By W. W. Ravenhitt, 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, ]ie 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 he a 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 tbe 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 John 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-Laweto the said Lord Protector; 

 and William Steele Serjeant-at-Lawe, Recorder of the Citty of London ; Justices 

 &c. 



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 Sherrift'e of the said county take course 

 to see it prosecuted.* 



The Attorney- General Edmund Prideaux, M.P. for Lj^me 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 those 

 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, Hollo and Nicholas 

 added, Thorpe omitted. That Rolle and Nicholas were thus appointed after deliberation is not 

 without significance. See list, p. 143, sup, 



n2 



