The Isle of Wight : its history, topography and antiquities : with notes upon its principal seats, churches, manoral houses, legendary and poetical associations, geology and picturesque localities ... / by W. H. Davenport Adams.

  • Adams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport), 1828-1891.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Isle of Wight : its history, topography and antiquities : with notes upon its principal seats, churches, manoral houses, legendary and poetical associations, geology and picturesque localities ... / by W. H. Davenport Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the study of the law; and his rise in his profession was so rapid that, in 1594, he was called to the degree of Sergeant; shortly afterwards made Recorder of London ; and on the promotion of Sir Edward Coke to the Attorney-Generalship, was preferred by Lord Treasurer Burleigh to the dignity of Solicitor-General (1595). It has been con- jectured that his rapid preferment was partly owing to the influence of the queen's cousin. Sir George Carey (afterwards Lord Hunsdon), then captain of the island, and resident at the castle, while Mr. Flem- ing resided at the Priory of Carisbrooke. The lease of the Priory he had purchased from Sir Francis Walsingham, the Secretary of State, That some powerful influence, it has been said,'^ was exercised [at this time] in favour of Newport interests, may be inferred from the fact that, at the same time that Fleming held the ofiice of Solicitor-General, his two cousins, Drs. Edest and James, were also attached to the queen's household ; the former, the son of a clothier who dwelt at the corner house in the Cattle Market, being chaj)lain- m-ordinary in addition to his preferments of Rector of Freshwater and Dean of Worcester ; and the other. Dr. James, whose father, Mark James, was a merchant, and lived in the house in which Sir Thomas Fleming was born, was physician-in-ordinary, and daily read to the queen. It is worth noting that Francis Bacon was a rival candidate for the Solicitor-Generalship. In 1601 he was returned to the House of Commons as the repre- sentative of a Cornish borough ; but broke down completely in his maiden speech (November 20th), and was so dismayed by his failure that he never again addressed the House. Nevertheless, he was returned to several Parliaments as member for Southam23ton. On the accession of James I. he was re-appointed Solicitor-General; and in the following year (1604) was knighted, and elevated to the bench as Chief Baron of the Exchequer. In this capacity he tried, in con- junction with the other judges, the notorious Guy Fawkes and his fellow-plotters ; but followed, says Lord Campbell, the useful advice for subordinate judges on such an occasion—' to look wise, and say nothing.' As a lawyer, however great his talents, he was not free from the prevailing vice of the great men of the age—a leaning towards the exaltation of the Crown ; and his decision in the great Case of Im- * Vide a paper by J. Hearn, Esq., in the Isle of Wight Mercury, 1857. t Laurence Edes married Alice, eldest daughter of Thomas James and Elizabeth Collins. Dr. Mark James was a son of Thomas James by his second wife, Alice Porter.