Robert Atkyns (judge)

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Sir Robert Atkyns (born April 29, 1620 in Gloucestershire , † February 18, 1710 ibid.) Was an England lawyer and statesman.

Life

Robert Atkyns came from an old and well-to-do family in Gloucester , studied law, became a lawyer in 1645, and soon became well-known as a trustee. At the coronation of Charles II in 1661 he was beaten Knight of the Bath , soon afterwards Member of East Looe in the House of Commons and recorder of the city of Bristol and in 1672 judge at the Court of Common Pleas . Dissatisfied with the Court's endeavors to undermine the independence of the judiciary, Atkyns resigned his seat on the court in 1679 and resumed his previous activity at Bristol.

Embroiled in a riot process in 1682, Atkyns withdrew to his possessions in Gloucestershire. From there he sought to work in favor of Lord William Russell in 1683 through two legal opinions written with brilliant eloquence in the infamous Rye House trial , but could not save him from the death penalty. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 he published his Defense of the late Lord Russell's innocency , in which he paved the way for the later legislature on majesty crimes . In 1684 Atkyns successfully defended the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir William Williams, who had been the author of a rebellious diatribe .

Atkyns took an active part in the Glorious Revolution. For this he was after the expulsion of Jacob II. By the new King Wilhelm III. 1689 promoted to President of the Treasury Court; the House of Lords gave him the office of speaker that same year. In 1694 he resigned and has since lived on his estate at Sapperton Hall in Gloucestershire, where he died in 1710 two months before his 90th birthday.

Atkyns' Parliamentary and political tracts (London 1734) are important for the English imperial and constitutional history.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Birth and death dates based on the biography of Robert Atkyns on historyofparliamentonline.org
personal data
SURNAME Atkyns, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English lawyer and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1620
PLACE OF BIRTH Gloucestershire
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1710
Place of death Gloucestershire