not a court of record—‘having power only to condemn, not to acquit’—and established in contravention of Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the promise made by the parliament not to interfere with the ordinary course of justice. Prideaux replied ‘that they were not at leisure to take notice of his law cases, but only of his confession,’ and the inevitable condemnation followed. Andrews had in the meantime again petitioned parliament, but a resolution was passed (19 Aug.) that his confessions and examination having been transmitted to the high court, ‘it was not fit to interfere further.’ The usual sentence in treason cases was, however, altered to beheading, and he was executed on Tower Hill 22 Aug. 1650. Andrews met his fate with firmness, kissing the axe (probably that used on the king and Lord Capel), hoping to meet his former masters that day in the presence of the Saviour, and thanking those in power for their courtesy in awarding him a mode of death suitable to his quality. He gave the executioner 3l.—all he had—as a fee, and at his ejaculation, ‘Lord Jesus, receive me!’ his head was struck off at a blow. Of the other persons concerned—Barnard, rewarded with money and promotion, found his true deserts when, four years later, he was hanged at Tyburn for robbery; Ashley was condemned but pardoned; Benson was hanged; Sir John Gell was found guilty of misprision of treason, and so escaped with life, though his estate was forfeited, and he imprisoned till April 1653 (Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), iii. 561). Some writers have asserted that Andrews, by his demonstration of the illegality of the high court, practically abolished it. But it was too serviceable an instrument to be parted with, and he was by no means its last victim. A detailed account of his death was published by his friend Francis Buckley. It is curious to note that this narrative was reproduced, almost word for word, in a pamphlet professing to relate the particulars of the execution of the Earl of Derby in October 1651.
[State Trials; Whitelocke's Memorials.]
ANDREWS, GEORGE (fl. 1776), of the Middle Temple, barrister-at-law, published reports of cases argued in the court of King's Bench during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth years of the reign of George II (1737–1740) before Sir William Lee, chief justice, and Sir Francis Page, Sir Edmund Probyn, and Sir William Chapple. He was only son of George Andrews, of Wells; was a member of the Middle Temple, and called to the bar in 1740.
Andrews's ‘Reports’ are seldom now referred to, but they had a high reputation in the last century. A folio edition was published in 1754, and an octavo edition, with some additional cases, in 1792 by G. W. Vernon of the Irish bar. They are pronounced by Marvin (Legal Bibliography, sub tit. ‘Andrews’) to be ‘accurate, judicious, and satisfactory,’ and are characterised by Rayner (Readings on the Statutes, p. 96, published 1775) as ‘very much esteemed by the profession in general.’
[J. B. Wallace, Reporters, sub tit. Andrews; and the authorities cited above.]
ANDREWS, HENRY (1743–1820), an astronomical calculator, was born in 1743, of poor parents, at Frieston, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. At the age of ten, he began to observe the stars with a telescope mounted on a table in Frieston Green, and quickly developed an uncommon facility and fondness for astronomical calculations. He entered domestic service while still a lad, first in the house of a shopkeeper at Sleaford, next with a lady living at Lincoln, and lastly with a Mr. Verinum, who allowed him some hours a day for study. A distinguished company assembled at Aswarby Hall was supplied by him with the means of viewing the solar eclipse of 1 April 1764, which he had calculated with remarkable accuracy. Soon after, he became usher in a school kept by a clergyman at Stilton, having first tried the profession on his own account at Basingthorpe, near Grantham; he then removed for a while to Cambridge, and finally set up as bookseller and schoolmaster at Royston, Herts, where he remained until his death, at the age of 76, 26 Jan. 1820. For above forty years he was one of the calculators for the ‘Nautical Almanack,’ and on his retirement received the thanks of the Board of Longitude, with a handsome present in recognition of his services. Dr. Hutton employed him similarly for Moore's and other almanacks, and Dr. Maskelyne corresponded with him during nearly fifty years. By him and others he was esteemed no less for the modesty and integrity of his character than for the singular abilities by which he had raised himself from a humble station to a position of honour amongst men of science.
[Gent. Mag. xc. pt. i. 182, pt. ii. 639.]
ANDREWS, HENRY C. (fl. 1799–1828), botanical artist and engraver, lived at Knightsbridge, Middlesex, and there published the following works:
- ‘The Botanist's Repository for New and Rare Plants’
