Richard Weston 1620-1681

Sir Richard WESTON 1620-1681

Biographical Note

Son of Edward Weston of Hackney, Middlesex, landowner. Matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 1639, transferred to Jesus College 1641, but did not graduate; entered Gray’s Inn 1642, called to the Bar 1649. He inherited family estates at his father’s death in 1645. His activities during the Interregnum are not recorded, though his later sympathies were clearly royalist; he was briefly MP for Weobley, Herefordshire in 1660. He practised law after the Restoration and became a JP in Cawood, Yorkshire in 1664; he purchased a Yorkshire estate at Little Cattall in 1669. He was a commissioner for assessment in the West Riding 1673-80, and recorder of Beverley 1675-78. He was made reader of Gray’s Inn 1676, serjeant-at-law 1677, king’s serjeant (and knighted) 1677, and appointed to the bench of the exchequer in 1680. His judicial career was controversial, and his hostility to nonconformists led to a threat of impeachment by the House of Commons in 1680.

Books

Weston’s “compleat library of law” was sold by auction in London, by Edward Millington, 24 June 1686. The sale catalogue contains 302 lots of printed books (all formats) and 3 manuscripts; the books are all legal, mostly in English or Latin, with English predominating. We do not know how many non-legal books Weston may have owned, or their fate. His will is brief and contains no mention of books; apart from £500 left to his niece, and other monetary personal bequests, the residue of his estate was left to his wife.

Characteristic Markings

None of Weston’s books have been identified.

Sources

• A choice collection of law books, 1686 (ESTC R186404).
• Collins, Jeffrey R. "Weston, Sir Richard (1620–1681), judge and politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Henning, B. The House of Commons 1660-1690, London, 1983.