Francis Pemberton

Sir Francis Pemberton (18 July 1624 – 10 June 1697) was an English judge and briefly Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the course of a turbulent career.

He was imprisoned three times at various points in his career, and as a judge is considered to have shown strong bias for or against defendants in some of the important trials of political figures he presided over.

In the same year, he presided over the trumped-up trial of Oliver Plunkett, the Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland, who was wrongly convicted of treason and executed.

He nevertheless managed to retain among his contemporaries a reputation for independence and integrity and it was because of suspicions of his political loyalties in a forthcoming case concerning the City of London that he was removed from office in 1682.

On this occasion, the allegation was that, as Lord Chief Justice, he had allowed legal proceedings to be pursued against the Sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons in respect of his official activities.

After his release, Pemberton's practice substantially diminished and he spent much of his time at his house in The Grove, Highgate, though he was retained in the unsuccessful defence of Sir John Fenwick in 1696.

In 1929 the Chief Justice of Ireland cited the bad example set by Pemberton, in laying down a rule that judges after their retirement should not seek to return to legal practice.