Richard Keble (died 1683/84)[1] was an English lawyer and judge, a supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War.[2] During the early years of the
Interregnum he was a Keeper of the
Great Seal. He was also an active judge who presided at several high-profile trials. At the
Restoration under a provision in the
Indemnity and Oblivion Act he was forbidden from holding further public offices.
Life
Richard Keble was from
Suffolk, of an old family settled at
Old Newton.[2] He was admitted a member of
Gray's Inn, 7 August 1609.[3] He
called to the bar 14 July 1614, and became an ancient of the inn in 1632 and
Lent Reader in 1639. He is first mentioned in
George Croke's "Reports" in 1636. Parliament appointed him a judge in Wales in March 1647, and he became a
serjeant-at-law in 1648.[4]
During 1648 Keble was sent to
Norwich to handle a mutiny.[5] After the execution of
Charles I in 1649 he was appointed the junior of the three Lord Commissioners (along with
Bulstrode Whitelocke and
John Lisle) who had the custody of the
Great Seal, they each having a salary of £1000 per annum.[2][6] With
William Lenthall, acting as the
Master of the Rolls, Keble and Whitelocke issued a set of working rules for the
Court of Chancery, while further reform was being deliberated.[7]
Keble presided at two significant trials: that of
John Lilburne the
Leveller in October 1649, and that of the Presbyterian plotter
Christopher Love in 1651.[2] At Love's trial he declared that "whatsoever is not consonant to Scripture in the Law of England, is not the Law of England".[8]Thomas Widdrington replaced him as Lord Commissioner in April 1654.[9] The reasons were largely political, Keble having made enemies as a high court justice.[10]
Keble's salary was irregularly paid, and his petition for payment of what was owing, was presented in 1655, and still disregarded in 1658.[11] At the Restoration Keble was excepted from the
Indemnity and Oblivion Act (under
Section XLIII which forbade him from accepting a public office). His will, dated April 1673, was proved August 1684.[2]
Reputation
In 1660 at the
restoration of the monarchy it was alleged that, during the
Interregnum, Keble had acted arbitrarily against Royalists and this was the reason he was excepted from the general pardon under the Indemnity and Oblivion Act.[12]
Hilkiah Bedford, a political opponent, called him "an insolent, mercenary pettifogger," who without jury or evidence sent to the gallows any he suspected of royalism. The Lilburne and Love trials were typical of
common law procedure.[2] On the other hand, the Love trial, where Christopher Love's guilt was not seriously in doubt, has been described as a "demonstration of the republic's brute power dressed up as legal sovereignty".[13]Edward Foss wrote that Keble apparently acted "with less unfairness and severity" than colleagues.[14] A near contemporary and historian,
Laurence Echard, in his History of England speaks of Keble as being then a man of "little practical experience".[15]
Family
Keble married Mary Sickelmor.
Joseph Keble was their fourth son.[16]
Notes
^Also known as Richard Keeble and Richard Kebble (
Hamilton 1892, p. 295)
^"A sharp discussion arose whether they should be called "Lords" Commissioners, the word "Lord" having become distasteful to some; but the opinion of the great majority [in Parliament] was, that to drop it would be derogatory to the authority of the parliament.!" (
Campbell 1845, p. 43)
^Hamilton 1892, p. 296 Cites: Whitelock Memorials, pp. 240, 342, 380; Blomefield, Norfolk, i. 396; Public Record Commission, 5th Rep. App. ii. 271; Green, Cal. State Papers Dom. 1655-1668.
Black, Stephen F. (January 1976). "Coram Protectore: The Judges of Westminster Hall under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell". The American Journal of Legal History. 20 (1). Temple University: 32–64.
doi:
10.2307/844849.
JSTOR844849.
Campbell, John (1845). The lives of the Lord Chancellors and keepers of the great seal of England: from the earliest times till the reign of King George IV. Vol. 3 (3 ed.). J. Murray. p.
43.
Courtenay, Thomas Peregrine (1836). Memoirs of the life, works, and correspondence of Sir William Temple, bart. Vol. 2. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman. p.
312 footnote.
Whitlocke, Bulstrode (1990), Ruth, Spalding (ed.), The diary of Bulstrode Whitelocke 1605-1675, Records of social and economic history, vol. 13 (illustrated reprint ed.), The British Academy by Oxford University Press, p.
607,
ISBN978-0-19-726080-7