Henry Swinburne (lawyer)

Mural monument to Henry Swinburne in York Minster
Arms of Swinburne: Per fess gules and argent, three cinquefoils counterchanged[1]

Henry Swinburne (1551–1624) was an English ecclesiastical lawyer and scholar. Initially working as a clerk at a Consistory Court he attended the University of Oxford from 1576 to 1580, graduating with a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree, and was admitted to the bar at York to work as an ecclesiastical lawyer. As well as his work as a lawyer he held various administrative and judicial positions. He died in 1624.

Swinburne is best known for his two legal treatises, particularly A briefe treatise of Testaments and last Wills which remained a standard work on family law for 200 years after his death. Swinburne was the first ecclesiastical law writer to write in English.

  1. ^ Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.990