Henry Yelverton

Sir Henry Yelverton (29 June, 1566 – 24 January, 1630) was an English lawyer, politician, and judge. Early life The eldest son of Sir Christopher Yelverton and his wife Margaret Catesby, Henry Yelverton was born on 29 June 1566, most likely at Easton-Mauduit, his father's house in Northamptonshire. He became a barrister on 25 April 1593 and an ancient on 25 May of the same year. He was reader in 1607. Career In 1597, 1604 and 1614 Yelverton was elected to Parliament for the borough of Northampton. On 30 March 1604, when Sir Francis Goodwin's case was before the house, he argued for allowing Goodwin to take his seat in the teeth of the support given by the king to his rejection by chancery. On 5 April, when James had issued his orders, Yelverton was frightened, and argued that the prince's command was like a thunderbolt or the roaring of a lion. In the session of 1606–7 he was again in trouble, attacking George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar, the king's Scottish favourite, and generally criticising the bills brought in for effecting a partial union with Scotland, while he fell under Francis Bacon's suspicion as having had a hand in a book published by the puritan lawyer Nicholas Fuller. On the other hand, he did not argue against the king's wishes in Calvin's Case. Yelverton made efforts to regain the king's favour. A Mr Dummond, perhaps the courtier John Drummond of Hawthornden, advised him to enlist the help Arbella Stuart to gain the support of the Scottish Chancellor, Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline. Seton presented Yelverton's petition to King James during his progress at Hinchingbrooke. Before the session of 1610, he sought an interview with the Earl of Dunbar, and ultimately was admitted by the king to an audience, in which he explained away the words that had given offence.