Thomas Eden (died 18 July 1645) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who sat 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. ...

from 1640 to 1645.

Background

Eden was the youngest son of Richard Eden of

South Hanningfield South Hanningfield is a small village and civil parish in the Chelmsford district of Essex, England. The village is located on the south bank of the Hanningfield Reservoir, around south-southeast of the city of Chelmsford, and around north of ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and his wife Margaret Payton, daughter of Christopher Payton of

Bury St. Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, and was born in the south part of

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within the county of Essex. From Sudbury school, he was sent to

Pembroke Hall, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

. He migrated to

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, where he was admitted a scholar on 31 December 1596. He was elected to a fellowship 10 July 1599, and afterwards he held the office of reader of civil law in his college for many years. On 10 November 1613, being then

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

, he was chosen to succeed Clement Corbet as Professor of Law at Gresham College, London. In March 1615, he held a disputation for the degree of

LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

before

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

at Cambridge, which earned great applause. He was created doctor in the following year. On 4 November 1615, he was admitted a member of the College of Advocates at

Doctors' Commons Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil (as opposed to common) law in London, namely ecclesiastical and admiralty law. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildi ...

. Eden was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1626. On 4 September 1626, he was chosen master of Trinity Hall on the resignation of Dr. Corbet. He was re-elected MP for Cambridge University in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was appointed chancellor of the

diocese of Ely The Diocese of Ely is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in Ely. There is one suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon. The diocese now co ...

in 1630 and he was also

commissary A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

of Westminster, Bury St. Edmunds, and Sudbury, and one of the masters in chancery. In April 1640, Eden was re-elected MP for Cambridge in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. He resigned his professorship at

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

on 27 July 1640. In November 1640, he was re-elected MP for Cambridge University for 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 ...

. On 3 May 1641, he joined with those members of the House of Commons who took the Protestation. The speaker informed the house on 7 Sept. 1642 that he had received commission from Dr. Eden and that he was also willing to lend £200 for the service of the king and parliament according to the propositions, to add to previous loans. On 28 February 1644, he took the

Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1 ...

. In April 1645, he was one of the committee of parliament, consisting of six peers and twelve commoners, which was appointed by the two houses to manage the affairs of the admiralty. Eden died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on 18 July 1645, and was buried on 2 August in the chapel of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where a mural monument with a Latin inscription was erected to his memory. A

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oration Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...

was delivered at his funeral by

Thomas Exton Sir Thomas Exton (1631–1688) was an English admiralty lawyer, Member of Parliament, and Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Life His father was the admiralty lawyer John Exton. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1641, was admitted a memb ...

.Printed in John Ward's ''Gresham Professors'', appendix, p. 69; and two English

elegies An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

on his death are preserved in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

(Lansd. MS. 98, ff. 195, 196). Eden, who was highly commended as an advocate by

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

, was a munificent benefactor to Trinity Hall.

Foundation of the Eden Scholarship

After his death in 1645, the Eden Scholarship was founded to support the studies of undergraduates at Trinity Hall. This has continued to the present, with students taking First Class Honours being rewarded with a scholarship.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eden, Thomas 16th-century births 1645 deaths English legal professionals Masters of Trinity Hall, Cambridge English subscribers to the Solemn League and Covenant 1643 16th-century English people Members of the pre-1707 Parliament of England for the University of Cambridge Members of Doctors' Commons English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Lords of the Admiralty