John Bankes

Sir John Bankes (1589 – 28 December 1644) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1624 and 1629. He was Attorney General and Chief Justice to Charles I during the English Civil War. Corfe Castle, his family seat was destroyed during a long siege, in which his wife became known as Brave Dame Mary.

Bankes was of the Bankes family of Keswick, Cumberland. He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford on 22 February 1605 aged 15. He entered Gray's Inn, where he was called to the bar in 1614. In 1624, he was elected Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett. He was elected MP for Morpeth in 1626 and in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.

In 1630, Bankes was Lent Reader of Gray's Inn and was treasurer to the Inn from 1631 to 1635. He was knighted at St James on 5 June 1631. He was also appointed attorney to Prince Charles. In September 1634 he became attorney-general to the king, holding this position during the litigation of John Hampden's famous cause of ship money; and his argument upon that question is still extant. He was also counsel for Cambridge University in 1634–35.

Bankes purchased Corfe Castle with all its manors, rights, and privileges in 1635 from Lady Elizabeth Coke (née Hatton), widow of Sir Edward Coke, who had died in 1634. Bankes's ancestors had for many generations held property in and near Keswick in Cumberland. The Title deeds and grants from the Crown of the black lead mine at Borrowdale date back as far as Henry VI. and Edward IV and were again renewed under the seal of James I.

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