Robert Raymond 1673-1733

Robert RAYMOND, 1st Baron Raymond 1673-1733

Biographical Note

Born in London son of Sir Thomas Raymond, judge, and Anne Fishe. Formally admitted at Gray’s Inn in 1682, aged nine. Attended Eton College, and matriculated at Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1690. Called to the bar 1697. Admitted at Lincoln’s Inn in 1710, the year he became Solicitor General and was knighted. He was MP for Bishop's Castle 1710-15; Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, 1715-17; Ludlow, Shropshire 1719-22; and Helston, 1722-24. Appointed Attorney-General in 1720, and became Chief Justice, K.B. in 1725. Married Anne Northey. In 1731 he was created Baron Raymond of Abbots Langley, Herefordshire. A notable case (R. vs. Curl, 1728) in his glittering legal career is relevant to publishing history for relating to libel and obscene books.

Books

He used an engraved armorial bookplate dated 1704: ‘Robert Raymond, of Grayes Inn Esqr.’ (Franks 24663).

In his will he gave to his cousin Beversham Filmer ‘the use of my Manuscripts and such of my Books as he shall think proper untill my Son shall attain his age of Twenty one Years’.

The extent and nature of his library is not established.

Forum Auctions noted his bookplate in a copy of volume 2 of Ben Jonson’s Workes (1640) (30 March 2017, Lot 368). A copy of Ferdinando Pulton, De Pace Regis et Reigno (1610) containing his bookplate was in the library of Bristol Law Society in 2012.

Sources

• Will of Robert Raymond, The National Archives, PROB 11/658/147.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Lemmings, David. ‘Raymond, Robert, first Baron Raymond (1673–1733), judge’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.