Richard Lane (barrister)

This article is about the English barrister. For others, see Richard Lane (disambiguation).

Sir Richard Lane (1584 – 12 May 1650), a.k.a. Edward Lane,[1] was an English barrister who practised mostly in the Court of Exchequer. He acted as defence counsel to the Earl of Strafford when the Earl was impeached and attainted, and also represented Archbishop Williams and eleven other bishops who were imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1642.

During the English Civil War, Lane took the side of the king, who made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer and a member of the Privy Council. From 1645 until his death he was also Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, although after 1646 the appointment was a nominal one, as the Great Seal had been destroyed on the orders of Parliament.[2]

He negotiated the terms of Charles I's surrender to Fairfax in 1646, went into exile with the future Charles II, and died on the island of Jersey in 1650.

  1. ^ Rushworth, John (1721) [orig. before 1690]. "Historical Collections: The treaty at Uxbridge, 1645". In Browne, D (ed.). Historical Collections of Private Passages of State: Volume 5, 1642-45. London. pp. 787–843. Retrieved 20 May 2020 – via British History Online.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference odnb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).