Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crompton, Richard
CROMPTON, RICHARD (fl. 1573–1599), lawyer, was of a family settled at Bedford Grange in the parish of Leigh, Lancashire, and was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, but did not proceed to a degree. He became a member and bencher of the Middle Temple, ‘a barrister and councillor of note,’ as stated by Wood; was summer reader in 1573 and Lent reader in 1578; and ‘might have been called to the coif, had he not preferred his private studies and repose before public employment and riches.’ In 1583 he edited and enlarged Sir A. Fitzherbert's ‘Office et Aucthoritie de Justices de Peace’ (R. Tottill, 8vo). This was reprinted in 1584 and 1593 by the same printer, in 1594 by C. Yetsweirt, and in 1606 and 1617 by the Stationers' Company. In 1587 he published ‘A Short Declaration of the Ende of Traytors and False Conspirators against the State, and the Duetie of Subjects to their Souereigne Governour’ (J. Charlewood, 4to), dedicated to Archbishop Whitgift. In 1594 appeared his chief work, ‘L'Authoritie et Jurisdiction des Courts de la Maiestie de la Roygne’ (C. Yetsweirt, 4to). In his dedication to Sir John Puckering the author states that this treatise was written after his retirement into the country and as a solace for the leisure hours of his old age. It was reprinted by J. More in 1637, and is commended in North's ‘Discourse on the Study of the Law.’ A selection of ‘Star-chamber Cases’ was made from this work and published in 1630 and 1641. His last work was issued in 1599, entitled ‘The Mansion of Magnanimitie: wherein is shewed the most high and honourable Acts of Sundrie English Kings, Princes, Dukes … performed in defence of their Princes and Countrie’ (W. Ponsonby, 4to). Another edition was printed by M. Lownes in 1608. William Crompton (1599?–1642) [q. v.], the puritan minister of Barnstaple, was his younger son.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 634; Ormerod's Parentalia, Additions, 1856, p. 4; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Early English Books, i. 427, ii. 630; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), 1785, ii. 824, 1099, 1131, 1276; W. C. Hazlitt's Handbook, 1867, p. 130; Hazlitt's Collections and Notes, 1876, p. 109.]