Hedges, Charles

Epithet: Sec of State

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000621.0x0003a4

Epithet: of Add MS 15946

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000390.0x000125

Charles Hedges was born in either 1649 or 1650. he was educated at Magdalen, Oxford, where he took a B.A. in 1670, an M.A. in 1673, and a D.C.L in 1675. In his last year of study he was admitted to the Society of Advocates, and by 1686 he was Chancellor and Vicar-General of the Diocese of Rochester. In 1689 he was created Master of the Faculties and Judge of the Admiralty Court. Hedges was also knighted on 4 June 1689. From 1698 he contested various constituencies for a seat in Parliament including Orford in Suffolk, Dover, Calne and Malmesbury, West Looe, and East Looe. In 1700 he became a Secretary of State and Privy Councillor with the help of the Earl of Rochester (1641-1711).

For some time Sir Charles Hedges resided at Richmond Green, but in 1700 he bought an estate in Compton Bassett, near Calne in Wiltshire. Hedges died on 10 June 1714.

The background to the collection item, from Hedges as Secretary of State, to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, is the Aliens Act of 1705 which stated that, from Christmas Day 1705 until the Scottish Parliament passed an Act settling the Scottish Crown upon the successor to the English Crown, every Scot should be considered an alien.

At the time that the letter was written (November 1706) the Viceroy (Lord Lieutenant) of Ireland was James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde KG, KT (1665-1745), Irish statesman and soldier. The Duke of Ormonde had succeeded the Earl of Rochester to the post in 1703, and was Viceroy until 1707.

From the guide to the Letter from Sir Charles Hedges to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1706, (Edinburgh University Library)