George Treby (judge)

Sir George Treby (1643–1700), JP, of Plympton, Devon, and of Fleet Street in the City of London, was Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and six times Member of Parliament for the Rotten Borough of Plympton Erle, Devon, largely controlled by him and his descendants until abolished by the Great Reform Act of 1832.

The Treby family are believed to have originated at the estate of Treby in the parish of Yealmpton in Devon, from which they took their surname. George was the eldest son of Peter Treby of Holbeton in Devon, an attorney at the Court of Common Pleas by his wife Joan Snelling, daughter of John Snelling of Chaddle Wood, Plympton (which mansion house survives today after early 1800s rebuilding), and co-heiress to her nephew Francis Snelling.

He was educated at Plympton Grammar School, and was accepted into Exeter College, Oxford in June 1660. He left without completing a degree.

He entered the Middle Temple for his legal training on 24 October 1663 and was called to the Bar on 2 June 1671. He became a bencher of Middle Temple on 28 January 1681, served as a reader in 1686 and was treasurer in 1689.

In March 1677 he was elected a Member of Parliament for Plympton, over which pocket borough his family exerted considerable power. He was re-elected for both the February and August Parliaments of 1679, and again in 1689 and 1690. In Parliament Treby focused on subjects such as the wool trade, and other topics which concerned Devon. Treby acted as chairman of the Committee of Secrecy dedicated to investigating the supposed Popish Plot revealed in November 1678 by Titus Oates. In June 1679 proposals were discussed for Treby to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons, but were not acted upon as he was so short sighted as not to be able to distinguish between different MPs. He failed to be elected Chairman of the Committee of Elections and Privileges in 1679, but in 1680 was named to the committee investigating people who had promoted the ‘abhorrences’ of petitions to King Charles II for summoning parliament. He became Chairman of the Elections Committee and continued to investigate the Popish Plot, helping introduce the second Exclusion Bill to Parliament.

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