Robert Dormer 1650-1726

Robert DORMER 1650-1726

Biographical Note

Second son of John Dormer of Lee Grange, Buckinghamshire, barrister and MP. Matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford 1667, but did not graduate; admitted at Lincoln's Inn 1669 (barrister, 1676). He began his legal career as attorney-general for Nathaniel Crewe, Bishop of Durham, and was chancellor of the diocese of Durham 1693-96. In 1696 he inherited an estate at Arle Court, Gloucestershire ; he was MP for Aylesbury in 1699, and for Buckinghamshire 1705-06, when he was made a judge in the Court of Common Pleas.

Books

Dormer's will has no mention of books, which would have been inherited, along with other household goods, by his wife Mary. His library was sold by retail sale in London, along with the books of John Batteley 1646-1708, beginning 10 May 1727; no catalogue survives, but the sale was advertised in the Daily Post.

Sources

• Will of Robert Dormer, The National Archives PROB 11/611/198.
• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Handley, Stuart. "Dormer, Robert (bap. 1650, d. 1726), judge and politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.