Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lake, Edward (1600?-1674)
LAKE, Sir EDWARD (1600?–1674), royalist, born about 1600, was the eldest son of Richard Lake of Irby, Lincolnshire, by Anne, youngest daughter and coheiress of Edward Wardell of Keelby in the same county. He graduated B.A. at Cambridge as a member of St. Catharine Hall, was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford on 15 Dec. 1627, and was admitted B.C.L. on 24 Jan. 1628 as a member of St. Alban Hall (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 435). He ultimately took his doctor's degree, practised as a civilian, and became advocate-general for Ireland. On the outbreak of the civil war he both fought and wrote on the king's side. At the battle of Edgehill he received sixteen wounds, and having lost the use of his left hand by a shot, he placed his horse's bridle between his teeth and fought with his sword in his right hand. He was taken prisoner and detained seven weeks at Great Crosby, Lancashire, but managed to escape, and by Christmas 1642 was safe at Bangor, Carnarvonshire. On 20 Oct. 1643 he arrived at Oxford, and on the 23rd, the anniversary of Edgehill, was kindly received by the king. He was promised a baronetcy and an augmentation to his arms, besides some compensation for the loss of his estate in England and Ireland. Two months afterwards the king sent him to Worcester. At the Restoration Lake petitioned for preferment and a grant of forfeited lands (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, pp. 41, 53), but had to content himself with the chancellorship of the diocese of Lincoln. He did not assume the title of baronet until after 1662. In 1666 a republican barrister named Edward King of Ashby, Lincolnshire, charged him before the committee of parliament for grievances with extortion and illegal conduct. King printed his petition and circulated it throughout the county. Lake published an elaborate ‘Answer,’ fol., London (1666), which apparently satisfied the committee. He died on 18 July 1674, and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where his monument describes him as of Bishop's Norton, Lincolnshire (Collins, English Baronetage, iv. 134–5). By his wife Anne, eldest daughter and coheiress of Simon Bibye of Buckden, Huntingdonshire, he had a son, Edward, who died an infant before 1666. He was succeeded in the title by his grand-nephew, Bibye Lake. To the church of Normanton, Yorkshire, the ancient seat of his family, he gave a handsome clock and a sum of money ‘for the maintaining and keeping of it for ever.’
Lake wrote: 1. An account of his interviews with Charles I, which was edited from the original manuscript in 1858 by T. P. Taswell-Langmead for vol. iv. of the Camden Society's ‘Miscellany.’ 2. ‘Memoranda: touching the Oath Exofficio, pretended Self-Accusation, and Canonical Purgation. Together with some notes about the making of some new, and alteration and explanation of some old, laws. All most humbly submitted to the consideration of this Parliament,’ 4to, London, 1662.
An engraving of the fine oil portrait of Lake preserved in the family, with his autograph and seal, may be seen in Thane's ‘British Autography’ (vol. iii.).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 633; Taswell-Langmead's Introduction to Lake's Account (Camd. Soc.); Burke's Peerage, 1890, p. 801.]