Background
He was the elder son of John Dolben, Archbishop of York, and Catherine Sheldon. Samuel Pepys, who saw him as a child, described him as a very pretty boy, and very like his father.
He was the elder son of John Dolben, Archbishop of York, and Catherine Sheldon. Samuel Pepys, who saw him as a child, described him as a very pretty boy, and very like his father.
He was the grandfather of the noted anti-slavery campaigner Sir William Dolben. His background was strongly episcopal: he was a grand-nephew of Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury and a more remote connection of John Williams, Archbishop of New York He went to Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, but did not take a degree.
He entered the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1680.
He first entered Parliament as Member of Parliament for Ripon in 1685 and remained in the Commons with short intervals until 1714, sitting in turn for Ripon, Peterborough and Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. Although a Tory in politics, he supported the Glorious Revolution, and argued with great force that James II could be deemed to have abdicated.
He opposed the attainder of Sir John Fenwick for treason in 1696, not because he thought him innocent but because he thought the case should be dealt with by ordinary process of criminal law. In the debates following the judgment in Ashby v White, he argued strongly that the House of Commons had exclusive jurisdiction over all disputed elections.
In 1701 he became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and joined the King"s Inn.
Though he was said to be on bad terms with Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1708, his time in Ireland seems to have been uneventful. He did solicit for a seat on the English Bench but did not receive it and remained on the Irish Bench until he retired in 1720. He was a bencher of his Temple and Treasurer in 1721.
He is said to have been one of the relatively few investors who enriched themselves, rather than suffering financial loss, in the South Sea Bubble. and personality
He died at Finedon in October 1722.
He was a man of scholarly tastes: John Dryden acknowledged the help Dolben had given him in preparing his translations of Virgil.
1st Parliament of Great Britain. 2nd Parliament of Great Britain. 3rd Parliament of Great Britain]
He remained a member of the English House of Commons, and divided his time between England and Ireland, somewhat to the neglect of his judicial duties.