Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley
Sir Francis Bacon | |||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||
Born | (c.1540) John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgwater Mary Egerton | ||||||||
Parent(s) | Sir Richard Egerton Alice Sparks | ||||||||
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley,
Early life, education and legal career
Thomas Egerton was born in 1540 in the parish of
Egerton built a respectable legal practice pleading cases in the Courts of
He married Elizabeth Ravenscroft, daughter of Thomas Ravenscroft of Bretton, Flint, in 1576 and by her had issue:
- Thomas (died 1599), who married Elizabeth Venables; their youngest daughter, Mary, was married to Thomas Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh
- John(his heir),
- Mary, who married Sir Francis Leigh.
Solicitor General, Attorney General and Master of the Rolls
As Solicitor General, Egerton became a frequent legal advocate for the crown, often arguing cases instead of the
During this time his first wife died, and he married Elizabeth Wolley, the widow of Sir John Wolley, and daughter of Sir William More of Loseley, Surrey. He bought Tatton Park, in 1598. It would stay in the family for more than three centuries.[5] Also at this time (1597 or 1598) he hired John Donne as secretary. This arrangement ended in some embarrassment since Donne secretly married Ann More, Elizabeth's niece, in 1601.
Elizabeth died around the beginning of 1600, and then Egerton married
At
Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor
As Lord Keeper, Egerton's judgements were admired, but Common-law judges often resented him for reversing their decisions. He also attempted to expand the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery to include the imposition of fines to enforce his injunctions. In the 9th Parliament of the reign of Elizabeth (1597–1598), he supported legal reform and the royal power to create monopolies.
In November 1599 Egerton, seeking the queen's favour, asked a courtier Michael Stanhope to give her a gift of pearls. She told Stanhope to return them to Egerton, who felt that Stanhope had let him down.[8]
Sir Thomas was a friend of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and often interceded to mend relations between Essex and the Queen. After Essex returned from Ireland in disgrace he was placed in the Lord Keeper's custody, under house arrest at York House, Strand.[9] He was one of the judges at Essex's first trial, and tried to persuade him to apologise and beg mercy from the Queen. He pronounced the sentence against Essex, although it was dictated by the Queen. During Essex's rebellion, he was sent to persuade Essex to surrender, but was instead held hostage for several hours until one of Essex's supporters freed him to gain pardon from the Queen.
Egerton bought a house at Harefield and in August 1602 staged an elaborate entertainment for the queen.[10] James VI of Scotland succeeded to the throne of England as James I at the Union of the Crowns. Egerton and Lord Buckhurst travelled to Northamptonshire in June 1603 to greet Anne of Denmark and her children as they journeyed towards Windsor Castle.[11]
Egerton remained in office, and King James made him Lord Chancellor and 1st
In the first Parliament of James I Lord Ellesmere attempted to exercise the right of the Lord Chancellor to disqualify members from sitting in the
Lord Ellesmere supported the
Family
by his first wife, Elizabeth
- Sir Thomas Egerton (1547–1599)
- John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgwater(1579–1649)
- Mary Egerton, married Sir Francis Leigh, of King's Newnham, Warwickshire
Notes
- ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.1077, Duke of Sutherland
- ^ Thomas Birch, Memorials of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 479.
- ^ http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/05012801.html Page title goes here Archives Hub. Retrieved on 12 May 2014.
- ^ Norman Leslie Jones, The English Reformation: Religion and Cultural Adaptation (2002), p. 153.
- ^ "Tatton Park – History of the Mansion". Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
- ^ Bridgewater Chapel at Little Gaddesden Church, accessed 24 July 2015
- ^ Monuments in the Bridgewater Chapel, accessed 24 July 2015
- ^ Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), pp. 105–7.
- ^ York House | Survey of London: volume 18 (pp. 51–60). British-history.ac.uk (22 June 2003). Retrieved on 12 May 2014.
- ^ Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1596–1603, vol. 4 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 174–195.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 20 (London, 1930), p. 144.
- ^ Burke's 106th edition, has it as "21 July 1603" the date of creation.
- ^ Glenn Burgess, The Politics of the Ancient Constitution (1992), p. 160.
Bibliography
- Campbell, John (1868). Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, From the Earliest Times Till the Reign of King George IV (Fifth ed.). London: John Murray.
- Knafla, Louis A. (1977). Law and Politics in Jacobean England. The Tracts of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere.
- Mosley, Charles (2003). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (106th ed.). pp. 1233–5.
- Gibbs, Vicary (1949). The Complete Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland. London: St Catherine's Press.
External links
- "Egerton, Sir Thomas (EGRN586T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.