Thomas Eden (died 18 July 1645) was an English

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and

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who sat in the

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from 1640 to 1645.

Background

Eden was the youngest son of Richard Eden of South Hanningfield,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and his wife Margaret Payton, daughter of Christopher Payton of

Bury St. Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: . P ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, and was born in the south part of Sudbury within the county of Essex. From Sudbury school, he was sent to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He migrated to

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

, 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., 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. A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

before James I 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 law (legal system), civil (as opposed to common) law in London, namely ecclesiastical and admiralty law. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawye ...

. Eden was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

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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, Cambridgeshire, Ely. There is one suffragan bishop, suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bisho ...

in 1630 and he was also

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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

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. 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 that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the Will (law), will of Sir Thomas Gresham, ...

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

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. 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 ...

. 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

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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

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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was delivered at his funeral by Thomas Exton.Printed in John Ward's ''Gresham Professors'', appendix, p. 69; and two English elegies on his death are preserved in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

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