Arthur Duck

Arthur Duck (1580 – 16 December 1648), Doctor of Civil Law (LL.D.) was a English lawyer, author and Member of Parliament.

Duck was born at born at Heavitree, near Exeter, Devon. the younger son of Richard Duck and his wife Joanna. His elder brother was the lawyer Nicholas Duck (1570-1628).

Duck was educated at Exeter College, Oxford (B.A., 1599) and Hart Hall, Oxford (M.A., 1602), and was elected a fellow of All Souls in 1604. In 1612 he was made a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), and in 1614 was admitted as an Advocate of Doctor's Commons. As a jurist Duck was a pupil of John Budden.

In 1624, Duck became a was Member of Parliament for Minehead, Somerset. and again in the Short Parliament of 1640.

Duck was associated with the future Archbishop Laud for some years. Duck wrote an opinion that a statute drafted by Laud for Wadham College, Oxford, was not ultra vires is mentioned in the Calendar of State Papers in 1625–6. Duck became Chancellor of the Diocese of London at about the time Laud was translated to the bishopric in 1628; by 1633 Duck is recorded as pleading a case for Laud before the King and Council on appeal from the Dean of Arches. Also in 1633, he was placed on the Ecclesiastical Commission. Duck later became Chancellor of Bath and Wells in 1635, and held numerous other ecclesiastical and administrative posts.

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