THURLOE, JOHN. 



THURLOW, LORD. 



in 



confess to you," Hyde writes, "I cannot comprehend why Thurloe, 

 and even his master St. John, should not be very ready to dispose 

 Cromwell to join with the king, and why they should not reasonably 

 promise themselves more particular advantages from thence than from 

 anything else that is like to fall out" (p. 449). After the dissolution 

 of the parliament, serious thoughts seem to have been entertained of 

 soliciting Thurloe's and St. John's aid (p. 477). But Thurloe after- 

 wards becomes again an object of fear to Hyde. During the govern- 

 ment by the army, he writes, " I do less understand how Thurloe 

 shapes, and is in danger to bo exempted out of the Act of Oblivion, 

 and at the same time employed in the greatest secrets of the govern- 

 ment, for I have some reason to believe that he meddles as much as 

 ever in the foreign intelligence " (p. 532). 



On the 14th of January 1660, Thurloe was succeeded in his office of 

 secretary of state by Scot, one of the republican party ; but he was 

 reappointed on the 27th of February. His patent as chief postmaster 

 had been cancelled in the interval, on the 2nd of February. (' Com- 

 mons' Journals,' vol. vii. p. 533.) In the movements that followed for 

 the restoration of Charles II., Thurloe made an offer of his services to 

 those who were bringing about that event. Sir E. Hyde writes to 

 Sir John Grenville, April 23rd, 1660, " We have since I saw you, 

 received very frank overtures from Secretary Thurloe, with many great 

 professions of resolving to serve the king, and not only in his own 

 endeavours, but by the services of his friends, who are easily enough 

 guessed at. This comes through the bands of a person who will not 

 deceive us, nor is easily to be deceived himself, except by such bold 

 dissimulation of the other 1 , which cannot be at first discerned. . . . The 

 kiug returned such answers as are fit, and desires to see some effects of 

 his good affection, and then he will find his service more acceptable." 

 (Thurloe's 'State Papers,' voL vii., p. 897.) And Hyde goes on to in- 

 struct his correspondent to consult Monk as to Thurloe's character, 

 and as to his power to be of use, supposing he were sincerely willing. 

 On the 15th of May Thurloe was accused by the parliament of high 

 treason, and ordered to be secured ; but on the 29th of June a yote 

 was passed " allowing him liberty to attend the secretary of state, at 

 such times as they [the House] shall appoint, and for so long a time as 

 they shall own his attendance for the service of the state, without any 

 trouble or molestation during such attendance, and in his going and 

 returning to and from the secretary of state, any former order of this 

 House notwithstanding." 



After his release from imprisonment, he retired to Great Milton in 

 Oxfordshire, where he generally resided except in term-time, when he 

 occupied his chambers in Lincoln's Inn. It is said that he was often 

 solicited by Charles II. to resume public business, and always refused, 

 telling the king that he despaired of serving him as he had served 

 Cromwell, whose rule was to seek out men for places, and not places 

 for men. (Birch's 'Life of Thurloe,' prefixed to ' State Papers,' 

 p. xix ) Thurloe died at Lincoln' s-Inn on the 21st of February, 1668. 



He had been twice married, and left four sons and two daughters, 

 all by his second wife, a sister of Sir Thomas Overbury. He was 

 possessed, during the days of power, of the manors of Whittlesey 

 St. Mary's and Whittlesey St. Andrew's, and the rectory of Whittle- 

 Bey St. Mary's, in the Isle of Ely, and of Wisbech Castle which 

 he rebuilt. But after the Restoration they reverted to the Bishop 

 of Ely. There is an entry in the Commons' Journals of the 18th 

 of May 1660 : "Mr. Secretary Thurloe put out of the ordinance for 

 assessment of the Isle of Ely " (vol. viii. p. 36). Dr. Birch says he had 

 an estate of about 400Z. a-year at Astwood in Buckinghamshire. In a 

 monumental inscription to the memory of his son-in-law in St. Paul's 

 Church, Bedford ('Cole's MS3.,' vol. iii., p. 43), Thurloe is described as 

 of Astwood, Bucks. 



Thurloe does not appear to have possessed any striking qualities, 

 either moral or intellectual, to impress the minds of his contempo- 

 raries; and we know little else of him than that he had great powers of 

 business. Burnet describes him as " a very dexterous man at getting 

 intelligence." (' Hist, of his own Times,' i. 66.) From a story in 

 Burnet relative to Syndercomb's conspiracy against Cromwell, and 

 from what is said by Pepys of Morland, when assistant to Thurloe, 

 who played his master false, and gained a baronetcy from Charles II. 

 for his treachery, it might appear that he was not of a very generous 

 disposition, or much liked by those who were under him. Morland 

 attributed his misconduct to " Thurloa's bad usage of him." (Pepys, 

 ' Diary' under May 13, and August 14, 1660. [MOULAND, SIB SAMUEL.] 

 Burnet's story is, that Thurloe treated lightly information which had 

 been given him of the design on Cromwell's life, and that when, on the 

 subsequent discovery of the design, Cromwell became aware that 

 information had been given to Thurloe, on which he had not acted, 

 and blamed Thurloe for his conduct, Thurloe availed himself of his 

 influence with the Protector to malign his informant ; " So he (the 

 informant) found," says Burnet, "how dangerous it was even to pre- 

 serve a prince (so he called him), when a minister was wounded in the 

 doing of it, and that the minister would be too hard for the prince, 

 even though his own safety was concerned in it" (vol. i., p. 79). 



