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

lxiv INTRODUCTION.
present of a doe for which his man was presented with I is. In
p. 90 July, 1615, two special keys of the garden were by order of the
bench made for Sir Edward Coke, so that he could enter from
the water side when the gates were closed. In September, 1615,
King James, on the advice of Secretary Winwood, determined to
have the Earl and Countess of Somerset, with their accomplices,
brought to trial for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, and a
special messenger was sent to Sir Edward Coke to issue the necessary
warrant for their arrest. An account of the arrival and reception
of this messenger is given by Roger Coke, a grandson of the Lord
Chief Justice.' I extract that portion which shows the course of life
which he adopted while living in the Temple :
" I speak this with confidence because I had it from one of Sir Edward's
sons. Sir Edward lay then at the Temple, and measured out his time
at regular hours, two whereof were to go to bed at nine, and in the morning
to rise at three : Sir Edward's son and some others were in Sir Edward's
lodging, but not in bed, when the messenger about one in the morning knockt
at the door, where the son met him and knew him : says he, I come from the
king and must immediately speak with your father. If you come from ten
kings, he answered, you shall not, for I know my father's disposition to be
such that if he be disturbed in his sleep, he will not be fit for any business ;
but if you will do as we do, you shall be welcome, and about two hours hence
my father will rise, and you then may do as you please, to which he assented.
" At three Sir Edward rung a little bell to give notice to his servant to
come to him, and then the messenger went in and gave him the king's letter ;
and Sir Edward immediately made a warrant to apprehend Somerset, and
sent to the king that he would wait upon him that day.
" About three in the afternoon the Chief Justice came to Royston."
On the t6th November, 1616, he was discharged of his office of
Lord Chief Justice, but was appointed treasurer of England jointly
with the Lord Chancellor (Egerton), the Archbishop of Canterbury,
and Secretary Winwood. After his discharge he returned to the
MSS. 22, 591, fo. 93 b. A reference to a charge of Baron Altham at the Summer
Assize, 1614, shews it to have been made in November, 1614.
" A Detection of the Court and State of England during the reigns of king
James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II., as also the Interregnum., consisting of
Private Memoirs, &c by Roger Coke, Esq., 4th Ed". London, MDCCalx.,
VOL i., p. 86.