Robert Eyre

Sir Robert Eyre (1666 – 28 December 1735) was an English lawyer, who served as Solicitor-General and then as a judge, ultimately as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

Family

Eyre was the eldest son of Samuel and Martha Eyre of New House, Whiteparish, Wiltshire. He married Elizabeth Rudge in 1686 and they had five children, born between 1687 and 1694. [ [http://www.eyrehistory.net/newsarum/people/p0000004.htm#I46 Eyre History. ] ] [Thomas Smith, "A Topographical and Historical Account of the Parish of St. Mary-le-Bonebone (1833), 48. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xw4NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=+%22Kingsmill+Eyre%22&source=web&ots=To51mnv2IY&sig=znMqkpQpK48l_yqfbfCfW5VXfTw&hl=en#PPA48,M1] ]

Career

Eyre served as Solicitor-General from 1708 to 1710. In 1710, he was appointed a puisne judge of the Court of Queen's Bench. In 1718, he gave an opinion favouring the view of the Prince of Wales, rather than that of the king over the education of the prince's children, and was therefore passed over for promotion to be Lord Chief Justice of King's Bench. However, he was appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1723 and then appointed as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1725, a post in which he served until his death. [David Lemmings, ‘Eyre, Sir Robert (1666–1735)’, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9036] , accessed 16 July 2008. ] He also served as Member of Parliament for Southampton from 1727 until 1729. [Rayment-hc]

References