James Whitelocke

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Sir James Whitelocke

Sir James Whitelocke SL (28 November 1570 – 22 June 1632) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1610 and 1622.

Early life

Whitelocke was the younger of posthumous twin sons of Richard Whitelocke, a London merchant, by Joan Brockhurst, widow, daughter of John Colte of

called to the bar in August 1600, elected bencher in Hilary term 1618–19, and reader in the following August.[1]

Under James I

Whitelocke was appointed steward of the St. John's College estates in 1601. He became

recorder of Woodstock on 1 August 1606, steward of and counsel for Eton College on 6 December 1609, and joint steward of the Westminster College
estates on 7 May 1610.

In 1610 Whitelocke was elected in a by-election as Member of Parliament for

In 1613 Whitelocke's opposition to the prerogative brought him into sharp collision with the crown. The administration of the navy stood in urgent need of reform, and in the winter of 1612–13 a preliminary step was taken by the issue of a commission investing the lord high admiral (

Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, the lord privy seal and lord chamberlain with extraordinary powers for the investigation of abuses and the trial of offenders. As legal adviser to Sir Robert Mansell, who was interested in defeating the investigation, Whitelocke drew up a series of 'exceptions' to the commission, in which he very strictly circumscribed the prerogative. A copy of the exceptions came into the hands of the crown lawyers, who at once suspected that they were Whitelocke's. Evidence was wanting; but his contemporaneous opposition to the transfer of a cause in which he was retained from the chancery to the court of the Earl Marshal furnished a pretext for his committal to Fleet Prison (18 May); and he was not released until he had made full submission in writing (13 June).[1]

In 1614 Whitelocke was re-elected MP for Woodstock in the Addled Parliament. He was nominated with Sir Thomas Crew and others to represent the Commons in the projected conference with the Lords. Because of the sudden dissolution on 7 June the conference never met and on the following day Whitelocke and his colleagues were summoned to the council chamber, and told to destroy the notes of their intended speeches. In disfavour at court, Whitelocke was compelled to surrender (18 November 1616) the reversion of the king's bench enrolments' office which he held jointly with Robert Heath, by whom he was also defeated in the contest for the recordership of London in November 1618.

Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire

Meanwhile, however, his professional reputation and gains increased. In 1616 he purchased the estate of

St. Martin's-le-Grand.[1]

Whitelocke stood, on the whole, well with

He was re-elected MP for Woodstock in 1621.

Under Charles I

He was continued in office by Charles I, and in the following autumn it fell to him, as junior judge in his court, to discharge the hazardous duty of adjourning term during the plague outbreak of 1625. To escape from the contagion he drove, halting only at Hyde Park Corner to dine, in his coach from Horton, near Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire, to Westminster Hall, and, after hurrying through the necessary forms, re-entered his coach and drove back to Horton.[1]

In November 1626 Whitelocke concurred with Sir

Ranulph Crew in declining to certify the legality of forced loans. In Darnell's Case, however, he supported the Crown. The remand was not allowed to pass without the citation of the judges to the House of Lords to answer for their conduct. They obeyed, and through Whitelocke's mouth glossed their order by representing it as only intended to allow time for further consideration.[1]

In February 1629 the House of Commons enquired into the release of the supposed

Michaelmas day he obtained consent to the release of the prisoners on security given for their good behaviour, a concession which they unanimously rejected. On the trial Whitelocke concurred in the judgment.[1]

Whitelocke was greatly interested in antiquarian studies, and was the author of several papers which are printed in Thomas Hearne's Collection of Discourses (1771); his journal, or Liber famelicus, was edited by John Bruce and published by the Camden Society in 1858.[1]

Whitelocke died at Fawley Court on 22 June 1632. His remains were interred in Fawley churchyard, with a marble monument. His estates were later exempted by the Long Parliament from liability to contribute to the fund for making reparation to Eliot and his fellow-sufferers.

Family

In 1602 Whitelocke married Elizabeth Bulstrode (1575-1631), a daughter of Edward Bulstrode of

Hedgerley Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire. Two of her sisters, Dorothy and Cecily Bulstrode were gentlewomen in the bedchamber of Anne of Denmark Dorothy married Sir John Eyre in 1611 without her family's consent, Eyre was a "vicious reprobate" according to Whitelocke. Another sister Anne Bulstrode (d. 1611) married the lawyer John Searl in 1609.[2]

Whitelocke's eldest son was the parliamentarian Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (b. 1605). His son James was born in 1612. His daughter Elizabeth, born in 1603, married Thomas Mostyn in 1623, the others were; Mary (1606-1611); Cecilia born in March 1607; Joan in 1609 and died in 1610; Dorothy born and died in 1610.

Whitelocke's twin brother, William, served under Francis Drake, and fell at sea in an engagement with the Spaniards. Of two other brothers, the elder, Edmund, was a courtier who was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Whitelocke, James" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. ^ John Bruce, Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke (Camden Society, London, 1858), pp. 16-18, 25-6.

References

Further reading

External links

Parliament of England
Preceded by
Sir Richard Lee
Thomas Spencer
Member of Parliament for
Sir Philip Cary
1614–1622
Succeeded by
Sir Philip Cary
William Lenthall
Legal offices
Preceded by
Sir Thomas Chamberlayne
Chief Justice of Chester

1620–1624
Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Chamberlayne