[26] Sir Orlando Bridgman (1606-1674) was the eldest son of the Bishop
of Chester. He entered Queens College, Cambridge, in 1619; became a
fellow of Magdalene in 1624, and was called to the bar in 1632. He
became Chief-Justice of Chester in 1638, and Solicitor-General to the
Prince of Wales in 1640. He sat in the Long Parliament as a Royalist,
and in the Oxford Parliament in 1644. He was one of the King's
Commissioners at the Uxbridge negotiations in 1644-45. He ceased
appearing in court under the Commonwealth, but enjoyed a considerable
practice as a conveyancer, at that period a very profitable branch of
the profession. At the Restoration he was made a Serjeant, Chief-Baron
of the Exchequer, and a Baronet. After this trial he became
Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas. On the disgrace of Clarendon he
became Lord Keeper in 1667, a position in which he did not add to his
fame as a lawyer. According to North, he was both ignorant and weak;
'and what was worst of all, his family were very ill qualified for that
place; his lady being a most violent intriguess in business, and his
sons kept no good decorum whilst they practised under him.' He avoided
the political intrigues of the time; he was kept in ignorance of the
Treaty of Dover, and refused to let the Declaration of Indulgence pass
the Great Seal in its original state in 1672. Finally, when Charles
declared the Exchequer closed for twelve months he refused to grant an
injunction to protect the bankers who were likely to be ruined. He was
accordingly removed from office in November 1672, and was succeeded by
Lord Shaftesbury.
[27] Sir Robert Foster (1589-1663), the youngest son of a judge of the
Common Pleas, was called to the bar in 1610. He supported Charles I.'s
most tyrannical proceedings, and became a Justice of the Common Pleas in
1640. He followed Charles to Oxford, and attempted to hold his court
there. He was removed from his office by the Parliament, and practised
as a conveyancer during the Commonwealth. He was at once restored to his
office at the Restoration. After this trial, he was, in the dearth of
good lawyers who were also Royalists, made Lord Chief-Justice. He
presided at the trial of Sir Harry Vane the younger, who was convicted
of treason in compassing the death of Charles II., his real offence
being the part he took against Strafford; and was instrumental in
inducing the King to sign his death-warrant in breach of the Act of
Indemnity. In other trials of political opponents he acquired the
reputation of a partisan judge.
[28] Sir Robert Hide (1595-1665) was cousin to Lord Clarendon. He was
called to the bar in 1617, and became Recorder of Salisbury in 1638. He
sat as a Royalist in the Long Parliament, and joined the King at Oxford.
He was committed to the Tower in 1645 and 1646, and deprived of his
recordership. He was made a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1660, and
Lord Chief-Justice on Foster's death, through his cousin's influence. He
was celebrated for his trials of seditious printers, and died in court
as he was about to begin the trial of one of them.
[29] Sir Thomas Mallet (1582-1665) came of a legal family, and was
called to the bar in 1606. He sat in Charles I.'s first two parliaments,
and was made a Justice of the King's Bench in 1641. He came into
opposition to Parliament by opposing their measures in relation to the
Book of Common Prayer and the Militia, and was twice imprisoned by them
and fined. He was replaced on the Bench at the Restoration, at the age
of seventy-eight, but retired in 1663.
[30] Sir Geoffrey Palmer (1598-1670) was called to the bar in 1623, sat
in the Long Parliament, was one of the managers of Strafford's
impeachment, but rallied to the King's side on the passing of the Act
perpetuating Parliament in 1641. He voted against Hampden's motion for
printing the remonstrance in November 1641, and was committed to the
Tower. He withdrew from the House after the passing of the Militia
Ordinance, and sat in the Parliament at Oxford. He was one of the King's
representatives at the Uxbridge negotiations, 1644-45, and was committed
to the Tower in 1655. He became Attorney-General at the Restoration, and
so remained till his death.
[31] See vol. ii. p. 5.
[32] Sir John Kelyng was the son of a barrister, and was called to the
bar in 1631-32. He practised for a short time in the oppressive Forest
Courts, attempted to present some persons at the Hertford Quarter
Sessions in 1642, for what he held to be unlawful drilling under the
Militia Ordinance, and was in consequence committed to Windsor Castle
till 1660. He was released at the Restoration, and was called upon to
supply the place of the King's Serjeant, Glanville, at this trial. He
was afterwards knighted, and entered Parliament, where he was employed
in drafting the Act of Uniformity. As to his connection with the trial
of the Bury St. Edmunds witches, see _post_, pp. 226, 229. He took a
prominent part in Vane's trial, and was made a puisne judge in 1663. He
was appointed to succeed Hyde as Lord Chief-Justice in 1667, after the
post had been vacant seven months. He was said to owe his place to
corrupt dealings with Clarendon, or to the favour of Lady Castlemaine,
but this is doubted by Campbell, who otherwise takes a most unfavourable
view of his career. His subsequent conduct on the bench was such that,
though he never presided at any trials of great importance, a petition
against him was considered in the House of Commons, and a Committee
reported most unfavourably on his behaviour. He made his peace with the
House, but sank into insignificance, and died in 1671, still in office.
