STEPHENS, Robert (1622-75), of the Middle Temple.

The grandson of two MPs and the son of another, Stephens owed his sole appearance in Parliament to family connection and to the inn of court where many of his kin were members. There he was at the centre of a network of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset lawyers and gentry. A contemporary at Lincoln College, Oxford, of his future brother-in-law Thomas Fitzjames*, unlike Fitzjames he took four years to transfer to the Middle Temple.10Al. Ox. Since there is no evidence that he took a degree, it is plausible that he served in one of the parliamentarian armies before beginning his legal training. When he did so in June 1644 he was admitted to the chamber in Essex Court which had been occupied by his eldest brother Henry, who, having served at Gloucester, had died a prisoner of the royalists at Oxford.11MTR 931. Their father Nathaniel Stephens* was, and continued to be, a key promoter of the war effort in the west.

Stephens was soon acting as a man of business in London for his kinsmen. By November 1647 John Fitzjames*, who had married Robert’s sister Margaret, had added him to his Middle Temple counsel alongside Thomas Fitzjames and William Coles*; correspondence between John and Robert reveals the latter supplying an Italian bible and mutual interest in the language.12Alnwick, Northumberland 548, f. 4. In the late 1640s Stephens advised Fitzjames on payment of rents on episcopal lands, was nominated to receive his arrears of army pay, and conducted conveyancing for him.13Alnwick, Northumberland 548, ff. 4, 28, 31, 66, 68-72v; 549, ff. 2v, 10v, 15, 19, 28. Letters indicate that he also regularly spent time with his father in Gloucestershire.

Called to the bar in February 1652, Stephens continued to cultivate his regional connection.14MTR 1033. In so doing he associated particularly with those who, like his father, had exchanged their once firm support for Parliament for highly qualified acceptance of the protectorate. Admitted to new chambers in February 1654, he nominated Miles Cooke, son of Sir Robert Cooke*, former Member for Tewkesbury, and brother of Edward Cooke*, to share them, while in April he stood surety at the admittance of John Danvers, from a junior branch of the Wiltshire family.15MTR 1058. By 1658 it appears that he was resident at the Temple only in term, being otherwise in the country or at his father’s house in Drury Lane.16Alnwick, Northumberland 552, f. 42. Apart from Fitzjames, his clients at this date included Sir Robert Pye I* and Algernon Percy†, 4th earl of Northumberland.17Sheffield Archives, EM1368/22.

Stephens was among a swathe of Middle Temple lawyers – including others like Thomas Fitzjames, William Coles and James Dewy II* who sat only once, but also the prominent politician Robert Reynolds* – to be elected to the 1659 Parliament for seats in Wiltshire and surrounding counties. Probably on 22 December 1658 he was returned for Wootton Bassett, a borough where St Johns and Pleydells usually exercised some influence but which was also traditionally open to outsiders. It is possible that he shared the preferences of his partner, Henry St John*, for a return of the monarchy. Once elected he made no visible contribution to parliamentary proceedings. However, that he was seen as no cypher is indicated by his inclusion on the governing committee nominated in the anonymous A Proposition to the Proposing of a Commonwealth or Democracy (1659), issued soon after the dissolution of the Parliament.18Thomason 669, f. 21.49; W. Prynne, An Answer to a Proposition (1659), 2 (E.986.24).

Stephens is not known to have sought election to the Convention. In February 1660 he was engaged in an exchequer case regarding possession of a house in Westminster. Samuel Pepys, one of his clients, recorded that ‘our lawyer made some kind of opposition, but to no purpose’ and ‘went home, vexed about this’.19Pepys’s Diary, i. 40, 48, 49. Otherwise, however, Stephens forged a successful career at the bar.20Devon RO, 48/14/69/4; Glos. RO, D547A/L13; Dorset RO, D/WLC/F9. Created serjeant-at-law in April 1675, he had little time to enjoy the fruits of his elevation.21Baker, Serjeants at Law, 196. He died on 4 November, and was buried in his native parish of Eastington.22Baker, Serjeants at Law, 538; Vis. Glos. 1623, 152. Unmarried and childless, he left legacies totalling just over £2,000 to the poor of Eastington and Horsley, to his brother-in-law Sir Edward Harley*, to William Montagu*, and to 34 other relatives and friends. His executor and residuary heir was his elder brother Richard, who did not sit in Parliament.23PROB11/349/221.