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CHARLES YORKE (1722-1770)
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YORKE, CHARLES (1722-1770), English lord chancellor, second son of Philip Yorke, 1st earl of Hardwicke, was born in London on the 3oth of December 1722, and was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His literary abilities were shown at an early age by his collaboration with his brother Philip in the Athenian Letters. In 1745 he published an able treatise on the law of forfeiture for high treason, in defence of his father's treatment of the Scottish Jacobite peers; and in the following year he was called to the bar. His father being at this time lord chancellor, Yorke obtained a sinecure appointment in the Court of Chancery in 1747, and entered parliament as member for Reigate, a seat which he afterwards exchanged for that for the university of Cambridge. He quickly made his mark in the House of Commons, one of his earliest speeches being in favour of his father's reform of the marriage law. In