Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/160

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140
Lane — Latch.
LANE, Sir RICHARD.
Lord Keeper.
1584—1650.

Admitted 16 February, 1604-5.

Son and heir of Richard Lane of Cortenhall (Courteenhall), Northamptonshire. He was born at Harpole in that county. On 8 Feb. 1612, he was called to the Bar, in 1630 he filled the office of Reader, and in 1637 of Treasurer of the Inn. He was Attorney-General to Prince Charles, and in 1640-1 was selected to conduct the defence of the Earl of Strafford on his impeachment. In 1643 he joined the king at Oxford, where he was made Serjeant-at-Law, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, a knight and Privy Councillor. He was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the Parliament at Uxbridge, and in 1645 succeeded Lord Littleton as Keeper of the Great Seal. On the ruin of the Royal cause he went abroad, and died in the Island of Jersey in 1650. It is said by Anthony a Wood that on Sir Richard leaving London in 1640 he entrusted his chamber in the Temple, with his goods and excellent library, to his intimate friend Bulstrode Whitelock (q.v.), who refused to restore them to him when requested, denying that he had "ever known such a man as Sir Richard" (Fasti II., col. 63, cited by Peck in his Desiderata Curiosa, ix. 367). Sir Richard was the author of Reports in the Exchequer Chamber beginning in the Third and ending in the Ninth Year of James I. (1657).


LASCELLES, ROWLEY.
Writer.
1771—1841.

Admitted 9 February, 1788.

Eldest son of Rowley Lascelles of Little Ealing, co. Middlesex. He was born in Westminster. He was called to the Bar 10 Feb. 1797, and appointed Reader in 1838. In 1813 he was appointed to edit part of the MS. collection of John Lodge, Deputy-keeper of the Records in Ireland, and the result of his labours was the volumes known as Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniæ, published in 1824 and 1830. Lascelles prefixed to this publication a history of Ireland, which gave so much offence that the volumes were as far as possible suppressed. The volumes were subsequently re-issued, with an Introduction by F. S. Thomas, 1852. Lascelles died 19 March, 1841.

He published several other works besides the above, including Letters of Publicola, or a Modest Defence of the Established Church (1816).


LATCH, JOHN.
Law Reporter.
d. 1655.

Admitted 30 June, 1609.

Second son of Thomas Latch of Churchill, co. Somerset. He was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, and called to the Bar 19 May, 1637. That he was a person of repute in his time, and therefore worthy of notice here, appears from the laudatory notice of him attached to the edition of his Reports, published after his death, and signed by ten of the most eminent lawyers of the time, including Sir Matthew Hale. He is there spoken of as "a person of great learning in his profession," and the title prefixed to the Reports by his editor, Edward Walpoole, of Gray's Inn, is in the following terms: Plusieurs tres-bons Cases come ils estoyent adjudgees es trois premiers ans du Raign du fen Roy Charles le Premier en la Court de Bank le Roy … per le feu scavant et tres-erudite Homme Monsieur Jean Latch du, Middle Temple, London, Esq. … Folio. London (1671). He died in 1655.