Nicholas Lechmere, 1st Baron Lechmere
Nicholas Lechmere, 1st Baron Lechmere PC (5 August 1675 – 18 June 1727) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1721. 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 educated at Merton College, Oxford and called to the bar as a member of Middle Temple in 1698. He took silk in 1708. [1] He made a profitable career as a lawyer, where he had inherited the abilities of his grandfather Sir Nicholas Lechmere. [2]
Lechmere entered Parliament at the 1708 general election as Member for Appleby. He was returned MP for Cockermouth in 1710 and at Tewkesbury at a by-election on 12 June 1717. 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. He was one of the authors who drafted legislation concerning Scotland in January 1710.
In 1714 Lechmere was appointed Solicitor-General and made a Reader at the Inn. The following year he became Treasurer. In 1718, he was appointed Attorney-General and also became a Privy Counsellor and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 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.[3]
Lechmere was also a collaborator with Richard Steele on his pamphlet The Crisis.[1]
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. [1]
Family
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Elizabeth_Howard_%281701-1739%29%2C_by_George_Knapton.jpg/150px-Elizabeth_Howard_%281701-1739%29%2C_by_George_Knapton.jpg)
He married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, but they had no children and his title became extinct on his death in 1727.
References
- ^ a b c Walford 1892.
- ^ "LECHMERE, Nicholas (1675-1727), of the Middle Temple". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ "No. 5984". The London Gazette. 22 August 1721. p. 1.
External links
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [self-published source] [better source needed]
- Burke's Extinct Peerage (London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831)
- LECHMERE, Nicholas (1675-1727), of the Middle Temple
Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002 Available from Boydell and Brewer
- Hutchinson, John (2003). A Catalogue of Notable Middle Templars: With Brief Biographical Notices. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd, Clark, New Jersey. p. 143. ISBN 1-58477-323-5.
- Attribution
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
- 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 1708–10
- British MPs 1710–13
- British MPs 1713–15
- British MPs 1715–22
- Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
- Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
- British law biography stubs
- Great Britain MP (1707–1800) for England stubs