James Altham

Sir James Altham
Baron Altham
BornCity of London
DiedOxhey Hall Place, Hertfordshire, England
WifeMargaret Skinner
Mary Stapers
Helen Saunderson
FatherJames Altham
MotherElizabeth Blancke
Occupationbarrister
judge
member of parliament
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Sir James Altham (about 1554[1] - 1617), of Oxhey, Hertfordshire,[2] was an English judge, briefly a member of the Parliament of England, and (from 1607) a Baron of the Exchequer.[3][4] A friend of Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon, Altham opposed Edward Coke but advanced the laws of equity behind the fastness of the Exchequer courts, so long considered almost inferior. Through advanced Jacobean royalism he helped to prosecute the King's enemies and centralise royal power of taxation. With Sir Edward Bromley, he presided at the Lancashire witch trials in 1612.

  1. ^ Date of birth estimated as third of five children born 1549-1558.
  2. ^ So identified to distinguish him from Sir James Altham the younger of Latton, who died in 1610.
  3. ^ 'Altham, James. B.E. 1607', in E. Foss, The Judges of England, Vol. VI: 1603-1660 (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, London 1857), pp. 49-51 (Internet Archive).
  4. ^ D. Ibbetson, 'Altham, Sir James (c. 1555–1617), judge', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004).