occurring in the Reports as early as 1588), that when the king, soon after his accession, had determined to add a fifth judge to the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, Chief Justice Popham named Altham as one of the serjeants from whom the choice might be made. He was not, however, selected on that occasion; but on the death of Sir John Savile he was appointed a baron of the Exchequer on February 1, 1607, when he received the honour of knighthood.

Lord Chief Justice Coke seems to have been in the habit of treating the judges rather superciliously, since Justice Williams told Archbishop Abbott, who reported it to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, "of his utter dislike of all the Lord Coke his courses; and that himself and Baron Altham did once very roundly let the Lord Coke know their minde, that he was not such a maister of the lawes as he did take on him, to deliver what he list for lawe, and to despise all other." 2

After filling the judicial seat for ten years, Sir James Altham died on February 21, 1616-17; and Sir Francis Bacon, in a speech to his successor, calls him "one of the gravest and most reverend judges of this kingdom. He was interred in the chapel of Oxhey House, near Watford in Hertfordshire, which he had founded in 1612, under a monument on which he is represented in his robes.

He was thrice married. His first wife was Margaret, daughter and heir of Oliver Skinner, Esq., by whom he had one son; his second was Mary, daughter of Hugh Stapers, Esq., who brought him one son and three daughters; and his third was Helen, daughter of John Saunderson, merchant of London, and widow of John Hyde, citizen and mercer of London, by whom he had no children. His male. issue soon failed; but all his daughters married into noble families. One of them was united to Arthur Annesley the first Earl of Anglesea; and her second son by him, christened 1 Egerton Papers, 388. 2 Ibid. 448. 3 Bacon's Works (Montagu), vii. 267.

Altham, was created Baron Altham in Ireland, his descendants eventually succeeding to the earldom. The sixth earl's son failed to make good his claim to the English peerage, which thus became extinct; but he succeeded in regard to the Irish titles, and was created Earl of Mountnorris in Ireland, which title also failed on the death of its second posAnother daughter of Sir James Altham married Richard Vaughan, second Earl of Carberry, a title which became extinct in the next generation. The third daughter had three husbands Sir Francis Astley, of Hill Morton in Warwickshire, knight; Robert, Lord Digby in Ireland; and Sir Robert Bernard, baronet, serjeant at law.'

sessor.

ANDERSON, EDMUND.

CH. C. P. 1603.

See under the Reign of Elizabeth.

A YOUNGER Son of the ancient family of Anderson of Northumberland having migrated into Lincolnshire, the first named as resident in that county is Roger, who had an estate at Wrawbey, and was grandfather of Henry, whose son Edward, of Flixborough in the same county, married Joan Clayton, niece to the Abbot of Thornholme. They had three sons Thomas, who married Ellinor a daughter of Judge Dalison; Richard, of Roxby; and Edmund, the future chief justice.2

Edmund was born about the year 1530, and, being designed for the law, after receiving the principal part of his education at Lincoln College, Oxford, was removed thence to the Inner Temple in June 1550. In due degree he rose to the office of reader in Lent, 1567; but for some unexplained

1 Morant's Essex, ii. 565.; Wotton's Baronet. iii. 66. 364., iv. 402.

2 From a pedigree in the family, for which and for several facts in this sketch I am indebted to the kind communication of Sir Charles H. J. Anderson, of Lea Hall near Gainsborough, Bart., where there is a portrait of him.

cause his reading was deferred till autumn. He became duplex reader in Lent, 1574, having in the meantime attained sufficient practice as a barrister to be noticed in Plowden's Reports in Easter Term, 1571. He was one of seven who were called to the degree of the coif in Michaelmas, 1577; and two years afterwards he was nominated queen's serjeant.1 In this character he went as assistant judge on the Western Circuit in that year2, and in November, 1581, conducted the trial of Edmond Campion and others for high treason. His introductory speech, which is described as having been "very vehemently pronounced with a grave and austere countenance," is a fair example of the vicious rhetoric of the bar at that period. It seems to be directed more against the pope than the prisoner; and whatever may have been Campion's guilt, he certainly beats the crown lawyers both in eloquence and argument.3

