CCXXXIV LIFE OF BACON. 



Scarcely a week passed without a repetition of these 

 solicitations, (a) 



Wrayn- When Sir Francis was first entrusted with the great 

 seal, he found a cause entitled Fisher v. Wraynham, which 

 had been in the court from the year 1606. He immediately 

 examined the proceedings, and, having ordered the attend 

 ance of the parties, and heard the arguments of counsel, 

 he terminated this tedious suit, by decreeing against the 

 defendant Wraynham, who was a man described as holding 

 a smooth pen and a fine speech, but a fiery spirit. He 

 immediately published a libel against the Chancellor and 

 the late Master of the Rolls : for which he was prosecuted 

 in the Star Chamber, (b) 



Sir Henry Yelverton, in stating the case, said, &quot; I was 

 of counsel with Mr. Wraynham, and pressed his cause as 

 far as equity would suffer. But this gentleman being of 

 an unquiet spirit, after a secret murmuring, breaks out 

 into a complaint to his majesty, and, not staying his return 

 out of Scotland, but fancying to himself, as if he saw 

 some cloud arising over my lord, compiled his undigested 

 thoughts into a libel, and fastens it on the King. And his 

 most princely majesty, finding it stuffed with most bitter 

 reviling speeches against so great and worthy a judge, 



wrote to Lord Bacon in favour of persons who had cases depending in, or 

 likely to come into the court of Chancery. The marquis made the same 

 kind of applications to Lord Bacon s successor, the Lord Keeper Williams, 

 in whose life by Bishop Hacket, part i. p. 107, we are informed, that 

 &quot; there was not a cause of moment, but, as soon as it came to publication, 

 one of the parties brought letters from this mighty peer, and the Lord 

 Keeper s patron.&quot; See note Z Z at the end. See this letter, vol. xii. p. 314. 



(a) See a collection of some of these letters in note Z Z at the end. 



(6) State Trials. See a tract, published 1725, entitled, Vindication of 

 the Chancellor from the aspersions of Wraynham. See Hobart s Reports, 

 p. 220, and Popham, p. 135. 



