EGERTON, THOMAS, Lord Chancellor of England, was born in 1540, in the parish of Doddlestone, Cheshire. He was the natural son of Sir Richard Egerton, of an ancient family in that county. Having been well grounded in Latin and Greek by private tuition, he was entered in 1556 of Brazenose College, Oxford, where he remained three years ; and then, having taken his Bachelor's degree, removed to Lincoln's Inn, London. In due time he was called to the bar, and soon acquired reputation and practice. It was not long before Queen Elizabeth discovered his value, and made him one of her counsel, which entitled him to wear a silk gown, and to have precedence of the other barriatera. He was appointed solicitor.general June 28, 1581, and he held this office till June 2, 1592, when he became attorney-general. Meantime, in 1582, he was chosen Lent Reader to Lincoln's fun ; he was also made one of the governors of that society, and so continued for twelve years successively. He was knighted in 1593, and was appointed chamberlain of the county-palatine of Chester. On the 10th of April 1594 he was made Master of the Rolls; and on the 6th of May 1596 he succeeded Sir John Puckering as Lord Keeper, the queen herself delivering the great seal to him at Greenwich. As a special mark of her favour, he continued to hold the office of Master of the Rolls, together with that of Keeper of the Great Seal, during the remainder of her reign. He was also sworn of her Majesty's privy council. Besides the performance of his duties as a lawyer and a judge, he was consulted and employed by the queen in her most secret councils and most important state affairs, and con tinued an especial favourite till her death. In August 1602 she paid him a visit of three days at his country-house of Harefleld, near Uxbridge, Middlesex, where, among other entertainments provided for her, Shakspero's tragedy of 'Othello' was played by Burbidge and his company. In her last illness at Richmond, in March 1603, she named to him the King of Scotland as her snecessor.
After Elizabeth's death, King James, by sign-manual, dated Holyrood House, Edinburgh, April 5, 1603, directed him to retain the office of Lord Keeper till further orders; and, having arrived in London, James, on the 19th of July caused the great seal to be and placed a new one In Sir Thome Egerton's hands, accompanied by a paper in his own writing, by which he created him Baron of Ellesmere, "for his good and faithful services, not only In the administration of justice, but also in council." On the 24th of July 1603 he was named Lord
High Chancellor of England. After being made Lord Chancellor, he resigned the office of Master of the Rolls, which he had held nine years. In 1605 Lord Ellesmere was appointed High Steward of the City of Oxford, and on the 2nd of December 1610 was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
On the 7th of November 1616, the king, with much reluctance, granted him permission to retire from office, and at the same time created him Visconnt Brackley. On the 3rd of March 1617 he resigned the great seal, when Lord Bacon was appointed his successor. While he lay ill the king sent Buckingham and Lord Bacon to offer him the title of Earl of Bridgewater, and a pension of 3000/. a year.
He refused both, saying" these things were now to him but vanities." He expired at York House, London, March 15, 1617, in the seventy seventh year of his age, having held the great seal for a longer period continually than any of his predecessors or successors. Ho was buried in the chancel of Doddlestone Church, Cheshire. His son, John Egerton, was created Earl of Bridgewater.
Thomas Egerton was a tall and athletic man, and very handsome, and retained his good looks to the last. Ben Jonson says, "He was a grave and great orator, and best when he was provoked." Lord Campbell, speaking of him as an equity-judge, makes the following observations :—" With a knowledge of law equal to Edward the Third's lay-chancellors Parnyng and Knyvet, so highly eulogised by Lord Coke, he was much more familiar with the principles of general jurisprudence. Not less noted for despatch and purity than Sir Thomas More, he was much better acquainted with the law of real property, as well as the practice of the court, in which he had long practised as an advocate; and exhibiting all the patience and suavity of Sir Nicholas Bacon, he possessed more quickness of perception, and a more vigorous grasp of intellect." (' Lives of the Chancellors,' vol. ii.)