Sir Robert Heath (20 May 1575 – 30 August 1649) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1625.

Early life

Heath was the son of Robert Heath, attorney, and Anne Posyer. He was educated at Tunbridge grammar school ( Tonbridge School),

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

from age 14 and Clifford's Inn from age 17. He became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1603. By 1620, he was listed as one of the 40 patent holders for the Council for New England as the "Recorder of our Citie of London." In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for the City of London. He became solicitor-general in 1621, when he was knighted. In 1624 he was elected MP for

East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...

and was re-elected in 1625.''

Concise Dictionary of National Biography ''The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: From Earliest Times to 1985'' is a dictionary of biographies of people from the United Kingdom. It was published in three volumes by Oxford University Press in 1992.. The dictionary provides summa ...

''. Accessed 5 December 2022.

Family

He married Margaret Miller, daughter of John Miller of Kent, and had six children, including Robert, John and Mary, who married the Royalist politician Sir William Morley of Halnaker.

Attorney general

Heath served King Charles I of England as

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, from 1625. He owed his appointment to the influence of the Duke of Buckingham. Despite a reputation as a shadowy, opaque figure, records show him able to argue shrewdly and independently in order to reduce problems for the Crown.Thomas Cogswell, ''‘In the Power of the State’: Mr Anys's Project and the Tobacco Colonies, 1626–1628'', The English Historical Review 2008 CXXIII (500):35–64
online text
Heath brought a 1625 case in the Exchequer Court for the High Peak lead miners against Francis Leke who claimed a tithe from them. Through the offices of Heath, the tithe right was eventually transferred, in a possibly corrupt way, to

Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire ( Bruce; 1595-1675) was an influential Anglo-Scottish landowner and royalist. Life Christian Bruce was the daughter of Edward Bruce, 1st Lord Kinloss and Master of the Rolls, and Magdalen Clerk, whos ...

. From 1629 he was taking an entrepreneurial interest in the lead mines of Derbyshire, engaging

Sir Cornelius Vermuyden Sir Cornelius Vermuyden ( Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme ...

as a partner in a major drainage operation at Wirksworth, at the ore-rich Dovegang Rake. Heath argued for the Crown in

Darnel's Case The ''Five Knights' case'' (1627) 3 How St Tr 1 (also Darnel's or Darnell's case) (K.B. 1627), is a case in English law, and now United Kingdom constitutional law, fought by five knights (among them Thomas Darnell) in 1627 against forced loans ...

(the Five Knights' Case) of 1627. The judges rejected his argument on absolute prerogative; and a scandal blighted his reputation the following year, when it was revealed, or alleged, by John Selden that he had interfered with the King's Bench records (a felony), in order to promote the decision in the case to a binding precedent (an interpretation that has recently been disputed by

Mark Kishlansky Mark Kishlansky (October 11, 1948 – May 19, 2015) was an American historian of seventeenth-century British politics. He was the Frank Baird, Jr. Professor of History at Harvard University. Education and academic career Kishlansky was born i ...

). The agitation caused by the business was of major importance for the formulation of the '' Petition of Right''. Heath notionally founded both North Carolina and South Carolina. He was on a commission to consider the tobacco trade with Virginia in 1627–8. In 1629 he was awarded a patent for the

Province of Carolina Province of Carolina was a province of England (1663–1707) and Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until partitioned into North and South on January 24, 1712. It is part of present-day Alaba ...

; but in fact he made no settlements there. The grant also mentioned the Bahamas, the beginning of their colonial history.

Judge

Heath became Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1631. He lost this position, however, in September 1634. One theory why is that his religious stance had led him to oppose William Laud. In religion he was a Calvinist and anti-

Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...

; he had shown some leniency in the

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 ...

case against the iconoclast and extremist Henry Sherfield. Another theory relates to corruption. On the other hand, this is not accepted by Thomas G. Barnes, who argues that Heath with Sir Richard Shelton had displeased the King, and on an old matter: plantations in Ulster and the obligations of the City of London in an agreement made under James I, as interpreted in a lax fashion by the law officers of the Crown (Heath as Attorney General, Shelton as Solicitor General). The matter surfaced in a Star Chamber case in mid-1634. The King dismissed Heath with conditions making sure he could not join the defence team in this case. Heath returned to his practice as a barrister. His reputation as pro-Puritan, anti-Laudian did him no harm with the Long Parliament when Charles brought him back as a judge, making him Lord Chief Justice. One of Heath's cases as Lord Chief Justice during the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Ang ...

led to his downfall. In 1642 he tried Captain Turpin, a blockade runner, at

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. A year later,

Sir John Berkeley John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton (1602 – 26 August 1678) was an English royalist soldier, politician and diplomat, of the Bruton branch of the Berkeley family. From 1648 he was closely associated with James, Duke of York, and ...

, the royalist Governor of Exeter, carried out the death sentence on Turpin, as retaliation for the hanging of a Parliamentary commander who had defected to the King. Heath was impeached by Parliament for high treason in 1644. He fled England, and died on 30 August 1649 in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

, France.Charles Carlton, ''Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638–1651'' (1994), p. 198.

Works

*''Maxims and Rules of Pleading'' (1694)

References

External links

*Paul E. Kopperman
‘Heath, Sir Robert (1575–1649)’
'' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, Oct 2006, accessed 4 June 2007
St John's College Biography

Sir Robert Heath 1574-1649
by JJ Heath-Caldwell {{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Robert 1575 births 1649 deaths People from Edenbridge, Kent Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Chief Justices of the Common Pleas Lord chief justices of England and Wales Attorneys General for England and Wales English knights Justices of the King's Bench Recorders of London 17th-century English judges Members of the Parliament of England for the City of London English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626