Edward Herbert (attorney-general)

Sir Edward Herbert (c. 1591–1658) was Welsh lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1641. He was Attorney-General under Charles I.

Herbert was the son of Charles Herbert of Aston, Montgomeryshire. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in November 1609 and was called to the bar in 1618. In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for Montgomery. He was elected MP for Downton, Wiltshire in 1624 for the Happy Parliament and was re-elected in 1626 and 1629.

In April 1640 Herbert was elected MP for Reading and for Old Sarum and chose to sit for Old Sarum in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Old Sarum in November 1640 for the Long Parliament. He had become Attorney-General and he was instructed by Charles I to take proceedings against some members of Parliament who had been concerned in the passing of the Grand Remonstrance. The only result, however, was Herbert's own impeachment by the House of Commons in 1641 and his imprisonment.

Herbert lived at Aston in Montgomeryshire. Later in life, he lived in exile with the royal family in Holland and in France, becoming Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Charles II in April 1653, an office which he had refused in 1645. He resigned that office the next year. He died in Paris.

Herbert married Margaret Carey, widow of Thomas Carey of Sunninghill Park, Berkshire and daughter of Thomas Smith of Abingdon-on-Thames and Parson's Green, Middlesex. One of Herbert's sons was Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington, and another was Sir Edward Herbert (c. 1648-1698). He was the cousin of Edward Herbert, Baron Herbert of Cherbury.

References

•  "Herbert, Edward (1591?-1657)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.