawyer, Member of Parliament, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1607 and 1626. He was Speaker of the English House of Commo ...

Sir Matthew Hale Sir Matthew Hale (1 November 1609 – 25 December 1676) was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise ''Historia Placitorum Coronæ'', or ''The History of the Pleas of the Crown''. Born to a barrister and ...

* Sir John Kelynge * Sir Timothy Littleton * Sir William Morton *

Sir Francis North Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, PC, KC(22 October 1637 – 5 September 1685) was the third son of Dudley North, 4th Baron North, and his wife Anne Montagu, daughter of Sir Charles Montagu of Boughton House and Mary Whitmore. He was created ...

* Sir Richard Rainsford *Sir Edward Thurland * Sir Christopher Turnor * Sir Edward Turnour * Sir Thomas Twisden * Sir Thomas Tyrrell *

Sir John Vaughan John Vaughan may refer to: Gentry *John Vaughan, 1st Earl of Carbery (1574/75–1634), Welsh courtier and MP for Carmarthenshire 1601, 1621 *John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery (1639–1713), Governor of Jamaica and President of the Royal Society, M ...

Sir William Wilde Sir William Robert Wills Wilde FRCSI (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and the author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland. He was the fath ...

* Sir Hugh Wyndham * Sir Wadham Wyndham Portraits of the judges by John Michael Wright were put up in the Guildhall by the city in gratitude for their services. 'Book 2, Ch. 15: Cheap Ward', A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark (1773), pp. 587–593. Date accessed: 4 April 2011
/ref> These paintings, completed in 1670, hung in London's

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

until it was bombed during World War II; today only two (those of Sir Matthew Hale and Sir

Hugh Wyndham Sir Hugh Wyndham SL (1602 – 24 December 1684), of Silton, near Gillingham, Dorset, was an English Judge of the Common Pleas and a Baron of the Exchequer. Origins He was born at Orchard Wyndham, Somerset, the eighth son of Sir John Wyndh ...

) remain in the Guildhall Art Gallery the remainder having been destroyed or dispersed, mainly to the Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and the Royal Courts of justice. The act was repealed by the

Statute Law Revision Act 1948 The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 5(3) of the Statute Law Revision Act 1950 provided that this Act, so far as it repealed chapter 34 of the Statute of Westminster 1285 (13 Edw. 1 St. ...

References

{{UK legislation The Fire of London occurred in the year 1666 where it burned the whole of the City of London. The fire started in a local bakery by the River Thames. 1666 in law Acts of the Parliament of England 17th century in London 1666 in England Great Fire of London Law in London