Julius Caesar

Who was Julius Caesar?

Sir Julius Caesar was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1622.

Caesar was born near Tottenham in Middlesex, the son of Giulio Cesare Adelmare and his wife Margery Perient, daughter of George Perient of Shropshire and Hertfordshire. His father was an Italian physician to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, descended by the female line from the dukes of Cesarini. Caesar was possibly educated at Winchester College and matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 10 January 1575, aged 16, and was awarded BA on 17 May 1575 and MA on 18 February 1578. He then studied at the University of Paris, where he was made LLB and LLD on 22 April 1581.

Caesar was noted for his persistent striving for advancement and for financial reward in the time of Queen Elizabeth. He was a general commissioner on piracy in October 1581. In 1583 he was counsel to City of London and commissary of his friend John Aylmer, the Bishop of London in Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Essex. On 5 March 1584 he was awarded a law degree at Oxford, and became doctor of canon law. In 1584, he became judge of the admiralty court, and was an advocate of Doctors' Commons in 1586. In 1588 he became a master in chancery. He was elected MP for Reigate in 1589. He became Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1590 and was master in the extraordinary of Court of Requests in 1591. He became J.P. from 1592 and was governor of mineral and battery works in 1593. Also in 1593 he was elected MP for Bletchingley. He was treasurer of the Inner Temple in 1593. He became master in the ordinary of Court of Requests in 1595 and Master of St Katherine's Hospital in 1596. In 1597 he was elected MP for Windsor and was re-elected MP for Windsor in 1601.