Robert Rede

Sir Robert Rede KS (d. 1519) was a British justice. He was the son of William Rede of Wrangle, Lincolnshire, a merchant working from Calais, and his wife Joan. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1467 (although he may have previously been a member of Clement's Inn) and gave his first reading there in 1481. In 1486 he was made a Serjeant-at-law, followed by a promotion in 1494 to King's Serjeant, and an appointment in 1495 as a justice of the Court of King's Bench, where he sat for 10 years under Sir John Fineux, and was knighted for his services in 1501. He was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas in 1506 and promoted to Chief Justice, a position he held until his death on 7 January 1519.

At some point in the 1470's Rede married Margaret, daughter of John Alfegh, another member of Lincoln's Inn. They had 2 sons and 4 daughters; Edmund, who died in 1501, John, who joined Inner Temple and along with Mary also predeceased Robert, Jane who married John Caryll, Bridget who married Thomas Willoughby and Dorothy, who married Edward Wotton. Rede left a £4 annual stipend to finance three lectureships at Jesus College, Cambridge, one for logic, one for moral philosophy and one for the humanities. Although these positions had been provided since 1480, the stipend helped secure the position. From 1858 the fund was used to support a single annual lecture, known as the Rede Lecture, a practice that has continued to this day. [cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23247?&docPos=43&backToResults=list=yes|group=yes|feature=yes|aor=3|orderField=alpha|title=Oxford DNB article: Rede, Sir Robert|last=Baker|first=J.H|accessdate=2008-10-04]

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