Sir Edward Coke
- Personified the principles upon which Delta Chi was to be built.
- Born February 1, 1552
in Mileham, Norfolk, England. - died September 3, 1634
Coke’s education and career
- Trinity College, Cambridge
- Proceeds as Master of Arts to Clifford Inn, one of four”schools of the law.”
- called to the bar on April 20, 1578
- 1579, Coke was one of the 6 counsels for defendant Henry Shelley in a suit that set precedence for inheritance of land.
- entered parliament 1589
page 23 quote
“If in a conveyance or will a freehold estate is given to a person and in the same convey or will a remainder is limited to the heirs or to the heirs of the body of that person, that person takes both the freehold estate and the remainder.”(Moynihan, introduction to the law of Real Property, 1962, page 138)
page 24 side note
The King himself should be under no man, but under God and the Law.
- Sir Edward Coke
Quod Rex non debet esse sub homine , sed sub deo et Lege.
page 24 notes
- As Solicitor-General and Attorney-General he acted the usual part of the Crown’s lawyer.
- in 1606, Sir Edward was appointed Chief justice of the Common Pleas.
- Became one of the most respected English Judges.
- Serjeant-at-Law - service. was characteristic of an obligation to perform a personal service relating to solemn occasions of state.
- hosted Sergeants(service) feast. Distributed rings to tho present with eh motto, Lex est tutissima cassis- the Law is the safest shield.
Coke’s quote abt law
“the Law is the surest sanctuary that a man can take and the strongest fortress to protect the weakest o all; Lex eat tutissima cassis.”
page 25 side note
Et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium
A man’s home is his castle
-Sir Edward Coke
Chief Justice
- Enable Coke to act as arbitrator between the King and the people.
- Began his defense of the rights of the people from a monarch obsessed with e theory of “Divine Right” of royal authority.
American legal tradition
- begins at a common source with English Law.
- Coke’s partial set of Reports made the historic 1620 crossing of the Mayflower.
- Coke on littleton was a book every lawyer knew until late 19th century.
- 1765, Massachusetts assembly, protesting a stamp act passed by parliament, declared it invalid “against Magna Carta and the Natural Rights of Englishmen , and therefore, according to the Lord Coke, null and void.”
page 26 side note
Coke showed no disposition to surrender his opinion sand principles.
Coke’s historic “Petition of Rights”
“an Act for the better securing of every free man touching property of his goods and liberty of his person …”
“Be it now enacted that no free man shall be committed by the command of the king or the Privy Council but the cause ought to be expressed and the same being returned upon a habeas corpus, he shall be delivered or bailed … Be it now enacted that no tax, tillage, or loan shall be levied by the King or any minister without Act of Parliament and that none be compelled to receive any soldier into this house against his will….
Founders of Delta Chi Fraternity
- Albert Sullard Barnes
- Myron McKee Crandal
- Sir Edward Coke (spiritual founder)
- John Milton Gorham
- Peter Schermerhorn Johnson
- Edward Richard O’Malley
- Owen Lincoln Potter
- Alphonso Derwin Stillman
- Thomas A. Sullivan
- Monroe Marsh Sweetland
- Thomas David Watkins
- Frederick Moore Whitney
