Background
He was born at Monken Hadley in Middlesex, son of John Upton, a merchant, and Jane Lytcott, daughter of Sir John Lytcott of Molesey.
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Anthony Upton
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Education
He was educated at Oxford, first at Trinity College and then at All Souls College, from which he graduated in 1674.
Career
He was removed from the Bench in 1714, and returned to England, where he committed suicide in 1718. He entered Lincoln"s Inn and was called to the Bar in 1683. He was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1702.
He acquired a comfortable house at Mountown, near present-day Monkstown, County Dublin.
King wrote perhaps his best-known poem, Mully of Mountown (a mock ode to a red cow), while staying with Upton. They shared a taste for poetry and country life: but since King was also a Crown official, who held several senior positions including Judge Advocate and Commissioner for Prizes, there may be some justice in the criticism that they were ignoring their official duties.
lieutenant was said that the pair "thought of nothing but spending their last years in their rural retreat". But in the event King returned to England in 1708 and died there in 1712.
In all eight womenJanet Mean, Janet Latimer, Janet Miller, Margaret Mitchell, Catherine McCalmond, Janet Liston, Elizabeth Seller and Janet Carsonwere accused of bewitching a young woman called Mary Dunbar.
Since witches were supposed to renounce churchgoing, he pointed to the accuseds" regular attendance at church as evidence of their innocence, and referred to Mary Dunbar"s evidence as "visionary imaginings". He told the jury that they "could not bring the accused in guilty upon such evidence". Unfortunately for the accused his fellow judge James Macartney urged the jury to convict, which they duly did.
On the death of Queen Anne in 1714, her Irish judges were removed en masse and most of them were in temporary disgrace.
Number permanent damage was done to their reputations, but Upton perhaps felt the disgrace more keenly then the others Abandoning Mountown, he returned to England and to his practice at the English Bar, but in 1718, while suffering from what was described as "delirium", he cut his throat.
