Some jobs are known to be high risk. Firefighting, for example, or mountain rescue. But did you know that being in the upper echelons of the judiciary can also put one’s life in jeopardy? Addressing an audience at Lincoln’s Inn recently, master of the rolls Lord Neuberger – who must have a pretty gruelling speaking schedule at the moment – shed some light on just how dangerous his own position can be. One ill-fated predecessor was Sir Thomas Cromwell, master of the rolls in the 1530s, who made the mistake of getting on the wrong side of Henry VIII and joined the king’s other detractors with his head on the chopping block. Cromwell is the only MR to have been executed – ‘so far’, as Neuberger nervously points out – but the unfortunate John Clerk, who served from 1522 to 1523, was poisoned while visiting the Duke of Cleves to explain why Henry was divorcing the Duke’s sister.

It seems some MRs of times past were not quite the upstanding pillars of society we are used to today. John Trevor, whose stint lasted from 1685 to 1717, was also a commons speaker and accepted 1,000 guineas (£1.5m today) for supporting the London Orphans Bill, as well as ‘gratuities’ from the East India Company. He was removed from the speaker’s post in disgrace, but hung on to the MR job for 20 years. No wonder one contemporary philosopher referred to ‘masters in chancery, the master of the rolls and other rascals’.

Last but not least, Neuberger recounted, was 18th century sourpuss Sir John Leach, described by one critic as ‘the most unpopular judge of his generation, displaying a vile temper and unwillingness to listen to argument that was particularly ill-advised as his knowledge of the law was scant’. A choleric judge with insufficient knowledge of the law? How times have changed.