Henry Bedingfield (judge)

Henry Bedingfield was the son of John Bedingfield (1595–1680) of Halesworth, Suffolk and was baptised on 9 December 1632. He was the nephew of Sir Thomas Bedingfield. He was educated at Norwich Grammar School and admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1650.[1] He also entered Lincoln's Inn that year, and was called to the bar in 1657. The following year he was made a freeman of Dunwich, enabling him to be elected to the Convention Parliament in 1660. He did not seek re-election subsequently, preferring to concentrate on his legal practice.[2]

In 1683, he presented an address from Dunwich, abhorring the Rye House Plot. That November he became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, a serjeant at law the following January, and a King's Serjeant the following November, when he was also knighted. Following the succession of James II, he was elected a Tory MP for Aldeburgh.[3] In February 1686 he was appointed a Justice of Common Pleas and in April Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.[2]

However, he died suddenly in the following February. He had married, c.1667, his cousin Mary, daughter of Robert Bedingfield, DD, rector of Newton, Cambridgeshire and had 2 daughters.

• Handley, Stuart. "Bedingfield, Sir Henry (bap. 1632, d. 1687". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1937. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)