Honourable Roger North, 1651-1734: On Life, Morality, Law and Tradition

Roger North (1651-1734) is known today as a biographer and writer on music, architecture and estate management. Yet his writings, including thousands of pages still in manuscript, also contain critical reflections about intellectual and social changes taking place in England. Eschewing the 'Whig' stereotypes of North, Jamie C. Kassler provides the first interpretation of his philosophy. She reveals that North, a common lawyer by profession, combined the morality of the sceptic, Montaigne, with the jurisprudence of the common lawyers, Coke, Selden and Hale. This unusual combination grounded North's critical reflections on the dogmatism of natural-law doctrine, both in its medieval intellectualist version and in its voluntarist reformulation that began with Grotius and was developed by Hobbes, Pufendorf and Locke.