Oliver St John
c. 1598–1673
Solicitor General; Hampden’s counsel in the Ship Money case; Chief Justice under the Protectorate.
Biography
Of Queens' Cambridge and Lincoln's Inn, St John was Cromwell's cousin by marriage and one of Pym's closest collaborators in the early Long Parliament. He had been Hampden's counsel in the Ship Money case of 1637-38, and his speech against Strafford in 1641 carried much of the procedural argument for the attainder. As Solicitor General (1641-1643) and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas under the Protectorate (1648-1660) he was the senior parliamentary lawyer of the era; a moderate Independent in church matters. Refused to sit in judgement on Charles I but did not protest publicly. At the Restoration he was barred from office; he fled to Augsburg and Basel, dying in exile in 1673.
Lay Assessor — House of Commons
Parliament seated lay assessors alongside the divines to represent its interest and keep it informed of the Assembly's progress. The ordinance of 1643 named thirty members of the House of Commons as assessors; they could take part in debate but were not among the voting divines, and their attendance was often occasional as the war and parliamentary business pressed on them.