Sir Constantine Henry Phipps (1656–1723) was born in Reading to Francis Phipps and Anne Sharpe. Phipps grew up in relative poverty, studying for free at Reading School before attending St. John's College, Oxford in 1672 on a scholarship. Phipps was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1678 and was called to the Bar in 1684. In 1710 Phipps was chosen to serve as Lord Chancellor and Lord Justice of Ireland, but his poor political skills and efforts to increase the number of fellow Tories in local councils quickly caused controversy in Dublin. Following the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the new King George I dismissed all previously appointed Irish judges, and Phipps returned to England where he continued to serve as a barrister until his death in 1723.