Thomas Trevor, 1st Baron Trevor, (8 March 165819 June 1730) was a British judge and politician who was
Attorney-General and later
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...
.
Biography
Trevor was the second son of
John Trevor (1626–1672). and was educated privately before entering the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
(1672) and
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
. He was
called to the bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
in 1680.
[
He was made ]King'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 or ...
in 1683 and was knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
ed and made Solicitor General in 1692, being promoted to Attorney-General in 1695. In 1701 Trevor was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was also a Privy Councillor
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
(1702–1714) and First Commissioner of the Great Seal (1710). In 1712 he was created a peer as Baron Trevor of Bromham. He was created as one of Harley's Dozen when twelve new peerages were distributed to shift the political balance in the Whig-dominated House of Lords towards the Tories in order to secure the Peace of Utrecht
The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne of ...
.
On the accession of George I in 1714 he was deprived of his offices for alleged Jacobite sympathies, but from 1726 he was restored to favour as Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...
(1726 to his death), one of the Lords Justice Regents of the Realm (1727), Lord President of the Council
The lord president of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the ...
(1730) and Governor of the Charterhouse.[
In 1707 he was elected a ]fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
.
Family
In 1690 he married Elizabeth Searle (died 1702), daughter of John Searle of Finchley; their two sons, Thomas and John, succeeded their father in turn but died without male issue, the peerage devolving upon Trevor's son from his second marriage, Robert Hampden-Trevor, 1st Viscount Hampden.
In 1704 he married Anne Bernard, (c. 1670–1723), the daughter of Robert Weldon (or Weildon), mercer in Fleet Street, London. Anne had previously been married to Sir Robert Bernard of Brampton, with whom she had had six children. Three of Trevor's sons succeeded in turn to his barony, and a fourth son, Richard Trevor (1707–1771), was bishop of St Davids from 1744 to 1752, and then bishop of Durham
The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...
.
Notes
References
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Further reading
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1658 births
1730 deaths
English MPs 1690–1695
English MPs 1695–1698
English MPs 1701
Chief Justices of the Common Pleas
Lord Presidents of the Council
Lords Privy Seal
Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
1
Peers of Great Britain created by Queen Anne
Attorneys General for England and Wales
Fellows of the Royal Society
Members of the Parliament of England for Plympton Erle
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