Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_North,_1st_Baron_Guildford

Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford PC KC[1](22 October 1637– 5 September 1685) was the third son of Dudley, 4th Baron North, and Anne Montagu, and was created Baron Guilford in 1683, after becoming Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in succession to Lord Nottingham.

He had been an eminent lawyer, Solicitor-General (1671), Attorney-General (1673), and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (1675), and in 1679 was made a member of the Council of Thirty and, on its dissolution, of the Cabinet. He was a man of wide culture and a staunch royalist, although he opposed the absolutist tendencies of Sunderland.

He sat as a judge at some of the Popish Plot trials, and like his colleagues has been accused of excessive credulity in believing the absurd lies of Titus Oates and other informers. On the other hand it is argued that the senior Chief Justice, Sir William Scroggs, so dominated proceedings that the other judges had little influence. If North succumbed to the prevailing hysteria, so did many others: his brother Roger wrote that "it was a time when wise men behaved like stark fools".

He was hostile to Lord Jeffreys, and regarded the future Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Wright, as utterly unfit for any judicial office (he was well qualified to assess Wright's ability since Wright as a young barrister had relied on North to write his legal opinions for him). He has been criticised for remaining in office after Wright was appointed Chief Justice over his vehement objections, especially as it must have been clear that he no longer had influence over judicial appointments. On the other hand he may have felt that keeping Jeffreys out of the Chancellorship was a sufficient justification for clinging to office.

He was generally respected for integrity, but sometimes accused of self-importance and a lack of any sense of humour; for example his excessive agitation at the ridiculous rumour spread by Sunderland and Jeffreys that he had been seen riding on a rhinoceros. Sunderland hated North with a passion, describing him as the most unfit man who ever held his office: " partial, unreasonable, corrupt, arbitrary and ignorant".

In 1672 he married Lady Frances Pope, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Pope, 3rd Earl of Downe, who inherited the Wroxton estate, and he was succeeded as 2nd baron by his son Francis (1673–1729). He died at Wroxton, rather unexpectedly, on 5 September 1685, aged only 47; apart perhaps from stress and overwork, the reasons for his early death are unclear. His last words were "it will not do".