biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1609–76)
|
| biography:
| Judge, historian, and jurist born in Alderley, Gloucestershire, SWC England, UK, known for his integrity and impartiality. He studied at Oxford, entered Lincoln's Inn in 1628, and in 1637 was called to the bar. A justice of the common pleas from 1654 until Cromwell's death in 1658, after the Restoration (which he zealously promoted) he was made chief-baron of the Exchequer, and in 1671 Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Devout, learned, and even-handed, he nevertheless presided at the conviction of two women for witchcraft (1662). His posthumous works include a History of the Common Law (1713), a History of the Pleas of the Crown (1736) which remains one of the main authorities on the common law of criminal offences, and the Prerogatives of the King (printed 1776), besides religious works. |
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