Robert Hyde (judge)

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Sir Robert Hyde (1595–1665) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He was born at Heale, Woodford, near Salisbury, the eldest son of Sir Lawrence Hyde, attorney-general to Anne of Denmark, the wife of King James I. His mother was Barbara Castillion of Benham, Berkshire. His brothers were Alexander Hyde, Sir Henry Hyde, and Edward Hyde (the first Earl of Clarendon), who was his first cousin.

Hyde was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1617, served as Lent Reader in 1638, and became a serjeant-at-law in 1640. He worked as a reporter in the King's Bench under Lord Coke and was recorder of Salisbury from 1638, though he faced complaints about collecting ship-money.

He represented Salisbury in the Short and Long Parliaments, supported the king, and voted against Strafford’s attainder, making him unpopular with Parliament. He joined the king at Oxford and was labeled a malignant, which deprived him of his seat. He was imprisoned briefly in the Tower in August 1645 and in 1646 lost the Salisbury recordership, retiring from public life. In 1651 Charles II stayed at Heale for a few days during his flight from Worcester. During the Protectorate Hyde sometimes practiced law, and his name appears in the reports of Siderfin and Hardres.

After the Restoration he was knighted and made a judge of the Court of Common Pleas on 31 May 1660, and he again became recorder of Salisbury on 14 June 1660. He served as a commissioner at the trial of the regicides, mainly advising on legal points. Through the influence of his cousin, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, he was promoted to Chief Justice of the King's Bench on 19 October 1663. He was seen as an authority on crown pleas, though not well educated in other areas. In cases involving printers and preachers he showed hostility to dissenters, though not always against non-conformists.

In 1664 Roger Pepys was bound over for insulting Hyde at a town session. Hyde died suddenly on the bench on 1 May 1665 and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. He married Mary Baber, but they had no children. He inherited the Heale estates from his brother Lawrence and left them to the heirs of his brother Alexander, the Bishop of Salisbury.