[33] See vol. ii. pp. 35, 37.
[34] It does not appear whether any difference was made in Hulet's case.
[35] The Regicides actually tried were Sir Hardress Waller, Colonel
Thomas Harrison, William Hevingham, Isaac Pennington, Henry Martin,
Gilbert Millington, Robert Tichburne, Owen Roe, Robert Lilburne, Adrian
Scroop, John Carew, John Jones, Thomas Scot, Gregory Clement, John Cook,
George Fleetwood, Simon Meyn, James Temple, Peter Temple, Thomas Wait,
Hugh Peters, Francis Hacker, Daniel Axtell, William Hulet, Henry Smith,
Edmund Harvey, John Downes, Vincent Potter, and Augustin Garland. They
were all convicted. Of these there were executed--Thomas Harrison, John
Carew, John Cook, Thomas Scot, Hugh Peters, Gregory Clement, John Jones,
Daniel Axtell, Francis Hacker, Adrian Scroop.
[36] Thomas Harrison (1606-1660) was born in Staffordshire of lowly
origin. He is said to have enlisted in Essex's Life Guard, which was the
corps used for the purpose of training officers for the Parliamentary
Army, in 1642. In 1644 he was serving in Fleetwood's regiment in
Manchester's army. He was present at the battles of Marston Moor and
Naseby, and at the captures of Winchester, Basing House, and Oxford. He
entered Parliament in 1646, and represented the Army in their quarrels
with Parliament. He served with distinction in the second civil war, and
was zealous in bringing the King to trial and condemning him to death.
He conducted the pursuit of the Royalists after the battle of Worcester,
and, continuing to represent the extreme military party, was a party to
Pride's Purge. He was a prominent member of the Barebones Parliament,
but after its extinction ceased to exercise any political influence. He
refused to recognise the government in 1653, and was deprived of his
commission. He was afterwards imprisoned on various occasions on
suspicion of a connection with Anabaptist and other plots; but at the
Restoration refused to pledge himself not to disturb the government or
to save himself by flight. The Fifth-Monarchy men professed to look
forward to his resurrection to judge his judges and to restore the
Kingdom of Saints.
[37] Sir James Livingstone was descended from the Livingstones of
Callendar. He became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles, and was
made Viscount of Newburgh in 1647. The King was to have escaped from his
house at Bagshot on the occasion referred to above, on one of his
horses, reputed to be the fastest in England, but owing to the horse
falling lame, and the strictness of the watch kept on the King, the
scheme failed. After the King's execution he fled to the Hague, but
returned to Scotland in 1650. He accompanied Charles II. to England in
1651, and after the battle of Worcester fled to France. At the
Restoration he was made Captain of the Guard and an earl. In 1666 he,
with others, received a licence to dig coal in Windsor Forest. He died
in 1670.
[38] The Court included Albemarle, Manchester, and Denzil Hollis.
[39] Hugh Peters (1598-1660) graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in
1617-18. He was ordained in London, and at once made his mark as a
preacher, but being suspected of heresy, went to Holland about 1629.
There he inclined to Independency, and through the pressure put on the
Dutch by the English government, found it advisable to sail for Boston,
where he arrived in October 1635. There he took a prominent part in
local affairs, upholding clerical influence against Vane. In 1641 Peters
came to England to ask for assistance for the colony, and became
Chaplain to the Forces in Ireland. Returning to England, he became
famous as a military preacher, preaching exhortatory sermons before
assaults on fortified places, and attracting adherents to the
Parliamentary forces. He also acted as the confidential agent of Fairfax
and Cromwell in dealing with their troops, and chronicled their
victories. He was regarded with great aversion by the Presbyterians, and
by the numerous persons of other sects to whom buffoonery in the pulpit
was distasteful. He upheld the Army against the Parliament, and was
credited with a share in drawing up the Army Remonstrance in 1648. He
was in Ireland in 1649, and was present at the taking of Wexford. He
afterwards continued to occupy an influential position in politics, and
indulged in many unpolitical schemes, particularly the reformation of
the law, of which he knew but little, and the improvement of religious
teaching, both at home and in America. He maintained his influential
position till the Restoration.
[40] In 1648-49, after the taking of Colchester in 1648.
[41] It seems now to be considered fairly certain that Richard Brandon
was the man who actually cut off the King's head. He died the next June,
after having executed Lord Capel and his companions in the rising which
terminated in the siege of Colchester. It is the more curious that Hulet
should have been tried for the offence, because Brandon certainly
incurred the odium attaching to the act at the time of his death; and it
seems that the fact was mentioned on an inscription on his grave. As
far, however, as the evidence given at the trial is concerned, it seems
possible that Hulet was the second masked figure on the scaffold. All
that is known on the subject is set out in the _Dictionary of National
Biography_, under the title 'Brandon.' See too a note by Mr. . G.
Stephens in _Notes and Queries_, 5th series, vol. v. p. 177.