Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chesshyre, John
CHESSHYRE, Sir JOHN (1662–1738), lawyer, son of Thomas Chesshyre of Halwood, near Runcorn, Cheshire, was born on 11 Nov. 1662, entered as a student at the Inner Temple on 16 June 1696, took the degree of serjeant-at-law on 8 June 1705, became queen's Serjeant on 27 Nov. 1711, king's serjeant on 5 Jan. 1714, and king's prime serjeant on 19 Jan. 1727. In 1719 he was associated with Attorney-general Lechmere in the prosecution of John Matthews, a lad of nineteen, who was indicted of high treason under the Act of Succession, 4 Anne c. 8, for publishing a Jacobite tract, entitled 'Ex ore tuo te judico, vox populi vox Dei.' The case was tried at the Old Bailey before Lord-chief-justice King, Lord-chief-baron Bury, and nine puisne judges, and the boy was found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed. Another case in which Chesshyre was engaged was the trial of two bailiffs for stabbing a gentleman named Lutterell, who had struck one of them when under arrest. Lutterell died of his wounds. The lord chief justice, before whom the case was tried in the king's bench in 1721–2, summed up decidedly in favour of the prisoners, and the jury returning a verdict of manslaughter, they claimed benefit of clergy, and escaped with burnt hands. Chesshyre was also engaged in the prosecution of the Jacobite conspirator Richard Layer [q. v.] in 1723. The next case of public interest in which he was engaged was the prosecution of the notorious warden of the Fleet Prison, John Huggins, for the murder of a debtor named Edward Arne, who had died after confinement in an unwholesome room. Huggins denied that he had given authority for his imprisonment. The jury returned a special verdict, which was removed by certiorari into the king's bench, and there elaborately argued by Willis and Eyre, after which it was argued at Serjeants' Inn by Chesshire, the attorney and solicitor general, and other counsel. In the end Lord-chief-justice Raymond held that there was no evidence of consent on the part of Huggins, and he was acquitted. From extracts from the Serjeant's fee-book, communicated to 'Notes and Queries' in 1869, it appears that between 1719 and 1726 Chesshyre's practice was considerable, his average income amounting to 8,241l.; in the latter year he limited himself to the court of common pleas, with the result that his average income during the next six years declined to 1,320l. In 1705 he endowed the chapel of ease near Halton Castle, Cheshire, with a sum of 200l. per annum for the maintenance of a curate, which in 1718 he increased to 600l. In the following year he gave a sum of 100l. to the chanty school at Isleworth. In 1786 he founded a library at Halton to be accessible, with the consent of the curate of the chapel of ease for the time being, to 'any divine or divines of the church of England or other gentlemen or persons of letters' on every Tuesday and Thursday in the year. The library, as originally constituted, numbered some four hundred volumes, consisting chiefly of theology, patristic and Anglican, biblical criticism, ecclesiastical history, but including also the 'Statutes at Large,' Rymer's 'Fœdera,' Dugdale's 'Monasticon,' and some Greek and Latin classics. Chesshyre also endowed the library with a small sum for maintenance, which, as now invested, yields an income of 12l. From the inscription over the door of the building it appears that the Serjeant held the rank of knight in 1788. He sat on a commission appointed in July of this year to revise the scale of fees payable to officials belonging to the court of chancery, and to investigate cases of extortion in connection therewith. On 16 May 1788 he died suddenly while entering his coach, leaving, according to Sylvanus Urban, personalty amounting to 100,000l., acquired entirely by his professional labours. This is hardly corroborated by the extracts from his fee-book already referred to, though they show that on one occasion Lord Chesterfield borrowed 20,000l. of him. He was buried in the parish church of Runcorn, where a pyramidal mural monument was raised to his memory, inscribed with a misquoted couplet from the 'Essay on Man.'
Chesshyre was survived by his wife, who died on 1 Jan. 1766. By his will he divided his property between his nephews, William, who succeeded him at Halwood, and John, who established himself at Benington in Hertfordshire, formerly the seat of the Caesar family, in 1744. The original seat of the family, Halwood, is now, or was until recently, used as a boarding school.
[Lysons's Magna Britannia, ii. pt. ii. 754, 763 ; Ormerod's Cheshire, ed. Helsby, i. 676, 711; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs (1867), v. 661 ; Wynne on Degree of Serjeant-at-law, pp. 45, 102; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vii. 492 ; Howell's State Trials, xv. 1323, 1328, 1342, 1357, 1359, 1383, 1399, 1402-3, xvi. 1, 7, 31, 50, 54, 161, xvii. 309-11 ; Gent. Mag. (1733), pp. 45, 379, 551, (1738) p. 277, (1756) p. 42. 367, 370, 379, 380, (1868) p. 659; Lysons's Environs, iii. 120 ; Cussans's Hertfordshire, ii. Hundred of Broadwater, p. 128 ; Axon's Cheshire Gleanings, pp. 75-83 ; Woolrych's Lives of Eminent Serjeants-at-Law.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.63
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| ii | 19 f.e. | Chesshyre, Sir John: for Richard read Christopher | |
| 201 | i | 29-31 | for From the inscription . . . . knight in 1733 read He was knighted on 7 June 1733 |