John Bankes

Sir John Bankes (1589 – 28 December 1644) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1624 and 1629. He was Attorney General and Chief Justice to Charles I during the English Civil War. Corfe Castle, his family seat was destroyed during a long siege, in which his wife Mary Hawtrey became known as Brave Dame Mary. Early life Bankes was of the Bankes family of Keswick, Cumberland. He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford on 22 February 1605 aged 15. He entered Gray's Inn, where he was called to the bar in 1614. In about 1618 he married Mary Hawtrey, by whom he had eleven children, four sons and seven daughters. In 1624, he was elected Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett. He was elected MP for Morpeth in 1626 and in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was a major participant in the legal debates surrounding the 1628 Petition of Right, especially concerning martial law for the trial and punishment of those engaged in rebellion. In 1630, Bankes was Lent Reader of Gray's Inn and was treasurer to the Inn from 1631 to 1635. He was knighted at St James on 5 June 1631. He was also appointed attorney to Prince Charles. In September 1634 he became attorney-general to the king, holding this position during the litigation of John Hampden's famous cause of ship money; and his argument upon that question is still extant. He was also counsel for Cambridge University in 1634–35.