Within six months the death of Sir James Dyer left a vacancy in the office of chief justice of the Common Pleas ; and it was said that large sums were offered for the place by Chief Baron Manwood. Serjeant Anderson was, however, appointed on May 2, 1582, and soon after knighted. The recorder Fletewood, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, relates that on the day of his investiture the lord chancellor (Hatton) "made a short discourse what the dewtie and office of a good justice was ;" and that after he was sworn, "Father Benloos, because he was auncient, did put a short case, and then myself put the next." To both, he continues, the new chief" argued very learnedlie and with great facilitie." Fletewood then alludes to the rumour of bribes offered "by one of the Exchequer," and adds that it was well that Lord Burleigh had prevented him from succeeding. Anderson sat as president of that court not only during the remainder

1 Dugdale's Orig. 119. 165

3 State Trials, i. 1051.

2 Cal. State Papers (Lemon), 639.

of Elizabeth's reign, but for more than two years under James I., a period in the whole exceeding twenty-three years. In the state trials which disgraced the earlier part of his judicial career there is certainly nothing that distinguishes the chief justice from his fellows; all were involved in the disgusting barbarity of the proceedings. He was one of the performers in the farce of Secretary Davison's trial, and was equally puzzled with the rest in drawing that distinction beween the propriety of the act itself and the impropriety of its performance, which was necessary for the purpose of justifying the required condemnation. A strenuous supporter

1

of the discipline of the Church of England, he showed himself too severe a condemner of all sectarians; and Browne, the founder of the Brownists, on his trial, and Udall, the Genevan Minister, on his examination, felt that the chief justice was not an unprejudiced censor. He discouraged, however, the "insolence of office;" and when the mayor of Leicester, who had caused a Maypole to be pulled down, had committed a poor shoemaker for saying that "he hoped to see more morice dancing and Maypoles soon," the chief justice, on coming to the assizes there in 1599, instantly ordered the lover of old customs to be discharged.2

As a judge in civil cases he was patient and impartial; his knowledge of law was extensive, and he was ready in its application; and the "Reports" which he collected, and which were afterwards published, prove the industry and devotedness with which he pursued his profession. His firmness in supporting the privileges of his place was shown in his resistance of an attempted encroachment on them in the case of Cavendish, to whom Queen Elizabeth, at the instigation of Lord Leicester, had granted letters patent for making out writs of supersedeas upon exigents. The chief justice and his fellows refused to admit him, on the ground

State Trials, i. 1229. 1271.

2 Hist. of Leicester, 305.

that the queen had no power to grant the office, and that the fees belonged of right to the ancient officers of the court. Though renewed in various forms, the judges succeeded in defeating the attempt, and even in satisfying her Majesty of the justness of their opposition. The boldness evinced in entering into this contest, and in persevering in it in defiance of courtly interference, speaks highly of judicial independence in those arbitrary times.

Camden says that on the trial of Cuffe as an abettor in the Earl of Essex's treason, the attorney-general (Coke) arguing with him in a logical method, and Cuffe answering in the same style, Chief Justice Anderson, "being unable to keep his temper, and telling them that they were both but indifferent disputants, pressed him close with the statute of treason." It is curious that in the report in the State Trials the presence of Anderson is not mentioned, though the proceedings preserved in the "Baga de Secretis " prove that he was one of the twenty named in the commission. David Lloyd, in repeating this, calls him a "pure legist always alledging a decisive case or statute, without any regard to the decency or respect to be had towards a state or government;” and asserts that he was 66 so much the less useful as he was incompliant." He thus confounds the character of the judge and the statesman, evidently considering the want of that which might be politic in the one to be a blemish in the other.1

...

Sir Edmund died on August 1, 1605, and was buried in the church of Eyworth in Bedfordshire, where a handsome monument was erected over his remains, on which he is represented in his robes.

His first residence was at Flixborough, then at Arbury in Warwickshire, where he built a house out of the ruins of the

1 Camden's Elizabeth, in Kennet, ii. 638.; State Trials, i. 1409.; App. 4 Report Pub. Rec. 296.; Lloyd's State Worthies, 803.