Philip Yorke, 1st earl of Hardwicke

Philip Yorke, 1st earl of Hardwicke (born Dec. 1, 1690, Dover, Kent, Eng.—died March 6, 1764, London) was an English lord chancellor, whose grasp of legal principle and study of the historical foundations of equity, combined with his knowledge of Roman civil law, enabled him to establish the principles and limits of the English system of equity. Called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1715, Hardwicke afterward joined Lincoln’s Inn, of which he...