Sir Francis Pemberton (18 July 1624 – 10 June 1697) was an English judge and briefly Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the course of a turbulent career. He was imprisoned three times at various points in his career, and as a judge is considered to have shown strong bias for or against defendants in some of the important trials of political figures he presided over.

Early life

He was born on 18 July 1624 at St Albans, the son and heir of a former London merchant, Ralph Pemberton, mayor of St. Albans, in 1627 and 1638, by his wife, Frances, daughter of Francis Kempe. His grandfather was Roger Pemberton of St Albans, Hertfordshire. Francis was educated at St Albans School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. As a young man, he fell into dissolute company and acquired extravagant habits, leading to his imprisonment in the Fleet for debt. On 14 October 1645, he was admitted a member of 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 ...

. There, he applied himself diligently to the study of the law and, having eventually secured his release, he was called to the Bar on 27 November 1654.

Family

In 1667, Pemberton married Anne Whichcote, the daughter of Jeremy Whichcote, Warden of Fleet Prison. They had numerous children, as his memorial in Highgate chapel records.

Early career

Pemberton rapidly acquired a substantial practice and was regularly retained by the Government in important criminal cases. In 1675 he was called to the degree of Sergeant-at-law and was thereafter regarded as the foremost advocate of his day. Appearing at the bar of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

to argue an appeal to which some members of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

were respondents, Pemberton inadvertently triggered a constitutional struggle for supremacy between the two Houses of Parliament. The House of Commons had resolved that it would be a breach of their privileges for any lawyer to act in the appeal and ordered that he should be taken into custody. The House of Lords thereupon ordered his release. The resulting tug-of-war ended only when King Charles II intervened and Pemberton was set free.

Judicial career

On 30 April 1679 Pemberton was appointed a

puisne judge Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

. Having offended the Government by his conduct in relation to the Popish Plot, he was dismissed within two years, whereupon he returned to his practice at the bar. However, he rapidly returned to favour and was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench on 11 April 1681. In the same year, he presided over the trumped-up trial of Oliver Plunkett, the Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland, who was wrongly convicted of treason and executed. To his further discredit, he also sought unsuccessfully to promote the trial for treason of Lord Shaftesbury. He nevertheless managed to retain among his contemporaries a reputation for independence and integrity and it was because of suspicions of his political loyalties in a forthcoming case concerning the City of London that he was removed from office in 1682. He accepted instead the lesser position of

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 the following year he was appointed to head the Commission set up to deal with the Rye House Plot and presided over the trial of Lord Russell. Although Russell was convicted, Pemberton was regarded as having conducted himself with unbefitting moderation during the trial and he was dismissed from all judicial employment on 28 September 1683. John Evelyn wrote in his ''

Diary A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digita ...

'' for 4 October 1683: "He was held to be the most learned of the judges and an honest man".

Later career

Pemberton again returned to the bar and again acquired a substantial practice, acting successfully in the defence of the Seven Bishops. In 1689, he faced a further petition alleging that he had breached the privileges of the

. On this occasion, the allegation was that, as Lord Chief Justice, he had allowed legal proceedings to be pursued against the Sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons in respect of his official activities. Pemberton was imprisoned for eight months in Newgate Prison. After his release, Pemberton's practice substantially diminished and he spent much of his time at his house in The Grove, Highgate, though he was retained in the unsuccessful defence of Sir John Fenwick in 1696. He died on 10 June 1697 and is buried in Highgate Chapel. His first son, Francis Pemberton, FRS (?1675–1762) also became a barrister. His return to private practice was not at the time considered improper but in more modern times has been cited as an illustration of the need for a judge to abandon practice permanently since, it was said, his reputation as a judge carried far more weight with juries than the merits of his arguments or the opinions of the actual judges hearing the case. In 1929 the Chief Justice of Ireland cited the bad example set by Pemberton, in laying down a rule that judges after their retirement should not seek to return to legal practice.''In re Sir James O'Connors Application'' 930.R. 623

References

Sources

* Lord Campbell's ''Lives of the Chief Justices of England: from the Norman Conquest till the death of Lord Tenterden'' (London, 1849–1857). {{DEFAULTSORT:Pemberton, Francis 1624 births 1697 deaths Chief justices of the common pleas Lord chief justices of England and Wales Members of the Privy Council of England People of the Rye House Plot People from St Albans People educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire Justices of the King's Bench Lords of the Manor of Totteridge