Thurloe's J State Papers,' 7 vols. folio, 1742, contain a large mass of 

 records of his official transactions, together with a number of private 

 letters and papers. They were edited by Dr. Birch, who gives the 

 following history of Thurloe's papers : " The principal part of this 

 collection consists of a series of papers discovered in the reign of King 



William, in a false ceiling in the garrets belonging to Secretary 

 Thurloe's chambers, No. xiil, near the chapel in Lincoln's-Inn, by a 

 clergyman who had borrowed those chambers, during the long vacation, 

 of his friend Mr. Tomlinson, the owner of them. This clergyman 

 soon after disposed of the papers to the Right Honourable John Lord 

 Somers, then lord high chancellor of England, who caused them to be 

 bound up in 67 volumes in folio. These afterwards descended to Sir 

 Joseph Jekyll, master of the rolls ; upon whose decease they were pur- 

 chased by the late Mr. Fletcher Gyles, bookseller." They were published 

 by Mr. Gyles's executors. Dr. Birch, the editor, received many other 

 papers from different individuals, especially from Lord Shelbnrne and 

 the then Archbishop of Canterbury, which he has incorporated in the 

 collection. For historical purposes this is an invaluable collection. 



THURLOW, EDWARD, LORD, was born in 1732, at Little Ash- 

 field near Stowmarket, in Suffolk. His father, Thomas Thurlow, was 

 a clergyman, and held successively the livings of Little Ashfielrl, and 

 of Stratton St. Mary's in Norfolk. After receiving the rudiments of 

 his education from his father, young Thurlow was sent to the gram- 

 mar-school at Canterbury at the suggestion of Dr. Donne, who sought 

 (as Southey states in his 'Life of Cowper' upon the authority of Sir 

 Egerton Brydges) to gratify a malignant feeling towards the head- 

 master, by placing under his care '-a daring, refractory, clever boy, 

 who would be sure to torment him." The motive ascribed to Donne 

 is far-fetched, and seems improbable ; but there is no doubt that 

 Thurlow was educated at the Canterbury school, and that he continued 

 there several years, and until he was removed to Caius College, Cam- 

 bridge. His character and conduct at the university did not promise 

 any meritorious eminence in future life. Ho gained no academical 

 honours, and was compelled to leave Cambridge abruptly in con- 

 sequence of turbulent and indecorous behaviour towards the dean of 

 his college. Soon after he quitted Cambridge he was entered as a 

 member of the fjociety of the Inner Temple. In Michaelmas Term, 

 1754, he was called to the bar, and joined the Western Circuit in the 

 ensuiug spring. 



Thurlow immediately applied himself to the practice of his profession 

 with great assiduity; and although he brought with him an indifferent 

 character from the university, he attained unusually early to reputa- 

 tion and employment both in Westminster Hall and on the circuit. 

 His name appears frequently in the Law Reports soon after he was 

 called to the bar ; and his success in the profession he had chosen was 

 clearly ascertained iu less than seven years from the commencement of 

 his practice. In 1761 he obtained the rank of king's counsel ; and it 

 may perhaps be inferred from an anecdote which is related by his 

 early friend and associate Cowper, in one of his letters (Cowper's 

 ' Works,' vol. v., p. 254, Southey's edit.), and which refers to this 

 period, that Thurlow had then acquired a degree of reputation which 

 suggested the prediction that he would eventually rise to the highest 

 office in his profession. A more convincing proof of his position in the 

 law is however recorded in the Reports, from which it appears that 

 immediately after his appointment as king's counsel his practice in 

 the courts rapidly increased, and during ten years preceding his 

 appointment as solicitor-general, was exceeded only by that of Sir 

 Fletcher Norton, and one or two others of the most eminent advo- 

 cates of his time. To have succeeded so early and to so great an 

 extent, without adventitious aid from influence or connection, and in 

 competition with advocates of unquestioned ability and learning, is 

 a substantial argument of professional merit. His employment in 

 preparing and arranging the documentary evidence for the trial of the 

 appeal in the House of Lords against the decision of the Court of 

 Session in the Great Douglas Cause (which, according to professional 

 tradition, resulted from mere accident) may have had the effect of 

 bringing his talents, industry, and legal acquirements under the imme- 

 diate notice of persona of power and influence, and of thus opening the 

 way to his subsequent elevation. 



In the new parliament called in 1768 he was returned as member for 

 the borough of Tamworth, and became a constant and useful supporter 

 of Lord North's administration. Upon Dunning's resignation of the 

 office of solicitor-general in March 1770, and Blackstoue's refusal to 

 accept it (' Life of Sir William Blackstone,' prefixed to Blackstone's 

 ' Reports'), Thurlow received the appointment, and in January 1771, 

 he succeeded Sir William De Grey as attorney-general. Soon after hia 

 introduction to office, he attracted the particular notice of George III. 

 by the zeal and energy displayed by him in supporting the policy of 

 Lord North's government respecting America, and in which the king 

 is known to have taken the warmest interest. Thurlow'a strenuous 

 and steady support of the minister in the great parliamentary contest 

 which ensued respecting that policy, procured for him a degree of con- 

 fidence and even of personal regard on the part of the king, which 

 continued unabated for upwards of twenty years, and had unquestion- 

 ably great influence in the remarkable vicissitudes of party which 

 occurred in that period. 



In the summer of 1778 lord chancellor Bathurst resigned his office ; 

 and on the 2nd of June in that year Thurlow was appointed his suc- 

 cessor, and raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Thurlow of 

 Ashfield in the county of Suffolk. Four years afterwards, in March 

 1782, when Lord North was removed from power, and the ephemeral 

 llockingham administration was formed, Thurlow remained in posses- 

 sion of the great seal by the express command of the king, aud in 



