Robert Nicholas (1595–1667) was a judge and an English Member of Parliament who supported the Parliamentary cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. Nicholas was elected Member of Parliament (M.P.) for

Devizes Devizes () is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-cent ...

for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

in November 1640. He assisted in prosecuting

Archbishop Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms; he was arrested by Parliament in 164 ...

in 1643. In 1648 he became Serjeant-at-law and in 1649 judge of the upper bench. He was

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was ...

in 1655. Nicholas was not exempted from the general pardon at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. He was commissioner for raising money in Wiltshire in 1660.

References

Attribution * Roundheads 1595 births 1667 deaths Serjeants-at-law (England) People from Devizes 17th-century English judges English MPs 1640–1648 {{1640-England-MP-stub