Bulstrode Whitelocke

Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605 to 1675) was an English lawyer, writer and parliamentarian who served as one of the commissioners of the Great Seal during the Interregnum. Born in London, he studied briefly at Oxford, entered the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1626. He held several recorderships, sat in the Long Parliament, and took a leading part in the impeachment of Strafford. In the Civil War he sided with Parliament, though he took no part in the trial of the king. Under the Commonwealth he sat on the Council of State and was sent in 1653 on a mission to Queen Christina of Sweden, becoming retroactively the first English ambassador there. The article describes him as a learned and sound lawyer who supported using English in legal proceedings, drafted a new treason law and resisted Cromwell's sweeping changes to the Court of Chancery, for which he was dismissed as commissioner in 1654.