Philip Carteret Webb

Philip Carteret Webb (14 August 1702 – 22 June 1770) was an English barrister, involved with the 18th-century antiquarian movement.

He became a member of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1747, and as its lawyer, was responsible for securing the incorporation of the Society in 1751. This act was important in putting the society on level terms, in terms of finance and national prestige, with the Royal Society, which some antiquaries saw as a rival.

Webb is remembered also as an agent of the crown in the North Briton scandal (1763), assisting Robert Wood to seize the papers of radical journalist John Wilkes, whose inflammatory writings had offended the king.

He was born at Devizes in Wiltshire, and was admitted attorney-at-law on 20 June 1724. He practised at first in Old Jewry, then moved to Budge Row, and afterwards settled in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. On 18 December 1727 he was admitted at the Middle Temple, and on 8 April 1741 was admitted at Lincoln's Inn.

Early in his career he acquired a reputation for knowledge of records and of precedents on constitutional law. After the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 he acted for the state as solicitor in trials of the prisoners. Lord Hardwicke made him secretary of bankrupts in the court of chancery, and he retained the post until 1766, when Lord Northington ceased to be lord chancellor.

Webb was elected F.S.A. on 26 November 1747 and F.R.S. on 9 November 1749, and in 1751 he assisted materially in obtaining the charter of incorporation for the Society of Antiquaries.

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