Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/168

 privy councillors who were not peers should surrender their seats at the head of the council table to those councillors who were. On 6 April 1603 James, while still in Scotland, reappointed Egerton lord keeper, and Egerton met the king on his journey into England at Broxbourne on 3 May. Sixteen days later he resigned the office of master of the rolls to Edward Bruce, lord Kinross. On 19 July, when he received from the king the new great seal, he was made Baron Ellesmere, and on the 24th lord chancellor. Ellesmere proved subservient to James. He adopted James's hostile attitude to the puritans at the Hampton Court conference in 1604, and declared that the king's speech then first taught him the meaning of the phrase, 'Rex est mixta persona cum sacerdote.' On 9 Feb. 1604-5 he expressed resentment at a petition from Northamptonshire demanding the restitution of deprived puritan ministers, and obtained from the Star-chamber a declaration that the deprivation was lawful, and the presentation of the petition unlawful. Three days later he directed the judges to enforce the penal laws against the catholics. Ellesmere helped to determine the Act of Union of England and Scotland in 1606 and 1607. In June 1608 a case of great importance affecting the relations between the two countries was decided by the chancellor and twelve judges in the exchequer chambers. Doubts had arisen as to the status in England of Scottish persons born after the accession of James I. Those born before the accession (the 'antenati') were acknowledged to be aliens. The 'postnati' claimed to be naturalised subjects and capable of holding land in England. Land had been purchased in England in 1607 on behalf of Robert Colvill or Colvin, a grandson of Lord Colvill of Culross, who was born in Edinburgh in 1605. A legal question arose, and the plea that the child was an alien and incapable of holding land in England was raised. Ellesmere decided that this plea was bad, and that the child was a natural-born subject of the king of England. Twelve of the fourteen judges concurred, and Ellesmere treated the two dissentients with scant courtesy. This judgment, the most important that Ellesmere delivered, was printed by order of the king in 1609.

In May 1613 Ellesmere took a prominent part in committing Whitelocke to the Tower for indirectly questioning the royal prerogative by denying the powers of the earl marshal's court; in July 1615 Ellesmere declined to pass the pardon which Somerset had drawn up for himself, with the aid of Sir Robert Cotton; in September 1615 he made recommendations in the council for stifling opposition in the next parliament, and acted as high steward at the trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset for the murder of Overbury in May 1616. In the struggle between the courts of equity and common law initiated by Coke, Ellesmere successfully maintained the supremacy of his own court. When the king appealed to Ellesmere as to points of law involved in his well-known dispute with Coke in June 1616, Ellesmere obtained from Bacon a legal opinion against Coke, which he adopted. On 18 Nov. 1616, when administering the oaths to Sir Henry Montague, Coke's successor as lord chief justice, he warned the new judge against following the example of his predecessor.

On 7 Nov. 1616 Ellesmere, whose health was rapidly failing, was promoted to the title of Viscount Brackley, which Coke's friends and his enemies miscalled 'Break-law.' As early as 1613 he had pressed his resignation on the king on account of increasing infirmities; but it was not till 3 March 1616-17 that James I allowed him to retire, and even then it was stipulated that his release from office should, unless his health grew worse, only continue for two years. Egerton was at the time lying ill at York House, and the king arranged the matter while paying him a visit. As a reward of faithful service James promised him an earldom. Twelve days later (15 March) Egerton died. He was buried at Dodleston, Cheshire, on 5 April His only surviving son [q. v.] was created Earl of Bridge water on 27 May following. Bacon asserted that it was by Ellesmere's own wish that he succeeded him as lord chancellor. Ellesmere was chancellor of Oxford University from 1610 till 24 Jan. 1616-17. He is said to have been the first chancellor since the Reformation who employed a chaplain in his family. Dr. [q. v.] lived with him in that capacity for many years, and Dr. [q. v.] was also at one time a member of his household. The foundations of the great library at Bridgewater House were laid by the chancellor; some of the books came to him through his third wife, the Dowager Countess of Derby, who as Alice Spencer and Lady Strange was a well-known patron of Elizabethan literature (, Cat, of Bridgewater House Library, 1857, pref.;, Life of Milton, i. 554-61).

Egerton married first. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ravenscroft, esq., of Bretton, Flintshire; secondly, Elizabeth, sister of Sir George More of Loseby, and widow both of John Polstead of Abury and of Sir John Wolley; and thirdly, in 1600, Alice, daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe, and widow of Ferdinando, fifth earl of Derby. By his