BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

THOMAS LORD COVENTRY,

Late Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.

Some notable observations in the course of his life, and ultimum vale to the World.*

O trace him in the beginnings and first exposition, hee was the sonne of a judget and of the Common Pleas, a gentleman by birth and education. The acquirings of his father in the progresse of his profession (as it seemes) were not much, and in that accesse (as I may call it), which commonly men of the law (attaining to that dignitie) leave to their heires in the new erection of a family. Wherefore I conceive it probable, that the sonne did not declyne that profession wherein the father concluded, but began there to buyld on that foundation, where himselfe had made his first approaches.

He was of the inner house of court, and noe soonere by an

Copied from an original manuscript.

Thomas Coventry the father of the Lord Keeper, was born in 1547, and was educated at Baliol College, where he took a degree of bachelor of arts, in 1565. He afterwards entered as a student of the Inner Temple, and in the 38th year of queen Elizabeth's reign was chosen autumn reader of that house; but a great plague then reigning in London, his readings did not commence until the Lent following. On the 17th of May, 1603, (1 Fac. 1.), he was sworn sergeant at law, having been elected to that degree by queen Elizabeth; and in 3d Fac. 1. was appointed king's sergeant, and in the same year, one of the justices of the court of Common Pleas, in which post he continued until his death, which happened on the 12th of December, 1606.

Lord Keeper Coventry was born in 1578, and at the age of fourteen bebecame a gentleman commoner of Baliol college, Oxford, where he continued three years, and was then entered a member of the Inner Temple. In 14 James 1. he was chosen autumn reader of that society; and on the 17th

indefatigable diligence in study attained the barr, but he appeared in the lustre of his profession above the common expectation of men of that forme, which he made good in the manifestation of his exquisite abilities soe soone as he came to plead. For the orator at the barr hath much the start of a chamber-man, but he was in utrumque paratus, and here hee first began to grow into the name of an active and pregnant man.

Hee marryed and interred his first love in the fruyt of his primogenitus, now surviving, a baron and peere of the realme. His wife expiring, hee plighted his faith to the cittie (for he became recorder by a publique suffrage and suite of the citizens), and espoused for his second wife the widow of a citizen, lovely, young, rich, and of good fame, in whom he became the father of many hopefull children of either sexe; all married richly in his life, or left in the waye of a noble substance. Wee may represent his happiness in nothing more than in this, that London had first given him the handsell of a place both honorable and gainefull, together with a wife as loving, as himself was uxorious, and of that sort which are not unaptly styled housewives; soe that these two drew diversely, but in one way, and to one and the selfe same end, hee in the practice of his profession, shee in the exercise of her domestic: for they

of November, of the same year, was elected recorder of the city of London. On the 14th of March following he was made solicitor-general, and received the honour of knighthood two days afterwards at Theobald's. He was appointed attorney-general by king James 1., in the 18th year of his reign.

† His first wife was Sarah, daughter of Edward Sebright, of Besford, in the county of Worcester, and sister to Sir Edward Sebright, by whom he had issue Thomas, his successor. By his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Aldersey, of Spurstow, and widow of William Pitchford, Esq. of the city of London, he had four sons and four daughters. Sir John Coventry, the eldest son of this second marriage, was the person upon whom the violent and inhuman outrage was committed by Sir Thomas Sandys and three others, at the instigation of the Duke of Monmouth, for words spoken in the House of Commons, and which occasioned the act of parliament "for preventing malicious maiming and wounding," since called the Coventry Act. Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, was married to Sir John Packington, and is said to have been the author of The Whole Duty of Man.

that knew the discipline of his house averr, that hee waved that care as a contagious distraction to his vocation, and left her only (as a helper) to manage that charge, which best suyted to her conversation.

The next stepp of his, however, was in the service of the late king of ever blessed memorie, as his solicitor, and successively his attorney-generall, both places of trust and of great income; neither did he then leave the cittie, or the cittie desert him, for by the marriage of his eldest son there* (the now baron) hee heaped up to his other acquisitions a bulke of treasure of no common summe, and leaving it so, that it may well fall into the question, whether he was more beholden to the cittie, or the cittie to him; or thus, whether more may be attributed to his fortune than merit. Moreover, they ascribe much to the blessing of his house, that they both were constant in their religion, and serious in their assiduous devotions in the sett and fixed forms of the church prayers, whereunto the whole family were commendably assembled.

In the first year of our now gracious soveraigne, my lord of Lincolne (of the clergy) being removed, Sir Thomas Coventrie was designed at Salisbury for the seale, by the king's most excellent judgment, as the onely person of the times capable of so high a place, with the assistance of the duke of Buckingham, and one that was a noble preferrer of men of meritt; and to the further augmentation of his house, hee was shortly thereupon created baron of Alisbury, in which dignity and place he con

Thomas, the second Lord Coventry, married Mary, daughter of Sir William Craven, Knight.

