By W. W. Ravenhill, Esq. 163 
of that year, surrendered the Attorney-Generalship to Edmund 
Prideaux. In 1652,he was appointed a Commissioner to enquire into 
legal delays; and in 1654, for the trial of Don Pantaleone Sa. On 
the present circuit, he presided in Somersetshire, and as a reward 
was made Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Towards the close of 
the interregnum, he became Lord Chancellor of Ireland. A man 
of ability, and possessing the confidence of the government, he was 
early summoned to the discussions which preceded this circuit. 
Was hea good man? Some say he was not, others, more in number, 
say he was. Let us give our vote with the last, for though active 
he appears to have shewn no unfairness to the risers in the west. 
I have not as yet found the Commission, or even a copy of it, so 
that I am unable to say what other Commissioners were at Salisbury. 
But of the presence of the above there can be no doubt from the 
following entry in the MSS. Order Book of the Western Circuit :— 
‘* Att the session of Oyer and Terminer and Generall Gaol delivery holden 
* for the county aforesaid att New Sarum in the said county the eleventh day of 
Aprill, 1655 Before Jchn Lisle one of the Lords Commissioners of the great 
seale of England; Henry Rolle, Chiefe Justice assigned to hold pleas before 
the Lord Protector in the upper Bench; Robert Nicholas, one of the Barons of 
the Exchequer of the said Lord Protector; Hugh Windham, one of the Justices 
of the Common Bench; John Glynne, Serjeant-at-Lawe to the said Lord Protector; 
and William Steele Serjeant-at-Lawe, Recorder of the Citty of London; Justices 
&o. 
It is ordered by the court, That the Lords Commissioners of the great seale 
of England be moved for granting two severall writts for choise of Coroners 
within the said County of Wiltes; (videlicet) one for the amoveinge of John 
Tidcombe, and another for the amoveinge of Richard Chapylyn ; and some others 
to be chosen in their places and that the Sherriffe of the said county take course 
to see it prosecuted.* 
The Attorney-General Edmund Prideaux, M.P. for Lyme Regis, 
was one of the moving characters of those violent times. A friend 
of Ludlow, his name is appended to several of the letters, which 
are to be found at the end of that General’s Memoirs, not as a 
*This is the only entry for Salisbury, It is not called an assize, There is a docket attached to 
/ the Circuit Roll for July, 1659, which says ‘‘ the rolls for Lent, 1654 (5), are lost;”’ probably these 
would belong to the original circuit which was interrupted at Salisbury. It will not escape notice, 
_ that the names of the Commission had been altered, from the original list ; Lisle, Rolle and Nicholas 
added, Thorpe omitted. That Rolle and Nicholas were thus appointed after deliberation is not 
without significance, See list, p. 143, sup, 
n2 
