{{Short description|English lawyer and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Use British English|date=January 2017}} '''Sir Robert Holborne''' (died 1647) was an English lawyer and politician, of [[Furnival's Inn]] and [[Lincoln's Inn]] (where he was bencher and reader in English law). He acted, along with [[Oliver St John]], as co-counsel for [[John Hampden]] in the [[ship money]] case. He sat in the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] between 1640 and 1642 and supported the [[Cavaliers|Royalist]] cause in the [[English Civil War]]. He was attorney-general to the Prince of Wales, being knighted in 1643. He also published legal tracts.<ref>[[Sidney Lee|Lee, Sidney]] (1903), [[Dictionary of National Biography]] [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati00leesuoft Index and Epitome] [https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati00leesuoft#page/629/mode/1up p. 629].</ref>
==Biography== Holborne was the son of Nicholas Holbone of Chichester. His mother was, perhaps, Anne, sister of [[John Lane (MP)|John Lane]].<ref>Archbold, citing: cp. Gen. Misc. et Herald. 2nd ser. i. 179.</ref> Holborne was married (1630-1633) to the Lady Anne Dudley, granddaughter of the famous [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester]]. Lady Anne was one of the abandoned daughters and co-heirs of Sir [[Robert Dudley (explorer)|Robert Dudley]], formally of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, and [[Alice Dudley, Duchess of Dudley]]. It has been suggested this relationship may have influenced his initial anti-Court reputation.
He was trained for the law, as the custom then was, at [[Furnival's Inn]], before proceeding to [[Lincoln's Inn]], where he entered 9 November 1615, and subsequently became a [[bencher]] and reader in English law there. He was early distinguished in practice at the king's bench,<ref>Archbold, citing: ef. Hist. Mss. Comm. Ap. to 4th Rep. p. 26.</ref> and his opinion was taken by [[John Hampden]] in regard to [[ship-money]]. In the great case he was one of Hampden's counsel, and supplied what [[Oliver St John]] had omitted in an elaborate argument which lasted for three days, 2–5 December 1637.<ref>Archbold, citing: cf. Gardiner Hist. viii. 274.</ref>
In April 1640 Holborne was elected [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Southwark (UK Parliament constituency)|Southwark]] in the [[Short Parliament]]. In November 1640, he was elected MP for [[Mitchell (UK Parliament constituency)|St. Michael]], Cornwall, in the [[Long Parliament]].<ref name=Willis>{{Cite Notitia Parliamentaria|converted=1|part=2|pages=229–239}}</ref> While in the house he spoke strongly in favour of the power of convocation to bind the laity, in so far as the canons did not conflict with the law of the land.<ref name=Archbold-DNB>Archbold, DNB, 27.111</ref>
Holborne separated himself still further from his party by the fight he made against [[Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford|Strafford's]] attainder. When King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] went to Oxford, Holborne joined him there, and on 7 February 1642 was created D.C.L. while he was disabled from sitting in the parliament at Westminster in 1642. The King made him attorney-general to the [[Charles II of England|Prince of Wales]], and on 19 January 1643 he was knighted. His estate was [[Sequestration Committee|sequestrated]] by Parliament.<ref>Archbold, citing: ''Hist''. MSS. Comm. Ap. to 5th Rep, p. 87.</ref> He died in 1647, and was buried in [[Lincoln's Inn Chapel]] on 16 February of that year.<ref name=Archbold-DNB>Archbold, DNB, 27.111</ref>
==Bibliography== Holborne wrote:<ref name=Archbold-DNB/> # ''The Reading in Lincolnes Inne, Feb. 28 1041, vpon the Statute . . . of Treasons,'' Oxford, 1642, 4to: reiessued with Bacon's 'Cases' in 1681. # ''The Freeholders Grand Inquest touching our souveraigne Lord the King and his Parliament,'' London, 1647, 4to; a pamphlet upon constitutional questions.
He also edited William Tothill's ''Transactions of the High Court of Chancery,'' London, 1649, 8vo.<ref name=Archbold-DNB/>
The authorship of ''The Freeholders'' is usually attributed to [[Robert Filmer]] by [[Peter Laslett]], but contemporary historian [[Anthony Wood (antiquary)|Anthony Wood]] attributed it to Robert Holborne.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Weston |first1=Corinne Comstock |title=The Authorship of the Freeholders Grand Inquest |journal=The English Historical Review |date=January 1980 |volume=95 |issue=374 |pages=74–98 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/569083 |access-date=26 October 2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ehr/XCV.CCCLXXIV.74 |jstor=569083 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *Archbold, William Arthur Jobson, ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', volume 27 p. 111 cites: **Gardiner's ''History of England''; **Return of Members of Parliament; **Lincoln's Inn ''Register''; **''[[Evelyn's Diary]]'', iv. 101; **Cal. ''State Papers''; **''State Trials'', ed. Cobbett, iii. 963 &c.; **Whitelocke's ''Memorials''
;Attribution *{{DNBIE|title=Holborne, Robert|page=629}} *{{DNB|wstitle=Holborne, Robert|volume=27}}
[[William Chadwell]]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} |- {{s-vac| reason= [[Personal Rule|Parliament suspended since 1629]]}} {{s-ttl | title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Southwark (UK Parliament constituency)|Southwark]] | with= [[Richard Tuffnell]] | years= 1640 }} {{s-aft | after= [[Edward Bagshawe (MP)|Edward Bagshawe]] | after2= [[John White (Welsh lawyer)|John White]] }} {{succession box | title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Mitchell (UK Parliament constituency)|St. Michael]]| before= [[William Chadwell]] | before2= [[John Arundell (Royalist)|John Arundell]] | with= [[William Chadwell]] | years=1640–1642 | after= [[William Chadwell]] }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holborne, Robert}} [[Category:1647 deaths]] [[Category:English lawyers]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for constituencies in Cornwall]] [[Category:Year of birth missing]] [[Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn]] [[Category:17th-century English lawyers]] [[Category:English MPs 1640 (April)]] [[Category:English MPs 1640–1648]] [[Category:Attorneys-general of the Duchy of Cornwall]] [[Category:Cavaliers]]