Sir John Chesshyre
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Sir John Chesshyre (11 November 1662 - 15 May 1738) was an English lawyer who rose to the position of king's first serjeant.
Sir John Chesshyre was born near Runcorn, Cheshire, the son of Thomas Chesshyre, a minor gentleman with a small estate at Hallwood near Runcorn. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1682 and called to the bar there in 1689. In 1705 he accepted the degree of serjeant-at-law. He became one of the crown council as queen's sergeant in 1711 and was knighted in 1713. In 1727 he was declared the king's first serjeant. His profession made him a wealthy man; in the six years from 1719 he earned an average of over £3,000 a year.
For most of his professional life he lived in London, either in his house in Isleworth, or in his other home in Essex Street, off the Strand, or in his chambers in the Inner Temple. His death in 1738 was sudden and the Gentleman's Magazine stated that he "was worth £100,000 all acquired by the Law". He had expressed a wish to be buried in Runcorn parish church but he wanted "no lying in state nor pompous train of coaches into Cheshire nor any unnecessary attendance". Nevertheless his funeral procession took five days to travel from Isleworth to Runcorn and his funeral expenses amounted to over £350.[1] There is a monument to his memory in Runcorn parish church but this is now out of sight behind the organ.
He is best remembered locally for founding a library at Halton, Runcorn, and for leaving an endowment in his will for its further maintenance. This had been completed in 1733 and furnished with 400 books which were mainly ecclesiastical histories and works of law. The library had been intended for the incumbent of Halton and "for any divine or divines of the Church of England or other gentlemen or persons of letters".[2] This made it in effect the first, or one of the first, free libraries in England. Sir John also built the vicarage in Halton in 1739 and endowed the curacy there.
Sir John's first wife died in London in 1705 and was buried in Runcorn. In 1706 he married Ann Lawley who outlived him to die in 1756. His brother, Robert Chesshyre, was vicar of Runcorn and he died in 1739.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Starkey, H. F. Old Runcorn, Halton Borough Council, 1990, pp 77-81.
- Lemmings, David, 'Chesshyre, Sir John (1662-1738)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [1], accessed 7 March 2007
