Robert Heath

Sir Robert Heath (1575–1649) was an English lawyer and judge.

Early life

He was educated at Tunbridge Wells grammar school, St John's College, Cambridge from age 14 and Clifford's Inn from age 17; and became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1603. He was an MP for the City of London in 1620, and became solicitor-general in 1621, when he was knighted. He was MP for East Grinstead in 1623 and 1625.Wilfrid R. Prest, The Rise of the Barristers: A Social History of the English Bar, 1590-1640 (1986), pp. 109-110.Concise Dictionary of National Biography

Attorney general

He served King Charles I of England as Attorney General, from 1625. He owed his appointment to the influence of the Duke of Buckingham. Despite a reputation as a shadowy, opaque figure, records show him able to argue shrewdly and independently in order to reduce problems for the Crown.Thomas Cogswell, ‘In the Power of the State’: Mr Anys's Project and the Tobacco Colonies, 1626–1628, The English Historical Review 2008 CXXIII (500):35-64; .

He brought a 1625 case in the Exchequer Court for the High Peak lead miners against Francis Leke who claimed a tithe from them. Through the offices of Heath the tithe right was eventually transferred, in a possibly corrupt way, to Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire. From 1629 he was taking an entrepreneurial interest in the lead mines of......
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