LLOYD, David, jurist, born in the parish of Marrayon, Montgomeryshire, North Wales, in 1656; died in Pennsylvania in 1731. He received a legal education, and in 1686 was sent by William Penn to his new colony to act as attorney-general of the province. His pleasing manners, persistent energy, and natural abilities served to advance him rapidly in the esteem of all classes of the community, and he was quickly preferred to many offices of trust and profit, he became successively clerk of the county court of Philadelphia, deputy to the master of the rolls, and clerk of the provincial court. In this last post he resisted the attempts of Governor Blackwell to extort from him the records with which he had been intrusted. In 1689 he was clerk of the assembly, and in 1693-'4 he was returned as a member of that body. Between this time and the end of the century he served for four years as a member of the provincial council, and during this period first developed that sincere attachment to the popular interests which formed so marked a feature of the rest of his career. He played prominent part in procuring from Governor Markham the new charter of privileges in 1696, and was the author of many legislative schemes for the security and improvement of the province. In 1703 he accepted the office of deputy judge and advocate to the admiralty. The beginning of the 18th century saw him pitted against James Logan and the proprietary in defence of the popular rights, and he continued for years an object alike of fear and of hatred to the proprietary. He was chosen many times speaker of the assembly, and his mind found employment in forming new schemes of judicial reform. Most of the important court laws that were passed up to the date of his death were the results of his pen, or at least were framed with the benefit of his counsel and advice. Being a thorough Welsh scholar, he had studied the laws of his ancestors, and made them the basis of his reforms. In 1718 he was appointed chief justice of the province. Lloyd was warmly attached to his friends, but implacable to his enemies. The historian Robert Proud regarded him as possessing political talents, but said they tended rather to divide than to unite, and James Logan, in a letter to William Penn, Jr., said he "was a good lawyer, and of sound judgment, but extremely pertinacious and somewhat revengeful." He had the defects of his race, one of which was an inordinate confidence in his own wisdom. He had also a hot Welsh temper, and was very passionate and bitter when provoked; but he was most highly regarded by his Welsh countrymen, and when Reverend Abel Morgan's "Cyd-Gordiad," or Welsh concordance of the Bible, was published (1730), it was dedicated to Chief-Justice Lloyd, as a token of their esteem and of his devotion to the principles of liberty. His declining years were marked by a peaceful repose that. formed a striking contrast to the stormy scenes of his earlier life. Laying aside the bitter prejudices and rancorous feelings which years of strife had fostered, he actively and heartily cooperated with his former adversaries in several measures that were calculated to promote the prosperity of the province. Even before his death the great bulk of the community had come to entertain feelings of respect and gratitude toward him as the first lawyer of Pennsylvania. He published "A Vindication of the Legislative Powers," etc. (Philadelphia, 1725); "A Salutation to the Britains," etc., revised by R. Ellis and David Lloyd (1727); "A Defence of the Legislative Constitution of the Province of Pennsylvania," etc. (1728).