Nicholas Lechmere, 1st Baron Lechmere
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Other people". Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:Use British English
Nicholas Lechmere, 1st Baron Lechmere Script error: No such module "If empty". (5 August 1675Template:Snd18 June 1727) was an English lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 until 1721 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lechmere. He served as Attorney-General and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Life
Lechmere was the second son of Edmund Lechmere of Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, and the younger brother of Anthony Lechmere, MP. He was admitted at Middle Temple in 1693 and called to the bar on 25 October 1698. In 1708, he became King's counsel.[1] He made a profitable career as a lawyer, where he followed the profession of his grandfather Sir Nicholas Lechmere.
Lechmere was elected in a contest as Member of Parliament for Appleby at the 1708 general election. He transferred to Cockermouth at the 1710 general election and was returned MP in contests then and in 1713. He was one of the authors who drafted legislation concerning Scotland in January 1710. He opposed the Tory ministry's peace policy after 1710 and supported Dissenters’ rights. During Queen Anne's reign he was known as a spokesman of the Whigs.[2] In 1714 Lechmere was appointed Solicitor-General and made a Reader of his Inn. In 1715 he became Treasurer of the Inn.[1]
Lechmere was returned unopposed as MP for Cockermouth at the 1715 general election. He replaced his brother as MP for Tewkesbury at a by-election on 12 June 1717. In 1718, he was appointed Attorney-General and also became a Privy Counsellor and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.[3] On 4 September 1721, having ceased to be attorney-general, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lechmere of Evesham in the County of Worcester and vacated his seat in the House of Commons.[4]
Lechmere was also a collaborator with Richard Steele on his pamphlet The Crisis.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Lechmere died from a sudden attack of apoplexy, while seated at table, at Campden House, Kensington, on 18 June 1727, and was buried at Hanley Castle, where there is a tablet inscribed to his memory. Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Family
,_by_George_Knapton.jpg){kind=link}
Lechmere married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle in 1719, but they had no children and his title became extinct on his death in 1727.[2]
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
External links
- Burke's Extinct Peerage (London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831)
- D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, eds. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 LECHMERE, Nicholas (1675-1727), of the Middle Temple 2002 Boydell and Brewer
Script error: No such module "Authority control".
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1675 births
- 1727 deaths
- Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
- Barons in the Peerage of Great Britain
- Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster
- Solicitors general for England and Wales
- Attorneys general for England and Wales
- British MPs 1708–1710
- British MPs 1710–1713
- British MPs 1713–1715
- British MPs 1715–1722
- Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
- Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
- Lechmere family