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1ST BARON See also: lord chancellor, was See also: born of a Hampshire See also: family about 1490, in the parish of St Laurence Jewry, See also: London
.
His See also: great-grandfather, See also: Richard See also: Rich, was a wealthy See also: mercer and See also: sheriff of the city of London in 1441
.
Probably Lord Rich's See also: father was also a mercer, buthe sent his son to the See also: Middle See also: Temple, where See also: Sir See also: Thomas More was among his acquaintances
.
More told him at the
See also: time of his trial that he was reputed See also: light of his See also: tongue, a great dicer and gamester, and not of any commendable fame; but he was a See also: commissioner of the See also: peace in See also: Hertfordshire in 1528, and in the next autumn became reader at the Middle Temple
.
Other preferments followed, and in 1533 he was knighted and became See also: solicitor-general, in which capacity he was to See also: act under Thomas See also: Cromwell as a " lesser See also: hammer " for the demolition of the monasteries, and to secure the operation of See also: Henry VIII.'s act of supremacy
.
He had an odious share in the trials of Sir Thomas More and
See also: Bishop See also: Fisher
.
In both cases he made use in his evidence against the prisoner of admissions made in a professedly friendly conversation, and in More's See also: case the words he had used were misreported and received a misconstruction that could hardly be other than wilful
.
More ex-pressed his opinion of the witness in open See also: court with a candour that might well have dismayed Rich
.
Rich became the first chancellor (See also: April 19, 1536) of the Court of Augmentations established for the disposal of the monastic revenues
.
His own share of the spoil, acquired either by See also: grant or
See also: purchase, included Leez (Leighs) Priory and about a See also: hundred manors in See also: Essex
.
He was See also: Speaker of the See also: House of See also: Commons in the same See also: year, and advocated the See also: king's policy
.
In spite of the share he had taken in the suppression of the monasteries, and of the
See also: part he was to See also: play under See also: Edward VI., his religious convictions remained See also: Roman Catholic
.
His testimony helped the conviction of Thomas Cromwell, and he was a willing See also: agent in the Catholic reaction which followed
.
See also: Anne See also: Askew stated that the Chancellor Wriothesley and Rich screwed the See also: rack at her torture with their own hands
.
Rich was one of the executors of the will of Henry VIII., on which so much suspicion has been thrown, and on the 26th of See also: February 1548 he became Baron Rich of Leez
.
In the next See also: month he succeeded Wriothesley as chancellor, an office in which he found full scope for the business and legal ability he undoubtedly possessed
.
He supported See also: Protector See also: Somerset in his subversive reforms in See also: church matters, in the
See also: prosecution of his See also: brother Lord Seymour of Sudeley, and in the rest of his policy until the crisis of his fortunes in See also: October 1549, when he deserted to See also: Warwick (afterwards See also: Northumberland), and pre-sided over the trial of his former chief
.
His daughter had married Warwick's son, and both men were at See also: heart no See also: friends to the reformed See also: religion
.
Nevertheless, Rich took part in the prosecution of bishops See also: Gardiner and See also: Bonner, and in the harsh treatment accorded to the Princess Mary
.
Possibly this harshness was exaggerated, for Mary on her accession showed no See also: ill-will to Rich
.
He retired from the chancellorship on the ground of ill-See also: health in the close of 1551, at the time of the final breach between Northumberland and Somerset
.
He was now sixty years old, and there is no reason to suspect the sincerity of his plea
.
There is an improbable See also: story, however, to the effect that Rich warned Somerset of his danger in the Tower, and that the letter was delivered by See also: mistake to the duke of See also: Norfolk, who handed it to Northumberland
.
Lord Rich took an active part in the restoration of the old religion in Essex under the new reign, and was one of the most active of persecutors
.
His reappearances in the privy council were rare during Mary's reign; but underSee also: Elizabeth he served on a commission to inquire into the grants of
See also: land made under Mary, and in 1566 was sent for to advise on the question of the See also: queen's See also: marriage
.
He died at See also: Rochford, Essex, on the 12th of See also: June 1567, and was buried in See also: Felsted church
.
In Mary's reign he had founded a chaplaincy with See also: provision for the singing of masses and dirges, and the ringing of bells in Felsted church
.
To this was added a Lenten allowance of See also: herrings to the in-habitants of three parishes
.
These donations were transferredin 1564 to the foundation of a grammar-school at Felsted for instruction, primarily for See also: children born on the founder's manors, in Latin, See also: Greek and divinity
.
The patronage of the school remained in the family of the founder until 1851
.
By his wife Elizabeth See also: Jenks, or Gynkes, he had fifteen children
.
The eldest son Robert (1537?-1581), second Baron Rich, supported the See also: Reformation, and his See also: grandson Robert, third lord, was created See also: earl of Warwick in 1618
.
The chief authorities are the official records of the See also: period covered by his official See also: life, calendared in the Rolls Series
.
See also A
.
F
.
See also: Pollard, See also: England under Protector Somerset (19oo); P
.
Morant, See also: History of Essex (2 vols., 1768) ; R
.
W
.
See also: Dixon, History of the Church of England (6 vols., 1878–19o2); and lives in J
.
Sargeaunt's History of Felsted School (1889), Lord See also: Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1845-69), and C
.
H
.
& T
.
See also: Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses (2 vols., 1858–61)
.
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