
Sir Edmund Anderson (15301 August 1605), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas under
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
, sat as judge at the trial of
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legit ...
.
Life
The Anderson family originated in Scotland and then came to
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
. They settled in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
in the 14th century and became a prominent family there.
Sir Edmund Anderson, son of Edward Anderson, was born in
Flixborough in Lincolnshire c. 1530. He received the first part of his education in the country and then spent a brief period at
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Flemin ...
, before entering the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...
in June 1550.
He is recorded to have matriculated at
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...
, in 1549.
In 1577, Anderson was created
Serjeant-at-Law and in 1578 he was appointed Queen's Sergeant. In 1581 he was appointed
Justice of Assize on the Norfolk circuit and tried
Edmund Campion and others for
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...
in November 1581, securing an unexpected conviction. This set the pattern for the rest of his career: as a judge, he was notorious for severity to
Catholics
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
and non-conformists, markedly so in the cases of
John Perrot and
John Udall, the puritan minister.
On the back of that success, Anderson was made
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
The chief justice of the common pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench, which was the second-highest common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body ...
in 1582 and was knighted.
He was reappointed by
James I and held office until his death.
Throughout his career he played a prominent role in some of the most important political trials of Elizabeth's reign including that of Mary, Queen of Scots, and
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellio ...
.
Sir Edmund also presided over the trial of
William Davison, the Queen's secretary who was accused of erroneously issuing the warrant for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
In 1588 he was sent to
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, where he headed a judicial commission to deal with the flood of litigation which followed the forfeiture of the lands of the
Earl of Desmond
Earl of Desmond ( meaning Earl of South Munster) is a title of nobility created by the English monarch in the peerage of Ireland. The title has been created four times. It was first awarded in 1329 to Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond, Maur ...
. Its findings were something of a foregone conclusion, since the judges had instructions to find in favour of the
English Crown in all disputed cases, and duly did so. This however was untypical, as in civil cases he usually went to great lengths to be impartial.
Anderson died on 1 August 1605 at
Eyeworth in Bedfordshire.
Assessments
Anderson was often described as a strict lawyer who was "completely governed by the law". He even stated at an important trial that, "I sit here to judge of law, not logic".
Yet he also had a reputation for deciding cases according to reason, without overreliance on the precedents. He was highly praised for his efficient dispatch of business: it was said that he wrote more orders in a morning then most of his predecessors had in a week.
In ''Sir Edward Coke and the Elizabeth Age'' by Allen D. Boyer, Sir Edmund is described as "the monster: an angry man in the courtroom and a resentful man afterward, an advocate who begrudged other lawyers' victories".
On the other hand,
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...
praised him as a great judge.
Works
Anderson wrote two books, ''
Reports of Many Principal Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Time of Queen Elizabeth, in the Common Bench 1644'' and ''Resolutions and Judgments on the Cases and Matters Agitated in All the Courts of Westminster, in the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1653'', which are still today very influential legal references.
Family
Anderson married Magdalen Smyth from
Annables,
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
, daughter of
Christopher Smyth and Margaret Hyde. They had 9 children, 3 sons and 6 daughters. Anderson became lord of the parish of Eyeworth, Bedfordshire, and his family remained the local gentry for many generations. He also bought
Arbury Priory, which he demolished and replaced with
Arbury Hall.
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Edmund
1530 births
1605 deaths
Chief justices of the common pleas
People from the Borough of North Lincolnshire
Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Members of the Inner Temple
16th-century English judges
17th-century English judges
Serjeants-at-law (England)