page_title: Richard Corbet (died 1606)
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Corbet (died 1606) / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: (Image shown on this file apparently reversed) Text from HLS website (http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/bulletin/backissues/summer99/article8.html) The portrait of Sir John Popham, chief justice of the King’s Bench during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, returned to the HLS Art Collection this spring (i.e. 1999) after extensive restoration, his scarlet robe redder than it has been in years. Popham, whose likeness now hangs in the Caspersen Room in Langdell Hall, presided over some of the most notable political cases of his day, including the treason trials of the Earl of Essex (1601) and Sir Walter Raleigh (1603). The oil-on-panel portrait (one of three paintings of Popham known to exist) was completed in 1602 by an unknown artist, and acquired in 1931 for HLS by Dean Roscoe Pound. When the painting was sent to the Straus Center for Conservation at the Fogg Art Museum, the paint was flaking, and the varnish was badly discolored. Previous cleanings had worn away layers of paint and scoured away detail, some of which cannot be retrieved. But painting conservator Teri Hensick removed layers of discolored varnish and overpaint and "knit back together the image" using watercolors and other "reversible" paints. The eighteenth-century Kent frame was given new life by conservator Susan Jackson, who replaced missing rosettes and applied new gold leaf.
context_page_description: Sir Richard Corbet was an English landowner and politician of the Elizabethan period.
context_section_description: Corbet died in 1606 and was buried at Moreton Corbet. By the time of his death, he owed more than £5700.
  His will, dated 12 July 1606, shows that among the largest of his debts was at least £800 owed to his own sister, Mary, in connection with his underwriting the debts of Richard Leveson. The document is a rambling litany of debts and attempts to set them right, interspersed by hugely extravagant gifts. He gave his second wife, Judith, £300 in recognition of her allowing him to supplement her jointure with tenants' leases, an expensive way to save money. The Corbets had always been generous to servants but Richard gave some of his as much as £30. Huge sums were given to relatives and friends: £300 to his nephew Robert and £400 to his niece Mary, £200 to Henry Corbet, a distant relative. He even gave £40 to "the Lord chief Justice of England, my Honorable Friend," presumably John Popham, who was famously wealthy Another £40 went to Roger Owen, another famously wealthy man: in March he had told parliament how he had profitably invested £300 in the Muscovy Company. After the excitement of spending, he concludes with a further list of debts: "Mistres Standen £1000, Sir Michael Hix £2000, Mr Thomas Spencer £400, Mr Morrall £400, Richard Way £500, Mistres Roads £400, Mr Thornes £200, Humfrey Lee my Cosen £150, Mistres Jane Bostok £140, J Culcupe £50, Mr Pilkington £50, Mr Cole £100, Mr Trist £100, Marye Corbet my Sister £200, Mr Sidley £100, Mr Tutchborne £100."
  Corbet died without issue, but was optimistic to the end, in this as in financial matters. His will concluded with a memo, including the words:
  "My Will is that if the child wherewith it hath pleased GOD to grant that my wife hath nowe conceived shall happen to be a Daughter I doe appointe £4000 to be paid her at 16 from all the rentes and of all my Manors."
  In fact, his heir was his brother, Vincent Corbet, who already had a son to succeed him, Andrew Corbet.
caption: Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, was elderly and very rich: an unlikely beneficiary of Corbet's will.
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