Nicholas Fazakerley

2 November 1682[1] – 26 February 1767), of Prescot, Merseyside, was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1732 to 1767.

Among his cases was the trial of Richard Francklin, a Fleet Street bookseller, on 3 December 1731, for publishing in The Craftsman of 2 January the letter from The Hague said to have been written by Lord Bolingbroke.

Fazakerley was retained along with Thomas Bootle for the defence, and, in the words of Lord Mansfield, 'started every objection and laboured every point as if the fate of the empire had been at stake'.

[7] In a debate on the convention with Spain, 9 March 1739, whereby peace was secured on payment by the Spanish government of a compensation to English traders, he declared that if Sir Robert Walpole 'were determined to carry it by a majority, he would never again appear in the house till he perceived a change of measures'.

[5] He also distinguished himself in the debates in May 1751, on Lord Hardwicke's Regency Bill, especially by his resolute opposition to the marriage clause.

[9] There is a story that Walpole prevailed on Hardwicke, then Sir Philip Yorke, to quit the chief justiceship for the chancellorship, by the declaration: 'If by one o'clock you do not accept my offer, Fazakerley by two becomes lord keeper of the great seal, and one of the staunchest whigs in all England!’.