Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (1540 – 15 March 1617), known as 1st Baron Ellesmere from 1603 to 1616, was an English
nobleman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ...
, judge and
statesman from the
Egerton family
The Egerton family (pronunciation: "''edge-er-ton''") is a British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Egerton family were made Dukes, Earls, knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Egerton family include t ...
who served as
Lord Keeper
The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This position evolved into that of one of the Great Officers of ...
and
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
for twenty-one years.
Early life, education and legal career
Thomas Egerton was born in 1540 in the parish of
Dodleston, Cheshire, England. He was the illegitimate son of Sir Richard Egerton and an unmarried woman named Alice Sparks from
Bickerton. He was acknowledged by his father's family, who paid for his education. He studied Liberal Arts at
Brasenose College
Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, and received a bachelor's degree in 1559. He then studied
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
at
Lincoln's Inn and called a
barrister by 1572. 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 let ...
, until a point in 1570 when his lack of conformity with the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
became an issue when his Inn passed on a complaint from the
Privy Council.
He built a respectable legal practice pleading cases in the Courts of
Queen's Bench,
Chancery and
Exchequer
In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty’s Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's '' current account'' (i.e., money held from taxation and other government revenu ...
. After
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
saw him plead a case against the crown he was made
Queen's Counsel
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...
. In 1579 he was made a
Master of the Bench
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...
of Lincoln's Inn. On 28 June 1581 he was appointed
Solicitor General.
He married Elizabeth Ravenscroft, daughter of Thomas Ravenscroft of Bretton, Flint, in 1576 and by her had issue:
*Thomas (died 1599), who married Elizabeth Venables; their daughter, Mary, was married to
Thomas Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh
*
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
(his heir),
*Mary, who married Sir
Francis Leigh.
Solicitor General, Attorney General and Master of the Rolls
As Solicitor General, Egerton became a frequent legal advocate for the crown, often arguing cases instead of the
Attorney General. Briefly, he was MP for Cheshire, 1584–87. He was one of the
prosecutors at the trial of
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
, in 1586 at Sheffield. He was also the prosecutor in the trial of
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel
Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (28 June 155719 October 1595) was an English nobleman. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He is variously numbered as 1st, 20th or 13th Earl of Arunde ...
, for
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
. He was made Attorney General on 2 June 1592, he was knighted the next year. He was made
Master of the Rolls
The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of ...
on 10 April 1594 where he excelled as an
equity judge and became a patron of the young
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...
. After the death of the Lord Keeper
Puckering he was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and sworn a
Privy Councillor on 6 May 1596, remaining Master of the Rolls and thus the sole judge in the
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equ ...
.
During this time his first wife died, and he married
Elizabeth Wolley, the widow of
Sir John Wolley, and daughter of
Sir William More of
Loseley, Surrey. He bought
Tatton Park
Tatton Park is an historic estate in Cheshire, England, north of the town of Knutsford. It contains a mansion, Tatton Hall, a medieval manor house, Tatton Old Hall, Tatton Park Gardens, a farm and a deer park of . It is a popular visitor attr ...
, in 1598. It would stay in the family for more than three centuries. Also at this time (1597 or 1598) he hired
John Donne as secretary. This arrangement ended in some embarrassment since Donne secretly married Ann More, Elizabeth's niece, in 1601.
Elizabeth died around the beginning of 1600, and then Egerton married
Alice Spencer, whose first husband had been
Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby
Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (1559 – 16 April 1594), was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, and Lady Margaret Clifford. Ferdinando had a place in the line of succession to Eliza ...
. She survived him by two decades, and was an important patron of the arts, usually known as the Dowager Countess of Derby.
At
Ashridge,
Hertfordshire, Thomas Egerton purchased
Ashridge House, one of the largest
country houses
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
in England, from Queen Elizabeth I, who had inherited it from her father who had appropriated it after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Ashridge House served the Egerton family as a residence until the 19th century. The Egertons later had a family chapel (the Bridgewater Chapel) with a burial vault in
Little Gaddesden
Little Gaddesden (pronounced ) is a village and civil parish in the borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire north of Berkhamsted. As well as Little Gaddesden village (population 694), the parish contains the settlements of Ashridge (population 53), H ...
Church, where many monuments commemorate the
Dukes and Earls of Bridgewater and their families.
Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor
As Lord Keeper, Egerton's judgements were admired, but Common-law judges often resented him for reversing their decisions. He also attempted to expand the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery to include the imposition of fines to enforce his injunctions. In the 9th Parliament of the reign of Elizabeth (1597–1598), he supported legal reform and the royal power to create
monopolies
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
.
In November 1599 Egerton, seeking the queen's favour, asked a courtier
Michael Stanhope to give her a gift of pearls. She told Stanhope to return them to Egerton, who felt that Stanhope had let him down.
Sir Thomas was a friend of
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following ...
, and often interceded to mend relations between Essex and the Queen. After Essex returned from Ireland in disgrace he was placed in the Lord Keeper's custody, under
house arrest at
York House, Strand
York House (formerly Norwich Place or Norwich Palace) was one of a string of mansion houses which formerly stood on the Strand, the principal route from the City of London to the Palace of Westminster.
Building Norwich Palace
It was built as ...
. He was one of the judges at Essex's first trial, and tried to persuade him to apologise and beg mercy from the Queen. He pronounced the sentence against Essex, although it was dictated by the Queen. During Essex's rebellion, he was sent to persuade Essex to surrender, but was instead held hostage for several hours until one of Essex's supporters freed him to gain pardon from the Queen.
Egerton bought a house at
Harefield
Harefield is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, northwest of Charing Cross near Greater London's boundary with Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the north. The population at the 2011 Census was 7,399. Haref ...
and in August 1602 staged an
elaborate entertainment for the queen.
James VI
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
succeeded to the throne of England as James I at the
Union of the Crowns
The Union of the Crowns ( gd, Aonadh nan Crùintean; sco, Union o the Crouns) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of the Kingdom of England as James I and the practical unification of some functions (such as overseas dip ...
. Egerton and
Lord Buckhurst travelled to Northamptonshire in June 1603 to greet
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...
and her children as they journeyed towards
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original c ...
.
Egerton remained in office, and King James made him Lord Chancellor and 1st
Baron Ellesmere
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher th ...
on 19 July 1603. He was removed from the office of Master of the Rolls on 18 May 1603, but as the office was granted to an absentee Scottish Lord he continued to perform its duties. Shortly afterwards he presided over the trial of Barons
Cobham and
Grey de Wilton for high treason for their part in the
Main Plot
The Main Plot was an alleged conspiracy of July 1603 by English courtiers to remove King James I from the English throne and to replace him with his cousin Lady Arbella Stuart. The plot was supposedly led by Lord Cobham and funded by the Spanis ...
.
In the first Parliament of James I Lord Ellesmere attempted to exercise the right of the Lord Chancellor to disqualify members from sitting in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
, but in the end, yielded that right to the House itself. He attempted to persuade Parliament to support the King's plans for a union of England and Scotland, but was unsuccessful. In 1606 he ruled that Scottish subjects born after the succession of James I were naturalised English subjects.
Lord Ellesmere supported the
Royal Prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...
, but was concerned to define it, and ensure it was never confused with the ordinary legal processes.
[Glenn Burgess, ''The Politics of the Ancient Constitution'' (1992), p. 160.] Towards the end of his life, he stood out against the arguments made by
Sir Edward Coke
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
, the
Lord Chief Justice
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
, and ultimately aided the King in securing his dismissal. He attempted to resign several times after this, as he became increasingly old and infirm, and the King finally accepted his resignation on 5 March 1617, after his creation as
Viscount Brackley on 7 November 1616. He was promised the
earldom of Bridgewater, but showed little interest, and died twelve days after leaving office on 15 March 1617. He is buried in
Dodleston, Cheshire.
Family
by his first wife, Elizabeth
*
Sir Thomas Egerton
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (1540 – 15 March 1617), known as 1st Baron Ellesmere from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-on ...
(1577–1599)
*
John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgwater (1579–1649)
*
Mary Egerton, married
Sir Francis Leigh, of King's Newnham, Warwickshire
Notes
Bibliography
*
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*
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brackley, Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount
1540 births
1617 deaths
Egerton, Thomas
Attorneys General for England and Wales
Lord chancellors of England
Lord-Lieutenants of Buckinghamshire
Masters of the Rolls
Members of the Privy Council of England
Chancellors of the University of Oxford
Viscounts Brackley
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
16th-century English nobility
17th-century English nobility
English MPs 1584–1585
English MPs 1586–1587
English MPs 1589