Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/138

 having been made in this term to the king's bench that the ‘Weekly Packet’ was libellous, Scroggs and his colleagues granted a rule absolute in the first instance forbidding the further publication of the newspaper. On 26 June Scroggs and the other justices of the king's bench gave the crowning proof of their servility to the court in frustrating Shaftesbury's attempt to indict the Duke of York as a popish recusant by suddenly discharging the grand jury (Journals of the House of Commons, ix. 688–9). At the trial of Henry Carr for libel at the Guildhall on 2 July, Scroggs still professed his belief in the ‘popish plot,’ which he described to the jury as ‘the certainest of anything of fact that ever came before me.’ Carr had attacked the chief justice in one of the numbers of the ‘Weekly Packet,’ which had appeared soon after Wakeman's trial, but this did not prevent Scroggs from taking part in the proceedings, and Carr was duly found guilty by the jury (ib. vii. 1111–1130;, i. 50–1; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 479).

On 23 Nov. the House of Commons, after hearing evidence of the proceedings in the king's bench on 26 June, resolved that ‘the discharging of a grand jury by any judge before the end of the term, assizes or sessions, whilst matters are under their consideration and not presented,’ was illegal, and at the same time appointed a committee ‘to examine the proceedings of the judges in Westminster Hall.’ The report of this committee was presented to the house on 22 Dec., when it was unanimously resolved that Scroggs, Jones, and Weston should be impeached (Journals of the House of Commons, ix. 661, 688–92). The articles of impeachment against Scroggs were eight in number. The first charged him with traitorously and wickedly endeavouring ‘to subvert the fundamental laws and the established religion and government of this kingdom.’ The second was for illegally discharging the grand jury of Middlesex before the end of term. The third was founded on the illegal order made by the court of king's bench for the suppression of the ‘Weekly Packet.’ The fourth, fifth, and sixth were for imposing arbitrary fines, for illegally refusing bail, and for granting general warrants. The seventh was for openly defaming and scandalising several of the witnesses of the ‘popish plot.’ The eighth charged him with ‘frequent and notorious excesses and debaucheries’ and ‘profane and atheistical discourses’ (ib. ix. 697–9, 700). On 7 Jan. 1681 the articles of impeachment were carried up to the House of Lords by Lord Cavendish, and were read in the presence of Scroggs, ‘who stood up in his place.’ After Scroggs had withdrawn from the house, a motion for his committal was made, but the previous question was moved and carried. Another motion for an address to suspend him from his office until after the trial was defeated in the same manner. He was ordered to find bail in 10,000l., with two sureties in 5,000l. each, and to put in his answer on 14 Jan. (Journals of the House of Lords, xiii. 736–9). Before that day came parliament was prorogued, and on the 18th it was dissolved. Term began on 24 Jan., but Scroggs was absent from the king's bench, ‘nor did he come all the term to the court’ (, i. 64). Three days after the meeting of the new parliament (24 March 1681), Scroggs put in his answer, denying that any of the charges amounted to high treason, and pleading not guilty. At the same time he presented a petition for a speedy trial (Journals of the House of Lords, xiii. 752). Copies of his answer and petition were sent to the House of Commons, but no further proceedings were taken in the matter, as parliament was suddenly dissolved after a session lasting only eight days.

On account of his great unpopularity it was thought expedient to remove him from the bench; and on 11 April 1681 Scroggs, much to his surprise, received his quietus. He was succeeded as lord chief justice by Sir Francis Pemberton [q. v.] As a reward for his servility to the court Scroggs was granted a pension of 1,500l. a year, while his son was promoted to the rank of a king's counsel. He withdrew to his manor of South Weald in Essex, which he had purchased from Anthony Browne in 1667. After a retirement of two years and a half Scroggs died at his town house in Chancery Lane on 25 Oct. 1683, and was buried in South Weald church.

Scroggs married Anne, daughter of Edmund Fettyplace of Denchworth, Berkshire, by whom he had an only son, William (see below), and three daughters, viz. (1) Mary, who died unmarried on 18 July 1675; (2) Anne, who became the third wife of Sir Robert Wright [q. v.], lord chief justice of England in James II's reign; and (3) Elizabeth, who married, first, Anthony Gilby of Everton in the county of Nottingham, barrister-at-law; secondly, the Hon. Charles Hatton, younger son of Christopher, first baron Hatton, and, dying on 22 May 1724, aged 75, was buried in Lincoln Cathedral.

Scroggs was an able but intemperate man, with a brazen face, coarse manners, a loud voice, and a brutal tongue. Neither his