Sir Robert Hyde (1595–1665) was an

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judge and Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

Early career

Hyde, who was born at his father's house, Heale,

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, near

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, in 1595, was the eldest of the four most prominent sons of Sir Lawrence Hyde, attorney-general to

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, the

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. Sir Robert Hyde's mother was the former Barbara Castillion of Benham, Berkshire. Alexander Hyde, Sir Henry Hyde, and Edward Hyde were his brothers; Edward, 1st Earl of Clarendon, was his first cousin. He was called to the bar at the

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7 February 1617, was appointed

Lent Reader A reader in one of the Inns of Court in London was originally a senior barrister of the Inn who was elected to deliver a lecture or series of lectures on a particular legal topic. Two readers (known as Lent and Autumn Readers) would be elected annu ...

there in 1638, and became a

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

in May 1640. In the time of Lord Coke he attended as reporter in the King's Bench. He was recorder of

as early as 1638, when complaints were made against him for his remissness in collecting ship-money.

Conduct during the Civil War and Protectorate

Hyde represented

in the Short Parliament and the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

, professed loyalist principles, voted against the bill for the

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of Strafford, and was accordingly included in the list of the minority, whose names were placarded as betrayers of their country. Having joined the

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, he was voted a malignant by parliament, and incapacitated from sitting in the house. He was committed to the

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from 4 to 18 Aug. 1645, and on 11 May 1646 was deprived of the recordership of

, He then retired into private life. In 1651 Charles II during his flight from

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was sheltered for some days in his house at Heale. During the protectorate, he occasionally practised his profession, and his name occurs in the reports of Siderfin and Hardres.

Judicial career

At the Restoration he was knighted, and appointed a judge of the

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, 31 May 1660, and on 14 June 1660 was reinstated in the recordership of

. He was also a commissioner upon the trial of the

regicides Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...

, but took no part beyond advising upon points of law. Thanks to his cousin's influence, he was promoted to be Chief Justice of the King's Bench on 19 October 1663. He is said to have been an authority upon pleas of the crown, but was not learned otherwise. Upon the trials of Twyn for printing a book called ''A Treatise of the Execution of Justice'', and of the Baptist preacher

Benjamin Keach Benjamin Keach (29 February 1640 – 18 July 1704) was a Particular Baptist preacher and author in London whose name was given to Keach's Catechism. Biography Originally from Buckinghamshire, Keach worked as a tailor during his early years ...

at Aylesbury for publishing ''The Child's Instructor'', he took a tone very hostile to

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s and seditious books. He was not, however, always opposed to non-conformists. Roger Pepys MP, known to readers of the

Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no marit ...

as "Cousin Roger", and who inclined to non-conformity, was bound over to be of good behaviour at the Cambridge Assizes in 1664 for speaking insultingly of Hyde at a town session. He died suddenly on the bench on 1 May 1665, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

Private life

Hyde's wife was Mary, daughter of Francis Baber, M.D., of

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, Somerset, but he had no children. By the demise of his brother Lawrence he came into possession of the Heale estates in the Amesbury valley, and these, with his collection of heirlooms, he settled on the issue of his brother

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Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, Robert 1595 births 1665 deaths Members of Parliament for Salisbury English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Lord chief justices of England and Wales Justices of the Common Pleas Serjeants-at-law (England) 17th-century English judges