Portrait of Lord Chief Justice Nicholas Hyde

Sir Nicholas Hyde (c. 1572 – 25 August 1631) was

Lord Chief Justice Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Origins

Hyde was born at Wardour, in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, a son of Lawrence Hyde (d. 1590) of

West Hatch West Hatch is a hamlet and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south east of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district. It has a population of 306. History The name of the hamlet indicates it lies to the west of Hatch Beauchamp ...

, Wiltshire, MP for Heytesbury in 1584, by his second wife Anne Sibell, daughter of Nicholas Sibell of Farningham, Kent, and widow of Matthew Colthurst of Claverton, Somerset. He was the brother of

Henry Hyde Henry John Hyde (April 18, 1924 – November 29, 2007) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago's ...

(c.1563–1634), MP, and Lawrence Hyde (1562–1641), attorney-general to

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...

, wife of King James I.

Education

Hyde was educated at

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

, entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

and was called to the bar in 1598.

Career

Hyde entered the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

in 1597 as one of the two members for

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest r ...

. He represented

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andove ...

in 1601,

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

in 1604, Bath in 1614 and the county seat of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in 1625. He soon became prominent as an opponent of the king's court, although he does not appear to have distinguished himself in the

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. Before long, however, he deserted the popular party and in 1626 was employed by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, to defend him against impeachment by the House of Commons. In the following year be was appointed a

Serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

and Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in which office it fell to him to give judgment in the celebrated case of Sir Thomas Darnell and others who had been committed to prison on warrants signed by members of the Privy Council, and which contained no statement of the nature of the charge against the prisoners. In answer to the writ of ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' the Attorney General relied on the

Royal Prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...

, supported by a precedent of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Hyde, with three other judges concurring, decided in favor of the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

but without going so far as to declare the right of the Crown to refuse indefinitely to show cause against the discharge of the prisoners. He was knighted the same year (1627). In 1629, Hyde was one of the judges who condemned Eliot, Holles and Valentine for

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

in parliament to resist the King's orders, refusing to admit their plea of parliamentary privilege that they could not be called upon to answer out of parliament for acts done in parliament.

Family

He married Mary Swayne, daughter of Arthur Swayne of Sarson in Amport,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. One of their sons,

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

(c.1610–1682) sat in Parliament for Winchester.

Death

He died of

gaol fever Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

on 25 August 1631. He is buried with his wife in a tomb inside All Saints Church

Catherington Catherington is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 1 mile (1.8 km) northwest of Horndean. The village is also close to Cowplain and Clanfield. It is situated about 10 miles north of Portsmouth and eight mi ...

in Hampshire. File:Tomb of Sir Nicholas Hyde - All Saints church, Catherington (detail - 1) - geograph.org.uk - 2624042.jpg, Tomb of Sir Nicholas Hyde and his wife File:Tomb of Sir Nicholas Hyde - All Saints church, Catherington (detail - 2) - geograph.org.uk - 2624060.jpg, Detail of tomb

References

*
HYDE, Nicholas (c.1572–1631) of the Middle Temple, London and Marlborough, Wilts
– History of Parliament Online {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, Nicholas Lord chief justices of England and Wales Serjeants-at-law (England) Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Year of birth uncertain English MPs 1597–1598 English MPs 1601 English MPs 1604–1611 English MPs 1614 English MPs 1625 16th-century English judges 16th-century English lawyers 1570s births 1631 deaths