Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

cvi INTRODUCTION.
removed without cause known or assigned, from his office of Lord
Chief Justice. Sir John Walter, another fellow, had in like manner
been removed from his position as Lord Chief Baron. And although
the Littletons, Vaughan, Twisden, Orlando Bridgman, Keeling, and
some others were of the king's party, they did not represent the
feeling of the society remaining in the house, which was in favour of
the puritan as against the high churchman, and of the parliament as
against the king. On the other hand, many of our society were devoted
friends of the king. Buckingham, who had died under the assassin's
knife in 1628, was a member of our inn, as was also Strafford, who
died on the block, and Henry Rich, Lord Holland, who was beheaded
in 1649. Many held commissions in the king's army. Sir Walter
Blount of Sodington and his four sons all fought for the king.
Edward Slaughter of Cheynes Court, Hereford, was a colonel.
Sir Henry Newton had a command at the battle of Edge Hill ; John
Croke, son of the recorder and judge, raised a troop of horse and
ruined his estate in the royal cause. Major Dyott, son of a bencher,
held the king's commission. Robert, Lord Carnarvon, was killed at
the battle of Newbury. Mark Trevor, afterwards created Lord
Rosetrevor, was a royalist officer, and is said to have wounded
Cromwell in the face. Robert Philips, a colonel in the king's army,
and grandson of the famous Sir Edward Philips, master of the rolls,
assisted Charles I I. in his escape from Worcester.' Sir Roger
P. 285 Mostyn, of Flint, whose chambers were sequestered in 1648, is
said to have spent L6o,000 in the service of the king. These
and many others too numerous to mention, served the king in his
campaigns. On the anticipated outbreak of hostilities, 500 members
of the inns of court enrolled themselves into a regiment and volunteered
their services to the kine In September, 1642, a number
of gentlemen of the inns of court, rode to S. Albans as a guard to
the king, and a letter from the Countess of Sussex announcing their
arrival, describes them as " very fine " and " very well horsed." 3 In
the same year (1642) a " petition of the peaceful, obedient, and
honest protestants of this kingdom, presented to the Honourable
House of Commons by the four Inns of Court," gives with admirable
" The Boscobel Tracts." London, 1830, p. 250.
" State Papers, Dom. Car. I.," vol. cccclxxxvi., No. 110, 3oth Dec. 1641.
" " Hist. MSS. Corn.," seventh Rep., App., p. 44o"•