Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Strange, John (1696-1754)
STRANGE, Sir JOHN (1696–1754), master of the rolls, son and heir of John Strange of Fleet Street, London, was born in 1696, and was for some time a pupil of Mr. Salkeld of Brooke Street, Holborn, the attorney, in whose office Robert, viscount Jocelyn (lord chancellor of Ireland), Philip, earl of Hardwicke (lord chancellor of England), and Sir Thomas Parker (lord chief baron) all received their legal education. Strange used to carry his master's bag down to Westminster, and he witnessed Sir Joseph Jekyll's first appearance as master of the rolls in 1717, little dreaming ‘that he should have the option of being Sir Joseph Jekyll's immediate successor, and should actually fill the office eventually’ (Harris, Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 1847, i. 33). He was admitted a member of the Middle Temple in 1712, and was called to the bar in 1718. Though he was ‘pretty diligent and exact in taking and transcribing notes’ during the first years of his attendance at Westminster Hall, his ‘Reports,’ which were not published until after his death, do not commence before Trinity term 1729 (Preface to the first edition of Strange's Reports). In May 1725 Strange was one of the counsel who defended Lord-chancellor Macclesfield upon his impeachment [see Parker, Thomas, first Earl]. He became a king's counsel on 9 Feb. 1736, and was shortly afterwards elected a bencher of the Middle Temple. On 28 Jan. 1737 he was appointed solicitor-general in Walpole's administration, and at a by-election in the following month was returned to the House of Commons for the borough of West Looe, which he continued to represent until the dissolution of parliament in April 1741. In June 1737 he took part in the debate on the murder of Captain Porteous, and spoke in favour of the bill which had been passed through the House of Lords for the punishment of the provost and the abolition of the town guard of Edinburgh (Parl. Hist. x. 275–82). On Sir Joseph Jekyll's death in August 1738 the office of master of the rolls was offered by Lord Hardwicke to Strange, who, however, declined it (Harris, Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, i. 419). He was elected recorder of the city of London in the place of Sir William Thomson [q. v.], baron of the exchequer, on 13 Nov. 1739, and was knighted on 12 May 1740. At a by-election in January 1742 Strange obtained a seat in the House of Commons for Totnes, and continued to sit for that borough until his death. In March 1742 he was elected a member of the secret committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole (Parl. Hist. xii. 588). In spite of his friendship with the fallen minister, Strange appears to have voted in favour of the Indemnity Bill (Horace Walpole, Letters, 1861, i. 165). In Michaelmas term 1742 Strange, to the surprise of the profession, resigned his ‘offices of solicitor-general, king's counsel, and recorder of the city of London,’ and left his ‘practice at the House of Lords, council table, delegates, and all the courts in Westminster Hall except the king's bench, and there also at the afternoon sittings’ (Strange, Reports, 1st edit. ii. 1176). According to his own account, ‘the reasons for his retirement were that he had received a considerable addition to his fortune,’ and that ‘some degree of ease and retirement’ was judged proper for his health; but other reasons are hinted at in the ‘Causidicade, a Panegyri-Satiri-Serio-Comic-Dramatical Poem on the Strange Resignation and Stranger Promotion’ (London, 1743, 4to). On taking leave of the king, Strange was granted a patent of precedence next after the attorney-general.
In July 1746 Strange was one of the counsel for the crown at the trial of Francis Townley for high treason before a special commission at the court-house at St. Margaret's Hill, Southwark (Cobbett, State Trials, xviii. 329–47), and at the trial of Lord Balmerino, for the same offence, before the House of Lords (ib. xviii. 448–88). In March 1747 he acted as one of the managers of the impeachment of Simon, lord Lovat, before the House of Lords for high treason (ib. xviii. 540–841).
He was appointed master of the rolls, in the place of William Fortescue, on 11 Jan. 1750, and was sworn a member of the privy council on the 17th of the same month. After sitting on the bench for little more than three years, he died on 18 May 1754, aged 57. He was buried in the churchyard at Leyton in Essex, and a monument was erected in the church to his memory (Lysons, Environs of London, 1792–1811, iv. 168–9). Strange married Susan, daughter and coheiress of Edward Strong of Greenwich, by whom he had John Strange (1732–1799) [q. v.] and several other children. His wife died on 21 Jan. 1747, aged 45, and was buried at Leyton. He appears to have purchased the manor-house of Leyton from the Gansells (ib. iv. 162).
Strange was the author of ‘Reports of Adjudged Cases in the Courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, from Trinity Term in the Second Year of King George I to Trinity Term in the Twenty-first Year of King George II … published by his son John Strange of the Middle Temple, Esquire,’ London, 1755, fol. 2 vols.; 2nd edit. with additional references, London, 1782, 8vo, 2 vols.; 3rd edit. with notes and additional references, by Michael Nolan, London, 1795, 8vo, 2 vols. A less correct edition, of inferior size and double paging, was also published in 1782 (8vo, 2 vols.), and a Dublin edition in two volumes appeared in 1792.
His clerk is said to have stolen his notes of the ‘Reports,’ and to have published from them ‘A Collection of Select Cases relating to Evidence. By a late Barrister-at-Law,’ London, 1754, 8vo. An injunction in chancery having been obtained by Strange's executors, most of the copies were subsequently destroyed. A copy of this scarce book, which is sometimes quoted as the ‘octavo Strange,’ is in the Lincoln's Inn Library, having formerly belonged to Charles Purton Cooper [q. v.] About seventy cases in this ‘Collection’ are not to be found in ‘Strange's Reports.’
A portrait of Strange, engraved by Houbraken, is prefixed to the first edition of the ‘Reports.’
[Foss's Judges of England, 1864, viii. 166–9; Georgian Era, 1833, ii. 535–6; Gent. Mag. 1754, pp. 95, 243; Bridgman's View of Legal Bibliography, 1807, pp. 335–6; Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 1847, p. 675; Wallace's Reporters, 1882, pp. 420–3; Soule's Lawyer's Reference Manual, 1883, pp. 87, 97, 122; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, ii. 73, 87, 100, 111; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. x. 412, 453, 496, 3rd ser. i. 271, 353, 396, ii. 75, 8th ser. i. 450, ix. 327, 394, 513; Townsend's Catalogue of Knights, 1833, p. 64; Cat. of Lincoln's Inn Library; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Addit. MS. 32693, ff. 33, 394 (two letters from Strange to the Duke of Newcastle).]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.261
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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