Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford (1637 - 1685), was the third son of the 4th Baron North, and was created Baron Guilford in 1683, after becoming lord keeper in succession to Lord Nottingham.

He had been an eminent lawyer, solicitor-general (1671), attorney-general (1673), and chief-justice of the common pleas (1675), and in 1679 was made a member of the council of thirty and on its dissolution of the cabinet. He was a man of wide culture and a staunch royalist.

In 1672 he married Lady Frances Pope, daughter and co-heiress of the earl of Downe, who inherited the Wroxton estate; and he was succeeded as 2nd baron by his son Francis (1673-1729).

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.