John Denham (judge)

He was credited with greatly increasing the Irish revenues, at a time when the Crown was heavily in debt, and was praised by Francis Bacon for his hard work and prudence as a judge in Ireland.

As such he was one of the judges in the celebrated Case of Ship Money, Rex v. John Hampden,[3] which concerned the prerogative of the King to levy the tax on his simple assertion that a need for it existed.

[4] By the time the case of John Hampden was heard by the Court of Exchequer in 1637, Denham is known to have been increasingly doubtful about the legality of ship money; indeed it was due to Denham's doubts that the Lord Chief Baron, Sir Humphrey Davenport, decided to remove the case to the Court of Exchequer Chamber, where it would be heard by twelve rather than the usual four judges.

Although he was then so ill "of my old disease" (probably the "severe ague" which had afflicted him while on assize the previous year), that he could not leave home, he sent in a short opinion that "the King's Majesty..... can neither take any lands or goods of any of his subjects but only upon a judgment on record.

"[6] Had he lived longer his opinion would very likely have saved him from being impeached, as most of his surviving colleagues were; in the event, he died at his home at Egham, Surrey, the following year.

His son's passion for gambling is said to have caused him a good deal of worry in his last years: the younger John, who was still living with his parents, was by then married to Ann Cotton, and had a growing family.