• General Notes

  Notes for Edmund Plowden:
  Edmund Plowden was born 1520; died 6 Feb 1584 in London. He was the son
  of Humphrey Plowden of Plowden Hall, Shropshire, and Elizabeth wife,
  educated at Cambridge, he took no degree. In 1538 he was called to the
  Middle Temple where he studied law so closely that he became the
  greatest lawyer of his age, as is testified by Camden, who says that "as
  he was singularly well learned in the common laws of England, whereof he
  deserved well by writing, so for integrity, of life he was second to no
  man of his profession" (Annals, 1635, p. 270). He also studied at Oxford
  for a time, and besides his legal studies, qualified as a surgeon and
  physician in 1552. On Mary's accession he became one of the council of
  the Marches of Wales. In 1553 he was elected member of Parliament for
  Wallingford and in the following year was returned for two
  constituencies, Reading and Wooten-Bassett; but on 12 Jan., 1554-5, he
  withdrew from the House, dissatisfied with the proceedings there.
  Succeeding the Plowden estates in 1577, he lectured on law at Middle
  Temple and during his treasurership the fine hall of that inn was begun.
  His fidelity to the Catholic faith prevented any further promotion under
  Elizabeth., but it is a family tradition that the queen offered him the
  Lord Chancellorship on condition of his joining the Anglican Church. He
  successfully defended Bishop Horne, and helped Catholics by his legal
  knowledge. On one occasion he was defending a gentleman charged with
  hearing Mass, and detected that the service had been performed by a
  layman for the purpose of informing against those who were present,
  whereon he exclaimed, "The case is altered; no priest, no Mass", and
  thus secured an acquittal. This incident gave rise to the common legal
  proverb, "The case is altered, quoth Plowden". He himself was required
  to give bond in 1569 to be of good behavior in religious matters for he
  was deflated to the Privy Council for refusing to attend the Anglican
  service, though no measures seem to have been taken against him. His
  works were: "Les comentaries ou les reportes de Edmunde Plowden (London,
  1571), often reprinted and translated into Quares del Monsieur Plowden"
  (London, no date), included in some editions of the Reports; "A Treatise
  on Succession", manuscripts preserved among the family papers. Its
  object was to prove that Mary, Queen of Scots, was not debarred from her
  right to
  the English throne by her foreign birth or the will of Henry VIII.
  Several manuscripts legal opinions are preserved in the British Museum
  and the Cambridge University Libraries. He married Catherine Sheldon of
  Beoley and by her had three sons and three daughters. There is a
  portrait effigy on his tomb in the Temple Church, and a bust in the
  Middle Temple Hall copied from one at Plowden.
  
  EDWIN BURTON Transcribed by Jo Lickteig From the Catholic
  Encyclopedia, 

Details of Edmund's family with Katherine Sheldon