Sir Edward Phelips was an English lawyer and politician, the Speaker of the English House of Commons

Speaker of the British House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 from 1604 until 1611, and subsequently Master of the Rolls

Master of the Rolls

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice. The Master of the Rolls is the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal...

 from 1611 until his death in 1614. He was an elected MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 from 1584, and in 1588, following a successful career as a lawyer, he commissioned Montacute House

Montacute House

Montacute House is a late Elizabethan country house situated in the South Somerset village of Montacute. This house is a textbook example of English architecture during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the Renaissance Classical; this has resulted in Montacute being regarded as...

 to be built as a home for himself and his family. He was knighted in 1603 and one of his major roles was as the opening prosecutor during the trial of the Gunpowder Plot

Gunpowder Plot

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...

ters.

He married Elizabeth Newdigate, and his son, Sir Robert Phelips

Robert Phelips

Sir Robert Phelips was an English politician. He was the son of Sir Edward Phelips, Speaker of the House of Commons and Master of the Rolls...

, inherited his land and property.

Life

He was fourth and youngest son of Thomas Phelips (1500–1588) of Montacute

Montacute

Montacute is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England, west of Yeovil. The village has a population of 680 . The name Montacute is thought by some to derive from the Latin "Mons Acutus", referring to the small but still quite acute hill dominating the village to the west.The village...

, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1598), daughter of John Smythe of Long Ashton

Long Ashton

Long Ashton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It falls within the Unitary Authority of North Somerset, a few miles south west of the city of Bristol. The parish has a population of 4,981...

 in the same county. His father stood godfather to Thomas Coryate. Edward was born about 1560: according to Coryate, who refers to him as a patron, he was about 53 in 1613.

He joined the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

, where he was autumn reader in 1596. In 1601 he entered parliament as knight of the shire for Somerset

Somerset (UK Parliament constituency)

Somerset was a parliamentary constituency in Somerset, which returned two Members of Parliament , known traditionally as knights of the shire, to the House of Commons of England until 1707, the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from...

. On 11 February 1603 he was named serjeant-at-law

Serjeant-at-law

The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...

, but Queen Elizabeth died, and he did not proceed to his degree until the following reign. On 17 May he was made king's serjeant and knighted. In November he took part in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh.He was re-elected to parliament for Somerset on 11 February 1604, and on 19 March was elected speaker. According to Sir Julius Cæsar, he was the best speaker for some decades, and though long-winded did expedite some business for the king.

On 17 July 1604 he was granted the office of justice of common pleas in the county palatine of Lancaster. In this capacity he was very active against Catholics; he is said to have declared that, as the law stood, all who were present when mass was celebrated were guilty of felony

Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

. He was one of those appointed to examine the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, and in January 1606 opened the indictment against Guy Fawkes. He was also chancellor to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...

. On 2 December 1608 he was granted the reversion of the mastership of the rolls, but did not succeed to the office until January 1611. On 14 July 1613 he was appointed ranger of all royal forest

Royal forest

A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...

s, parks, and chases in England.

Besides his house in Chancery Lane

Chancery Lane

Chancery Lane is the street which has been the western boundary of the City of London since 1994 having previously been divided between Westminster and Camden...

, and another at Wanstead, Essex, where he entertained the king, Phelips built a large mansion, Montacute House, which is still standing, and in the possession of his descendants. He died on 11 September 1614, having married, first, Margaret (d. 28 April 1590), daughter of Robert Newdegate of Newdegate, Surrey, by whom he had two sons, Sir Robert and Francis; secondly, Elizabeth (d. 26 March 1638), daughter of Thomas Pigott of Doddershall House, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

.