He was made lord keeper of the great seal of England by king Charles 1. on the 1st of November, 1625.

On the 10th of April, 1628, he was made a baron by the title of Baron Coventry of Aylesborough, in the county of Worcester. In an elegant preamble to the patent, the following weighty reasons are stated for his advancement.

"Rex, &c. omnibus, &c.-Officio et curæ regali nihil magis arbitramur convenire, quam virtutum præmia viris illustribus rite disponere, ac illos honoribus attollere qui de rege et republica optime meruerunt: perspicimus enim coronam nostram regiam quamplurimum honorari et locupletari, cum viros cordatos consilio, prudentia, virtutibus illustres, ac praesertim in ad

tinued without interruption, until death summoned him to a great pitch of glorie, in an age plentiful in years, abundant in wealth, felicious in offspring, and, that which is more honorable, a noble fame; not that hee passed on unaccused, for envy is a constant follower and a persecutor of all greatness, and [distraction] an utter enemy of desert.

The chiefe charge against him was that of Bonham Norton's, wherein the best and most impartial judgments consent, that his accuser and clyent was much to blame in the error of his accompt, betweene a judge of equitie and a quondam advocate, and in a case where the accuser had before received ample satisfaction by the advantage and rigour of the law.* More than this, I find not much of regard charged on his sinceritie, besides those of vulgar mindes and private interest, where men are ever aforehand in flattery of themselves in opinion of that cause which goes not on their side, and that which hath any relation to their friends.

The character of his outward man was this; hee was of a middle stature, somewhat broad and round faced, of hayre black, and upright in his comportment and gesture; of complexion

ministranda justitia strenuos et insignes, ad honoris et dignitatis gradus vocamus et erigimus. Nos igitur in persona prædilecti et perquam fidelis consiliarii nostri Thomæ Coventry Militis, custodis magni sigilli nostri Angliae, gratissima et dignissima servitia, quae idem consiliarius noster tam praecharissimo patri nostro Jacobo Regi beatae memoriae, per multos annos, quam nobis ab ipsis regni nostri primis auspiciis, fidelissime et prudentis • simè praestitit et impendit, indiesque impendere non desistit: nec non cir. cumspectionem, prudentiam, strenuitatem, dexteritatem, et fidelitatem ipsius Thomae Coventry Militis erga nos et coronam nostram, animo benigno et regali intimè recolentis pro gratiae nostrae erga praefatum consiliarium pignore: nec non virtutum et bene meritorum ejusdem encomio posteris suis relinquendum, ipsum in procerum hujus regni nostri Angliae numerum ascribendum decrevimus.-Sciatis itaque, &c."

* We have examined the reporters of the time in order to give some account of the case here alluded to, but can only find a short reference to it in Lev. 179, Middleton v. Shelley, where it is said, that an agreement subse. quent to a decree should stay the execution of it; and that it was so de. creed in Lord Coventry's time, in Bonham Norton's case. 1 his probably is the suit, which gave rise to the charge against Lord Coventry, noticed by his biographer.

sanguine, and of a comely aspect and presence. Hee was of a very fine and grave elocution, in a kind of graceful lisping, soe that where nature might seeme to cast something of imperfec. tion in his speech, on due examination, she added a grace to the perfection of his delivery; for his words rather flowed from him in a kind of native pleasingness, than by an artificial help or assistance. Hee was of a very liberal accesse and affable, and as hee was of a very quick apprehension, soe was he of an exceeding judicious and expeditious dispatch in all affairs either of state or of the tribunal; of hearing, patient, attentive, and that which is not usually incident to persons of dignitie and place, seldome in any distempered mood or motion of choler; and it was none of his meanest commendations, that he was a helper or coadjutor, rather than a daunter, of counsel at the barr, and understood better what they would have said in the case, than what sometymes they did say for their clyents; soe that there appeared in his constitution, a kind of natural and unaffected inclination to creep into the good opinion of all men, rather than any affected greatness to discountenance any, but never rashly to discontent many.

Through the whole course of his life, his fortune was so obsequious, that it seemes she always waited upon him with a convoy; for in all the stepps of his rise, he had ever an even and smooth passage, without any rubb or mate in the check.

For his erudition and acquisitions of art (though all knew he was learned in the sciences, and most profound in his profession) yet such was the happiness of his constellation, that he rather leaned to his native strength, than depended on any artificial relyance.

Without doubt hee was of a most solid and immoveable temper, and voyd of all pride and ostentation; neither was he ever in any umbrage or disfavour with his prince; an argument both of his wisdome and sinceritie; neither in any fraction. with his equalls, worthie of exception: for that of my lord of Suffolke's business, was an art of his that shewed the world, in how little esteeme he held greatness that would justle and stand in competition with justice: and it is remaining among the best