Christopher Yelverton
Encyclopedia
Early life
He was the third son of William Yelverton of Rougham, Norfolk. He matriculated at Queens' College, CambridgeQueens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...
, in 1550.
Parliamentary career
He was returned as MPMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Brackley
Brackley (UK Parliament constituency)
Brackley was a parliamentary borough in Northamptonshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1547 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, in 1563, for Northampton
Northampton (UK Parliament constituency)
Northampton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Northampton which existed until 1974.It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until its representation was reduced to one member for the 1918 general election...
in 1571, 1572 and 1597 and as knight of the shire for Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (UK Parliament constituency)
The county constituency of Northamptonshire, in the East Midlands of England was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832 and was represented in...
in 1593. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...
in 1597, when his son Henry Yelverton
Henry Yelverton (attorney-general)
-Life:The eldest son of Sir Christopher Yelverton and his wife, Margaret Catesby, he was born on 29 June 1566, it is said at Easton-Mauduit, his father's house in Northamptonshire. He became a barrister on 25 April 1593, and an ancient on 25 May of the same year. He was reader in 1607.In 1597, 1604...
was also returned for the same constituency. He was a conspicuously successful speaker, exercising moderation and discretion to defuse tensions between Parliament and the crown. His Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
tendencies were well known. He was an eloquent orator, though his contributions to debates show him to have been as much concerned with careful legal drafting as with rhetorical showmanship, and his conduct as speaker was marked by a lawyerly concern to establish proper procedures for the conduct of the business.
Legal career
He was recorder of Northampton from 1568 to 1599, JPJustice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
for Northamptonshire from about 1573, and called to the bar and elected treasurer of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
in 1579 and 1585. He was Reader in 1574 and 1584, when his subject was the statute of 1540 relating to execution for debt. He was created serjeant-at-law in 1589, served as queen's serjeant from 1598 to 1602, and was Lord Justice of the Court of Queen's (then King's Bench) from 1602 to 1612.
Yelverton was an excellent technical lawyer and was regarded as a good judge, one of the few to escape criticism by Sir Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil may refer to:*Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , statesman, spymaster and minister to Elizabeth I of England and James I of England...
, principal secretary, in his memorandum on the state of the judicial bench in 1603. As queen's serjeant he led the prosecution of those involved in Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...
's rebellion in 1601, and he was one of the judges ruling on the Postnati case in 1608. In addition, he had a broader interest in legal culture, passing on to his son a collection of legal manuscripts; and, like many other lawyers of his generation, he made his own reports of cases. These reports remained unpublished and the well-known Yelverton report is by his son Henry Yelverton
Henry Yelverton (attorney-general)
-Life:The eldest son of Sir Christopher Yelverton and his wife, Margaret Catesby, he was born on 29 June 1566, it is said at Easton-Mauduit, his father's house in Northamptonshire. He became a barrister on 25 April 1593, and an ancient on 25 May of the same year. He was reader in 1607.In 1597, 1604...
.
For all his finesse as speaker Yelverton was a man of considerable toughness. He was appointed second justice at Lancaster in 1598. As justice of the assize on the northern circuit and JP of many northern counties from 1599, he was in the forefront of the common lawyers' attack on the Council of the North
Council of the North
The Council of the North was an administrative body originally set up in 1484 by king Richard III of England, the third and last Yorkist monarch to hold the Crown of England; its intention was to improve government control and economic prosperity, to benefit the entire area of Northern England...
. Friction developed in 1600, when he snubbed Ralph Eure, 3rd Lord Eure, vice-president, who was sitting with Sir John Savile
John Savile
John Savile may refer to:*John Savile, 1st Baron Savile of Pontefract , politician; M.P., Lincolnshire and Yorkshire*John Savile, 1st Earl of Mexborough , Irish peer and British politician...
as justice of gaol delivery. Matters came to a head in 1601 when he required the lord president, Sir Thomas Cecil, second Lord Burghley, to leave the court. Legal opinion was at first behind Yelverton, but in June 1602 he was summoned to the Star Chamber
Star Chamber
The Star Chamber was an English court of law that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster until 1641. It was made up of Privy Counsellors, as well as common-law judges and supplemented the activities of the common-law and equity courts in both civil and criminal matters...
and publicly reprimanded for his conduct. There were more complaints about him but he weathered the criticism. Elizabeth I did not bestow a knighthood on him and it was left to James VI and I to do so. The king was more generous still, making him KB on 23 July 1603.
Entertainment
Christopher Yelverton, as early as 1566, had written the epilogue to GascoyneGeorge Gascoigne
George Gascoigne was an English poet, soldier, artist, and unsuccessful courtier. He is considered the most important poet of the early Elizabethan era, following Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and leading to the emergence of Philip Sidney...
's Jocasta
Jocasta
In Greek mythology, Jocasta, also known as Jocaste , Epikastê, or Iokastê was a daughter of Menoeceus and Queen consort of Thebes, Greece. She was the wife of Laius. Wife and mother of Oedipus by Laius, and both mother and grandmother of Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene by Oedipus...
, and in 1587 it appears that eight persons, Members of the Society of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
, were engaged in the production of The Misfortunes of Arthur for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth I, at Greenwich, on 8 February 1587: viz. Thomas Hughes, the author of the whole body of the tragedy; William Fulbecke, who wrote two speeches substitute on the representation and appended to the old printed copy; Nicholas Trotte, who furnished the introduction; Francis Flower, who penned choruses for the first and second acts; Christopher Yelverton, Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
and John Lancaster who devised the dumb shews, then usually accompanying such performances.
"Notwithstanding his puritanism in religion, several contemporary diarists record his ribald anecdotes and conversation, and John Manningham
John Manningham
John Manningham was an English lawyer and diarist, a contemporary source for Elizabethan and Jacobean life and the London dramatic world, including William Shakespeare.-Life:...
hints that he was not averse to enjoying himself in the company of gentlewomen when he was well into his seventies."
Private life
Yelverton, despite his complaints about poverty and the expense of providing for such a large family, was very active in the purchase of land in his adopted county of Northamptonshire, spending in excess of £5000 on properties in his lifetime, most of which descended on his death to his heir, Henry Yelverton. He died on 31 October 1612 ‘of very age’ at seventy-five (CSP dom., 1611–18, 154), and was buried on 3 November in the church at Easton Maudit, where a monument with his recumbent effigy in robes survives. He had married Margaret Catesby, the daughter of Thomas Catesby of Whiston, NorthamptonshireWhiston, Northamptonshire
Whiston is a village in the English county of Northamptonshire four miles due east of the county town of Northampton. It is in the civil parish of Cogenhoe and Whiston.-External links:*...
; they had two sons and four daughters. His wife predeceased him.