Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/163



Admitted 21 October, 1634.

Son and heir of Edmund Lechmere of Hanley Castle, Worcestershire. He was born in Sept 1613. He was called to the Bar 4 June, 1641, and made a Bencher 2 Nov. 1655. He was Treasurer in 1657 and Reader in 1669. During the Commonwealth he distinguished himself as a stout supporter of Cromwell, by whom he was appointed Attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster. During the reign of Charles II., though he obtained a full pardon, he took no part in public affairs; but after the Revolution, though seventy-six years of age, he was knighted and appointed to the bench of the Exchequer, where he sat for eleven years. He died in 1701.

Admitted 1 May, 1693.

Second son of Edmund Lechmere of Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, where he was born on 7 Aug. 1675, and grandson of (q.v.). He was called to the Bar 25 Oct. 1698, was made Q.C. in 1708, Solicitor-General in 1714, and Attorney-General in 1718, with a seat at the same time on the Privy Council. He was Reader at the Inn in 1714, and Treasurer in the following year. He took an active part in political affairs of the time, and was engaged in the trial of Lord Derwentwater and the Scotch rebels in 1715. He also took part in the Aylesbury Case, Ashby v. White (1 Smith's Leading Cases}, in which the Commons and Lords came into collision, and for that an order was made by the Commons to arrest him and others who had acted as counsel, but the Serjeant-at-Arms failed to take him, and reported that he had escaped from the window of his chambers, second floor, by the help of his sheets and a rope, when it was sought to arrest him. He was raised to the Peerage in 1721 as Lord Lechmere of Evesham. He was a frequent debater in the House. He is said to have been an excellent lawyer, but " violent and overbearing." He died at Kensington 18 June, 1727.

Admitted 15 November, 1773.

Youngest son of the Hon. Thomas Lee, of Virginia. He was educated at Eton and Edinburgh, where he received the degree of M.D. in 1765. He took part in newspaper controversy in American affairs under the signature of "Junius Americanus." He assisted Dr. Franklin in his agency for the colony of Massachusetts. In 1782 he was elected to Congress, and was a member of the Board of Treasury from 1784 to 1789. He died 12 Dec. 1792. He was admitted to the Middle Temple from Lincoln's Inn.

Admitted 27 January, 1718-9.

Fourth son of Sir Thomas Lee of Hartwell, Bucks, Bart, and brother of Sir William Lee, Judge (q.v.). He graduated B.C.L. at Oxford in 1724, and D.C.L in 1729, in which year he was admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons. He was elected M.P. for Brackley in Northamptonshire in 1732, and sat for that and other constituencies till 1758. In 1742 he was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty, From 1751 to his death he presided in the Court of Arches