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 quently applied towards the relief of the suitors who had suffered from the insolvency of the masters in chancery), and to imprisonment in the Tower until the fine should be paid. On the 31st he was struck off the roll of the privy council by the king, who, however, signified his intention to Macclesfield of repaying to him the amount of the fine out of the privy purse. One instalment of 1,000l. was repaid by the king, who died before any further payment was made. The deficiencies in the cash of the masters in chancery belonging to the suitors amounted to over 82,000l. In order to prevent the possibility of any improper use of the suitors' funds for the future, the office of accountant-general of the court of chancery was established by 12 Geo. I, cap. 32. A further act was passed whereby a fund was created for the relief of the distressed suitors by the imposition of additional stamp duties (12 Geo. I, cap. 33). Though to some extent it may be said that Macclesfield was made to suffer for a vicious system established by his predecessors in office, there can be no doubt of the justice of his conviction. It was clearly proved that he had not been content with the accustomed ‘gifts,’ but had raised the price of the masterships to such an extent that the appointees were obliged either to extort unnecessary fees by delaying the causes before them, or to use the money deposited by the suitors in order to recoup themselves. It was also proved that he employed an agent to bargain for him, that he was aware of the improper use of the suitors' money, and that he had even endeavoured to conceal the losses which had thus been incurred. Macclesfield remained in the Tower for six weeks, while the money was being raised for the payment of his fine. He took no further part in public affairs, spending his time after his release chiefly at Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, which he had purchased in 1716, and occasionally visiting London, where at the time of his death he was building a house in St. James's Square, afterwards inhabited by his son (Quarterly Review, lxxxii. 595). Macclesfield acted as one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey on 28 March 1727.

Macclesfield was appointed on 4 Oct. 1714 one of the commissioners of claims for the coronation of George I, and acted as one of the lords justices during the king's absence from England in 1719, 1720, and 1723. He was appointed lord lieutenant of Warwickshire on 4 June 1719, and high steward of Henley-upon-Thames on 5 May 1722. He served as custos rotulorum of Worcestershire from 20 Oct. to 1 Dec. 1718, and as high steward of Stafford from 1724 to 1726. He was a governor of the Charterhouse and a fellow of the Royal Society (20 March 1713). He erected a grammar school in his native town of Leek in 1723. He died at his son's house in Soho Square, London, on 28 April 1732, aged 65, and was buried at Shirburn.

Macclesfield was an able judge both at common law and in equity. Though ‘his fame as a common-law chief is not quite equal to that of his immediate predecessor,’ Sir John Holt, ‘his authority upon all points, whether of a practical or abstruse nature, is now as high as that of Nottingham, Somers, or Hardwicke’ (, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vi. 11, 22). The only crown cases of any importance which came before him while chief justice were the trials of Dammaree, Willis, and Purchase, who had taken part in the Sacheverell riots, and were charged with pulling down the meeting-houses (, State Trials, xv. 521–702). Though he summed up strongly against Dammaree and Purchase, and they were found guilty of high treason, he subsequently interceded for them, and succeeded in obtaining their pardon. Macclesfield's judgments are mainly to be found in ‘Cases in Law and Equity, chiefly during the time the late Earl of Macclesfield presided in the Courts of King's Bench and Chancery,’ 1736, and in the ‘Reports’ of William Peere Williams, 1740–9. Though a member of the cabinet and a great personal favourite of George I, Macclesfield does not appear to have possessed much political influence. Owing to his uncourteous manners he was exceedingly unpopular with the bar, while his marked partiality for Philip Yorke (afterwards Lord-chancellor Hardwicke) frequently excited remark. On one occasion Serjeant Pengelly is said to have been so disgusted at frequently hearing the lord chancellor observe that ‘what Mr. Yorke said had not been answered’ that he threw up his brief, and declared that he would no more attend a court where he found ‘Mr. Yorke was not to be answered’ (Letter to Richard Cooksey, printed in his Essay on the Life and Character of John, Lord Somers, &c., 1791, p. 72). After his downfall it was a common saying that Staffordshire had produced ‘three of the greatest rogues that ever existed, Jack Shepard, Jonathan Wild, and Lord Macclesfield’ (, History of Derby, p. 287). Swift, who owed ‘the dog a spite,’ falsely insinuated in the ‘Public Spirit of the Whigs’ that Macclesfield had been a Jacobite (, Works, iii. 113, iv. 448). He was violently attacked by Defoe in his ‘Review,’ and effusively eulogised by Eusden (Three Poems, &c., 1722) and John Hughes (, English