Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke

Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1 December 1690 to 6 March 1764) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1733 to 1737 and then as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1737 to 1756, after earlier serving as Solicitor General from 1720 to 1724 and Attorney General from 1724 to 1733. A close confidant of the Duke of Newcastle, prime minister in 1754 to 1756 and 1757 to 1762, he held the office of Lord Chancellor longer than all but one of his predecessors and issued judicial decisions that shaped important principles of equity law. He was created Earl of Hardwicke in 1754, purchased Wimpole Hall in 1739, and had seven children, including Charles Yorke, who himself later became Lord Chancellor, and James Yorke, who became Bishop of Ely. Through the family of his mother he was connected to the historian Edward Gibbon.