John Denham (judge)

Sir John Denham ( died 1639 ) was an English judge; he is chiefly remembered now as one of the "Ship-money judges" who decided the crucial Case of Ship Money and as the father of the poet Sir John Denham.

Background

He was a Londoner and is first heard of as a student in 1577. He was called to the Bar in 1587 and became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1603.

Career in Ireland

In 1609 he was knighted and sent to Ireland as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer; in 1612 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland. He was clearly regarded as an important agent of the English policy to extend English common law to the whole of Ireland; despite complaints of ill-health he was almost constantly travelling on assize. He was also a Commissioner for the Plantation of Ulster. He was credited with greatly increasing the Irish revenues and was praised by Francis Bacon for hard work and prudence as a judge in Ireland. Even after his return to England he advised the Crown on Irish affairs.^[1]

The case of Ship Money

In 1617 Denham returned to England as a Baron of the Exchequer. As such he was one of the judges of the celebrated Case of Ship Money, Rex v. John Hampden,^[2] on the prerogative of the King to levy the tax on his simple assertion that a need for it existed. When King Charles I consulted the High Court judges on his power to levy ship money, Denham was one of the ten who advised that it was the King's sole prerogative to determine whether the national good required the imposition of the tax.^[3] By the time the case of John Hampden was heard by the Court of Exchequer in 1637 however Denham appears to have been increasingly doubtful about the legality of ship money; indeed it was due to Denham's doubts that the Lord Chief Baron, Sir Humphrey Davenport, decided to remove the case to the Court of Exchequer Chamber, for a hearing by twelve rather than four judges.^[4] When the twelve came to give judgement, Denham was one of the five who voted in favour of Hampden; although so ill "of my old disease" that he could not leave home, he sent in a short opinion that "the King's Majesty.. can neither take any lands or goods of any of his subjects but only upon a judgment on record."^[5]"Had he lived longer his opinion would no doubt have saved him from being impeached, as most of his fellow judges were; in the event he died at his home at Egham, Suffolk, the following year.

Family

Denham married firstly Cicely Kellefet, then Eleanor Moore, daughter of Garrett Moore, 1st Viscount Moore of Drogheda. He and Eleanor had one son, the celebrated poet Sir John Denham.

References