Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Reeve, Edmund (1585?-1647)
REEVE, EDMUND (1585?–1647), judge, son of Christopher Reeve of Felthorpe, Norfolk, was born about 1585, and was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, 30 Sept. 1605. He studied law at Barnard's, and afterwards at Gray's Inn, of which society he was admitted a member on 8 Aug. 1607, and elected reader in the autumn of 1632. He resided at Norwich, where in 1624 he joined with Francis Bacon in repairing the font in St. Gregory's Church. On the renewal of the charter of Great Yarmouth in 1629 he was appointed recorder of that town. On 20 May 1636 he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law, and on 24 March 1638–9 he succeeded Sir Richard Hutton [q. v.] as justice of the common pleas. His refusal at the summer assizes of 1640 to proceed upon the indictment of one of the Lambeth rioters evinces his political hostility to the crown; and his continuance in office was one of the stipulations of the parliament in the overtures made to the king in January 1642–3. He afterwards took the covenant, and in Michaelmas 1643, on being served with a writ commanding his attendance at Oxford pursuant to the royal proclamation for the removal of the courts thither, committed the messenger, who was executed as a spy by order of parliament.
Reeve died without issue on 27 March 1647, and was buried in the church at Stratton, Norfolk. He is characterised by Clarendon as ‘a man of good reputation for learning and integrity; and who in good times would have been a good judge.’
[Blomefield's Norfolk, ed. Parkin, iv. 274, v. 190, 192; Swinden's Great Yarmouth, p. 504; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. p. 111; Rymer's Fœdera, ed. Sanderson, xx. 381; Cal. State Papers Dom. 1638–9 pp. 573, 623, 1639 p. 99; Diary of John Rous (Camden Soc.), p. 101; Smith's Obituary (Camden Soc.), p. 23; Clarendon's Rebellion, ed. Macray, bk. v. § 417, vi. § 231, vii. § 317; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. pt. iii. vol. ii. p. 663; Whitelocke's Mem. pp. 76, 78; Comm. Journ. iii. 358, 374; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. pp. 33, 35, 100–1, 6th Rep. App. p. 46, 7th Rep. App. p. 29, 10th Rep. App. pt. ii. pp. 163, 164, 174, pt. iv. pp. 508–9; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.232
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 405 | i | 11 f.e. | Reeve, Edmund: after judge, insert son of Christopher Reeve, |
| 10 f.e. | after 1585 insert and was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, 30 Sept. 1605 |