


CROMWELL (OLIVER) Document in his name "inrolled at Westminster before Oliver St. John & his associated Justices of the Comon Bench", Westminster, 11 May 1657
£1,500 - £2,500
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CROMWELL (OLIVER)
Footnotes
The signatory of this document is most likely to be Sir Thomas Robinson who "...in Hilary term 1657... was able to purchase the immensely lucrative office of chief protonotary of the common pleas. This office usually changed hands for over £5,000..." (J.H. Baker, ODNB). His wealth financed the rebuilding of 7 King's Bench Walk and the purchase of Kentwell Hall in Suffolk in the mid-1670's. He died escaping a fire in King's Bench Walk in 1683, whereupon an iron chest was found in his rooms containing melted gold and silver plate thought to be worth nearly £10,000. Robinson's reports, memoranda and notes on common pleas cases from 1657 to 1678 are held by the Bodleian Library. The justice presiding over the trial, Oliver St John, had been King's Solicitor to Charles I, but he was also a supporter of Parliament and a key figure in bringing Archbishop Laud to trial for treason. In 1648 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a post which he only lost in 1660 with the Restoration.