he also had a reputation for deciding cases according to reason, without overreliance on the precedents. He was highly praised for his efficient dispatch of business: it was said that he wrote more orders in a morning then most of his predecessors had in a week. In Sir Edward Coke and the Elizabeth Age by Allen D. Boyer, Sir Edmund is described as "the monster: an angry man in the courtroom and a resentful man afterward, an advocate who begrudged other lawyers' victories". On the other hand, Francis Bacon praised him as a great judge. Works Anderson wrote two books, Reports of Many Principal Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Time of Queen Elizabeth, in the Common Bench 1644 and Resolutions and Judgments on the Cases and Matters Agitated in All the Courts of Westminster, in the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1653, which are still today very influential legal references. Family Anderson married Magdalen Smyth from Annables, Hertfordshire, daughter of Christopher Smyth and Margaret Hyde. They had 9 children, 3 sons and 6 daughters. Anderson became lord of the parish of Eyeworth, Bedfordshire, and his family remained the local gentry for many generations. He also bought Arbury Priory, which he demolished and replaced with Arbury Hall. Sources 1530 births 1605 deaths Chief Justices of the Common Pleas People from the Borough of North Lincolnshire Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Members of the Inner Temple 16th-century English judges 17th-century English judges Serjeants-at-law (England)