Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/182



Office; Rev. J. Meade to Sir Martin Stuteville, 1620, 1621, Record Office; Statement and Petitions of Captain Roger North, Record Office; St. John's Life of Raleigh, 2nd ed.; Thomas Locke to Sir Dudley Carleton, 1619, 1620, 1621, Record Office; Wilson's Hist. of Great Britain.] 

NORTH, ROGER (1653–1734), lawyer and historian, sixth and youngest son of [q. v.], was born at Tostock in Suffolk 3 Sept. 1653. He passed his childhood for the most part in his grandfather's house at Kirtling, and at five years of age was placed under the tuition of the clergyman of the parish, Ezekiel Catchpole by name, until he was removed, with his brother Montagu, to Thetford school, of which Mr. Keen was then master. He had a pleasant recollection through life of his schooldays, and entertained great regard for his early teachers, which he has expressed in his ‘Autobiography.’ In 1666 he left school and was taken in hand by his father, in view of his entering the university with adequate preparation; and on 30 Oct. 1667 he entered at Jesus College, Cambridge, as fellow commoner under the tuition of his brother [q. v.], who had been elected to a fellowship the year before. Young Roger seems to have gained but little from the tuition of his learned brother, except that he acquired habits of study and had the advantage of constant intercourse with the ablest men in the university. He had been early intended for the bar, where his brother [q. v.] was already making his way, and in the enjoyment of a large practice. There was therefore the less need for him to proceed to a degree, and he left the university after residing two years, and entered at the Middle Temple on 21 April 1669. He contrived to live on a very small allowance from home, which kept him from indulging in the more expensive amusements of the town, and his time was fully occupied in study, while his diversions were carpentering and sailing a small yacht on the Thames and the Essex and Suffolk coast. Meanwhile as a student he was already earning a good income, and in close attendance upon his brother, who had many chances of throwing fees in his way (Autobiog. § 119). When Sir Francis was raised to the position of chief justice of the common pleas (1675), Roger North was called to the bar, and soon briefs came thickly, and his practice increased from term to term. In January 1678 occurred the great fire at the Temple which wrought such terrible destruction of the old buildings: Roger North was in his chambers at the time it broke out, and he has left us a very graphic account of its progress, of the difficulties that accompanied the rebuilding, and of the various schemes which were under discussion for dealing with the financial difficulties that arose. The Temple fire appears to have turned his thoughts to the study of architecture, which he exhibited great taste for as an art, and spared no pains to make himself a master of as a science. This year he became steward to the see of Canterbury (ib. § 140), an office which was conferred upon him by Sancroft, who had recently been consecrated to the archbishopric. On the subject of his appointment North wrote quaintly: ‘He [the archbishop] valued me for my fidelity, which he, being a most sagacious judge of persons, could not but discern and dispense with my other defects.’ Sancroft continued to repose full confidence in his steward, and consulted him on many important matters, which are mentioned in the ‘Autobiography;’ and when he felt his end approaching, and was troubled at the thought of leaving a will which would have ‘to be proved in his pretended successor's courts,’ North advised him to dispose of his property by a deed of gift, which was done accordingly. In his capacity as steward and legal adviser of the archbishop he was concerned in dealing with the abuses which had crept into the administration of Dulwich College. The result, however, was disappointing. In the reform of All Souls College, Oxford, the archbishop was more successful, and, by North's advice, the primate drew up a new body of statutes for the college and established his right to act as visitor, and the disgraceful practices where by the fellowships were openly bought and sold were effectually put a stop to. In 1682 North was made king's counsel, and shortly afterwards called to the bench of the Middle Temple. He was now in daily communication with all the great lawyers of the time, and his professional reminiscences and graphic sketches of the careers and characters of his contemporaries at the bar during this period are of the highest value and interest to the student of legal history. Sir Francis North's promotion to be keeper of the great seal brought a large increase of professional income to his brother. He was made solicitor-general to the Duke of York, 10 Jan. 1684. This appointment, and the high favour which the lord keeper enjoyed with James II, brought North into frequent communication with the court, and in January 1686 he was appointed by patent attorney-general to the queen, Mary of Modena. This was his last appointment. In the meantime he had been making money rapidly by his practice. He tells us that his highest fee never but once exceeded twenty