Henry Bedingfield (judge)

For the 16th-century courtier, see Henry Bedingfeld.

Sir Henry Bedingfield (1632 – 6 February 1687) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660 and from 1685 to 1686. He was briefly Chief Justice of the Common Pleas at the end of his life.

Sir Henry Bedingfield

The Gothic House, Halesworth - Seat of the Bedingfield family

Early life and family

Henry Bedingfield was the son of John Bedingfield (1595–1680) of Halesworth, Suffolk and was baptised on 9 December 1632. He was the nephew of Sir Thomas Bedingfield. He was educated at Norwich Grammar School and admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1650. He also entered Lincoln's Inn that year, and was called to the bar in 1657. The following year he was made a freeman of Dunwich, enabling him to be elected to the Convention Parliament in 1660. He did not seek re-election subsequently, preferring to concentrate on his legal practice.

Later career

In 1683, he presented an address from Dunwich, abhorring the Rye House Plot. That November he became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, a serjeant at law the following January, and a King's Serjeant the following November, when he was also knighted. Following the succession of James II, he was elected a Tory MP for Aldeburgh. In February 1686 he was appointed a Justice of Common Pleas and in April Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

Private life

However, he died suddenly in the following February. He had married, c.1667, his cousin Mary, daughter of Robert Bedingfield, DD, rector of Newton, Cambridgeshire and had 2 daughters.

Further reading

• Handley, Stuart. "Bedingfield, Sir Henry (bap. 1632, d. 1687". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1937. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)