Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/105



Admitted 24 November, 1628.

Son and heir of Henry Elsynge of Cromwell, co. Oxford. He was educated at "Westminster and Oxford, where he proceeded B.A in 1625. After spending some time in foreign travel he was appointed, by the influence of Archbishop Laud, Clerk of the House of Commons, which 'position he held with great credit during the time of the Long Parliament, retiring in 1648 to avoid taking part against the king. He has left the following valuable works on. Parliamentary law and usage: Of the Form and Manner of Holding a Parliament (1663); A Tract concerning Proceedings in Parliament; A Declaration of Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom (1642); Method of Passing Bills in Parliament (1685). He died in 1654, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster.

Admitted 5 January, 1779.

Eldest son of Robert Emmet, M.D., of Dublin (and elder brother of Robert Emmet, the Irish Patriot). He was educated at Dublin where he obtained a scholarship in 1778. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1781, and became a King's Counsel in 1787. He was credited with a great knowledge, not only of law, but of divinity and literature, and possessed a poetical imagination; but his only known writings are a poem entitled The Decree, in which he advocates justice towards Ireland. He died in Feb. 1788.

There is no Record of his admission in the Register, but he is stated to have been "a Counselor at the Law of the Middle Temple" by (q.v.) in his Liber Famelicus. He was the son of Peter Empson of Towcester, Northamptonshire. He distinguished himself as a lawyer, and in 1491 was elected member for his native county and chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. He was knighted in 1503. His association with Edmund Dudley in the exaction of taxes raised him many enemies, and Henry VIII., yielding to popular clamour, committed him to the Tower. He was tried for treason and convicted in 1509, and executed on Tower Hill 17 Aug. 1510. He was undoubtedly an unpopular instrument of the Government, but there is reason to doubt the legality of his sentence. His forfeited estates were restored in 1513 to his eldest son Thomas, who was probably the Thomas Empson whose name appears on the Middle Temple Register as admitted 2 May, 1503.

There is no record of his admission, but he was Reader at the Inn in 1520. In 1521 he was called to the degree of the Coif, and two years later became King's Serjeant. He was knighted and raised to the Bench of Common Pleas in 1526, which position he held till his death in 1537. He performed the office of "Steward" at the Christmas festivities at the Inn in 1520.