which all his judges resolved to doe (and I only suffer), and if I had done it and they had deserted me therein, I had become a scorne to men, and had been fitt to have lived like a scritch owl in the darke; so likewise if I had done it and had been knowne to have been the leader herein, and the rest of the judges had been pressed to have done the like, the blame and the reproof would have been laid on me, and by me they might in some measure have excused themselves. But yet there was a greater obligation to restrain me than these (for these be but morall reasons), and that was the obligation of an oath, and of a conscience, against both which (then holding the place of a judge), I in my own understanding had done, had I subscribed my name to the writing which the King was then advised to require me to doe, for therein I had approved the commission, and consequently the proceedings thereupon, wherein here I had been condemned, and with how loud and shrill a voice, I leave to your grace to judge. Wherefore, most noble Lord, vouchsafe to weigh these my reasons in the ballance of your wisdom and judgement, and be soe noble and just as to excuse me to the King herein, and in a true contemplation of that noblenesse and justice, be soe good as to be the means, that I may be really restored to the King's grace and favour. Your grace has in your hands Achilles' speare which hurts and heales. I am grievously hurt, your grace hath the means to heale me to whom I make my address. The time is now fitt for me: now you are upon a forraigne expedition, you take my prayers, my wife's, and my children's with you, and I hope your journey will be the more prosperous. "I am now in the seventieth year of my age; it is the general period of man's life, and my glass runs on apace. Well was it with me when I was King's serjeant, I found profitt by it: I have lost the title and place of Chiefe Justice. I am now neither the one or other; the latter makes me uncapable of the former, and since I left the Chiefe's place, my losse has been little less than 3000l. already. "I was by your favour in the way to have raised and renewed in some measure my poore name and familey, which I will be bold to say hath heretofore been in the best ranke of the famileys of my countrey, till by a general heir the patrimony was carried from the male line into another sirname, and since which time it hath been in a weak condition. Your grace may be the means to repair the breach made in my poor fortune, if God soe please to move you, and you will lose no honour by it. Howsoever I have made my suit to your noblenesse, and your conscience, for I appeal to both, and whatsoever my success be, I shall still appear to be a silent and patient man, and humbly submitt myself to the will of God and the King. God be with your grace, He guide and direct you, and to his holy protection I committ you, resting ever "A most humble servant to your grace, "Westminster, 28th Junii." "RANDULPH CREWE. On a copy of this letter, preserved among the family papers at Crewe, there is the following memorandum in the handwriting of the Chief Justice :-" A little before the D. going to the Isle of Ree, he told Sir Randal, in the presence of Lord Treasurer Weston and Sir Robt. Pye, that he would at his return right him in the King's favour, for it was he that had injured him, and therefore was bound in honour to do it." However friendly the Duke's intentions might have been, the arm of Felton, within a month from the time when this remonstrance was delivered to him, for ever prevented him from carrying them into execution. His mode of ment. The ex-Chief Justice then renounced all thoughts of public employment, and spent the rest of his long life rationally and happily in rural life in retireamusements, in literary pursuits, and in social enjoyments. It happened soon after that the manor of Crewe was in the market for sale. Either of the two brothers had the means of purchasing it; but the preference was given to Sir Randolf, the elder; and he was more gratified, when he took possession of it and became "Crewe of that ilk," than if he had been installed as Chancellor in the marble chair, saying, “How delighted my poor dear father would be if he could look down and see his fond wish accomplished!" Here he built a magnificent new manor-house, which was admired and copied by the men of Cheshire. Fuller says, "He first brought the model of excellent building into these remote parts; yea, brought London into Cheshire, in the loftiness, sightliness, and pleasantness of their structures." A.D. 1641. He lived on till the Long Parliament had sat several years, and he might actually have been present in the House of Commons in 1641, when Mr. Hollis, inveighing against the corrupt Judges who had decided in favour of ship-money, drew this contrast between them and a Judge who had acted well: Hollis's panegyric upon him in the Long Parliament. "What honour is he worthy of, who, merely for the public good, hath suffered himself to be divested and deprived of what he highly values?—such a judge as would lose his place, rather than to do that which his conscience told him was prejudicial to the commonwealth ?—and this did that worthy reverend judge, the Chief Justice of England, Sir Randulf Crewe. Because he would not, by subscribing, countenance the loan in the first year of the King, contrary to his oath and conscience, he drew upon himself the displeasure of some great persons about his Majesty, who put on that project which was afterwards condemned by the Petition of Right as unjust and unlawful; and by that means he lost his place of Chief Justice of the King's Bench; and hath, these fourteen years, by keeping his innocency, lost the profit of that office which, upon a just calculation in so long a revolution of time, amounts to 26,000l. or thereabout. He kept his innocency when others let theirs go; when himself and the commonwealth were alike deserted; which raises his merit to a higher pitch. For to be honest when everybody else is honest, when honesty is in fashion and is trump, as I may say, is nothing so meritorious; but to stand alone in the breach-to own honesty when others dare not do it, cannot be sufficiently applauded, nor sufficiently rewarded. And that did this good old man do; in a time of general desertion, he preserved himself pure and untainted. "Temporibusque malis ausus est esse bonus.""* July 7. Hollis afterwards succeeded in carrying an address to the King, praying "+hat his Majesty would bestow such an honour on his former Judge, Sir Randolf Crewe, Knt., late Lord Chief Justice of 3 St. Tr. 1298. The respect for him. England, as inay be a noble mark of sovereign grace and favour, to remain to him and his posterity, and may be in some measure a proportionable compensation for the great loss which he hath, with so much patience and resolution, sustained." Nothing was done for him before the civil war broke out; but he had that highest reward, the good opinion of his fellow citizens. He seems to have enjoyed the sym- entertained pathy and respect of all honest men from the time of his dismissal from office. Fuller says quaintly, “The country hath constantly a smile for him for whom the court hath a frown. This knight was out of office, not out of honour,-living long after at his house in Westminster, much praised for his hospitality." He adds, "I saw this worthy Judge in 1642, but he survived not long after.” * His death. His last days were disturbed by the clash of arms. The struggle between the parties which, in his youth, had been carried on in St. Stephen's Chapel, and in Westminster Hall, was now transferred to Edgehill and Marston Moor. We are not informed to which side he inclined, but the probability is, that, being a steady friend of constitutional monarchy, he dreaded the triumph of either, and that, like the virtuous Falkland, he exclaimed with a sigh, PEACE! PEACE! He languished till the 13th of January, 1646, when he expired in the eighty-seventh year of his age, -leaving Cromwell to wield the sceptre which he had seen in the hand of Queen Elizabeth. He was buried in the family cemetery at Crewe. All lawyers are familiar with his singularly shrewd physiognomy, from an admirable print of him in Dugdale's ORIGINES JURIDICIALES. His male descendants remained "Crewes of that ilk " Worthies, vol. ii. for several generations. His descendants. Feb. 25, 1806. The estate then came to an heiress, who married John Offley, Esq., of Madely, in the county of Stafford. Their son, on succeeding to it, took, by act of parliament, the name and arms of Crewe. His grandson was raised to the peerage by King George III., being created Baron Crewe, of Crewe, in the county of Chester; and the Chief Justice is represented by Richard, the third Lord Crewe. END OF VOL. 1. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. |