James Whitelocke - Under James I

Under James I

Whitelocke was appointed steward of the St. John's College estates in 1601. He became recorder of Woodstock on 1 August 1606, steward of and counsel for Eton College on 6 December 1609, and joint steward of the Westminster College estates on 7 May 1610.

In 1610 Whitelock was elected in a by-election as Member of Parliament for Woodstock. He took part in the debates on impositions in 1610. He also acted as the mouthpiece of the Commons on the presentation (24 May) of the remonstrance against the royal inhibition which terminated the discussion. The subsequent proceedings drew from him (2 July) a defence of the rights of the subject and delimitation of the royal prerogative which was long attributed to Henry Yelverton.

In 1613 Whitelocke's opposition to the prerogative brought him into sharp collision with the crown. The administration of the navy stood in urgent need of reform, and in the winter of 1612–13 a preliminary step was taken by the issue of a commission investing the lord high admiral (Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham), Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, the lord privy seal and lord chamberlain with extraordinary powers for the investigation of abuses and the trial of offenders. As legal adviser to Sir Robert Mansell, who was interested in defeating the investigation, Whitelocke drew up a series of 'exceptions' to the commission, in which he very strictly circumscribed the prerogative. A copy of the exceptions came into the hands of the crown lawyers, who at once suspected that they were Whitelocke's. Evidence was wanting; but his contemporaneous opposition to the transfer of a cause in which he was retained from the chancery to the court of the earl marshal furnished a pretext for his committal to the Fleet Prison (18 May); and he was not released until he had made full submission in writing (13 June).

In 1614 Whitelock was re-elected MP for Woodstock in the Addled Parliament. He was nominated with Sir Thomas Crew and others to represent the Commons in the projected conference with the Lords. Because of the sudden dissolution on 7 June the conference never met and on the following day Whitelocke and his colleagues were summoned to the council chamber, and told to destroy the notes of their intended speeches. In disfavour at court, Whitelocke was compelled to surrender (18 November 1616) the reversion of the king's bench enrolments' office which he held jointly with Robert Heath, by whom he was also defeated in the contest for the recordership of London in November 1618. Meanwhile, however, his professional reputation and gains increased. In 1616 he purchased the estate of Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire. He was placed on the commission of the peace for Buckinghamshire on 27 November 1617, and for Oxfordshire on 7 May 1618. On 12 January 1619 he was appointed deputy custos rotulorum for the liberties of Westminster and St. Martin's-le-Grand.

Whitelocke stood, on the whole, well with Francis Bacon, to whom he owed his investiture as Serjeant-at-law on 29 June 1620 and subsequent advancement on 29 October. He was re-elected MP for Woodstock in 1621. He was given the then important position of chief justice of the court of session of the county palatine of Chester, and the great sessions of the counties of Montgomery, Denbigh, and Flint; and he was knighted. Shortly afterwards he was elected recorder by each of the four boroughs of Bewdley in Worcestershire, Ludlow and Bishop's Castle in Shropshire, and Poole, Cheshire. Differences with the president of the council in the Welsh marches (the Earl of Northampton) led to Whitelocke's transference from the Chester court to the king's bench, where he was sworn in as justice on 18 October 1624. He had also a commission to hear causes in chancery, and sat once in the Star-chamber.