Robert Raymond, 1st Baron Raymond

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Sir Robert Raymond, 1st Baron Raymond (1673 - 1733).
Sir Robert Raymond, 1st Baron Raymond (1673 - 1733).

Robert Raymond, 1st Baron Raymond PC (1673 - 1733) was a British judge.

In 1725 he was invested as Privy Counsellor.

Raymond, a Tory, was appointed as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench on March 2, 1725 until his death. In the trial of Deist Thomas Woolston in 1729 Raymond said:

Christianity in general is Parcel of the Common Law of England, and therefore to be protected by it; now whatever strikes at the Root of Christianity, tends manifestly to a Dissolution of the Civil Government...so that to say, an Attempt to subvert the establish'd Religion is not punishable by those Laws upon which it is establish'd, is an Absurdity.[1]

In the House of Lords he tried to stop the House of Commons abandoning Law French and replacing it with English. To Raymond, ending the traditional language might lead to other 'modernisations' such as Welsh for courts in Wales. However his opposition failed and in 1733 the courts were anglicised.[2]

In 1720 he built for himself a country house and estate at Langleybury 2 miles north of Watford in Hertfordshire. His mongram and his cipher, a griffin in a crown, can still be seen on the exterior of the building.

[edit] References

  1. ^ John Fitz-Gibbons, The Reports of Several Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench (London, 1732), pp. 65-66.
  2. ^ R. C. Caenegem, An Historical Introduction to Private Law (Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 174-5.
Legal offices
Preceded by
Robert Eyre
Solicitor General
1710–1714
Succeeded by
Nicholas Lechmere
Preceded by
Sir Nicholas Lechmere
Attorney General
1720–1724
Succeeded by
Sir Philip Yorke
Preceded by
John Pratt
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench
1725–1733
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Charles Mason
Member for Bishop's Castle
with Richard Harnage, 1708-1719

1710–1715
Succeeded by
Charles Mason
Preceded by
Sir Gilbert Dolben
Henry Holmes
Member for Yarmouth (Isle of Wight)
with Henry Holmes, 1695-1717

1715–1717
Succeeded by
Anthony Morgan,
Sir Theodore Janssen
Preceded by
Francis Herbert
Member for Ludlow
with Humphrey Walcot, 1713-1722

1719–1722
Succeeded by
Abel Ketelby,
Acton Baldwyn
Preceded by
Sir Gilbert Heathcote,
Sidney Godolphin
Member for Helston
with Walter Carey 1722-1727

1722–1724
Succeeded by
Sir Clement Wearg
Walter Carey
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
New Creation
Baron Raymond
1731–1733
Succeeded by
Robert Raymond