38 The History of the Parish of All Cannings. 



Edward Baynton, he was elected to serve in the Long Parliament, 

 as one of the members for Devizes. Two years afterwards we find 

 him as an active manager of the impeachment against Archbishop 

 Laud. He is said to have treated the Archbishop " with unseemly 

 virulence and insult," so much so that the " lords checked the 

 member in his harangue." The only report of the trial, it is 

 true, was drawn up by the prisoner, and therefore some more allow- 

 ance may possibly be made for the zeal of an advocate than the 

 Archbishop would be disposed to admit, but there can be no doubt 

 that Robert Nicholas showed but little patience or consideration. 

 " Truly, my lords," said the Archbishop, " I could easily return 

 all his bitterness upon himself, would it befit my person, my present 

 condition, or my calling." * 



In 1648, Robert Nicholas was made a Serjeant-at-Law, and he 

 was then appointed one of the Assistant Judges in the approaching 

 trial of the King, but he does not seem to have attended on that 

 occasion. In 1649 he was appointed a Judge of the Upper Bench, 

 and four years afterwards, when Oliver Cromwell assumed the 

 Protectorate, he was removed into the Exchequer. He still held 

 this office of Baron of the Exchequer on the succession of the 

 Protector Richard, in 1658. The Parliament restored him to the 

 Upper Bench in 1659. We hear nothing of him after the Res- 

 toration. As Mr. Waylen (to whom we are indebted for the pre- 

 ceding account) suggests, he was probably permitted quietly to 

 take advantage of the Act of Indemnity. 



We may not inappropriately close an account of Robert Nicholas 

 by an anecdote, which has much of the interest of romance attach- 

 ing to it, and which is thus related in the Spectator, (No. 313.) 

 The account was written in the year 1711-12. 



" Every one who is acquainted with Westminster School knows 



* See Waylen's Devizes, pp. 186-191. It woiild appear, Mr. Waylen remarks, 

 that whilst one Nicholas was thus the bitter perseciitor of Archbishop Laud, 

 another member of the same family had been his early patroness. Mrs. 

 Burnegham, aunt on the mother's side to "William Bailey of Etchilhampton, was 

 at the expense of young Laud's education, a service which the prelate gratefully 

 acknowledged when at the top of his preferment. Most probably William 

 Bailey was the son of Richard Bailey, by Honor, the daughter of Edward 

 Nicholas of All Cannings. If so, then his aunt who was so kind to Laud must 

 have been a Nicholas. 



