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THE

JUDGES OF ENGLAND:

SKETCHES OF THEIR LIVES,

AND

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES

CONNECTED WITH

THE COURTS AT WESTMINSTER,

FROM THE TTME OF THE CONQUEST.

BY EDWARD FOSS, F.S.A,

OF THE INNER TEMPLE.

VOL. III.

CONTAINING THE REIGNS OF

EDWARD I., EDWARD II., AND EDWARD III
1272—1377.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1851.

London •

Spottiswoodes and Shaw,

New-street-Square.

CONTENTS

THE THIRD VOLUME.

Introduction -

Edward I., 1272—1307.

Survey of the Reign -
Biographical Notices -

Edward IL, 1307—1327.

Survey of the Reign -
Biographical Notices -

Edwaed III., 1327—1377.

Survey of the Reign -
Biographical Notices -

[ndex, iii which the names of the Judges arc given

p

ige

V-

-viii

1-

- 49

50-

-176

177-

-209

210-

-314

315-

-389

390-

-544

545-

-551

A 2

INTRODUCTION.

While these pages have been passing through the press,
I have had to join in lamenting the loss of the esteemed
nobleman who permitted this work to be dedicated to him.
By the death of Lord Langdale I have been deprived of the
warmest encourager of my literary enterprise, of the ablest
assistant in my laborious investigations, — of one who wTas the
first to dispel the diffidence of success which I unaffectedly felt,
and was ever ready to procure for me the materials by which
that success might be ensured, — of one whose cordiality and
kindness made it a pleasure to apply to him in cases of diffi-
culty, while the readiness with which he cast aside the dignity
of his position gave an additional value to his communications.
I cannot expect again to meet with a patron for whom I can
feel so much affection, mingled with respect, nor in whom I
can hope to find the will joined with so much power to serve
inc. To the public his Lordship's loss will not be easily
supplied. Independently of the performance of his judicial
duties, of which this is not the place to speak, no man was so
peculiarly fitted for the great undertaking which has made
such advances during the period of his official career. His
knowledge of the subject and appreciation of its importance,

VI INTRODUCTION.

his discriminating judgment and patient perseverance, his in-
flexible conscientiousness and systematic habits, were the
precise qualities that were required to subdue the confusion
which had gradually crept among our Public Records.
By the application of these, and by the judicious selection of
able instruments, he has subjected the chaotic mass to an ar-
rangement, which even now, in its unfinished state, affords
facilities to the statesman, the historian, and the biographer,
which they never before enjoyed ; and which, when completed,
will place our country's muniments in the very highest rank
of national collections. For carrying out that completion we
look with hope and with confidence to his Lordship's learned
successor.

In the two new volumes which I now issue to the world, I
have added 473 to my former list of 580 judges ; making an
aggregate of 1053 lives. In preparing these memoirs, I have
stated nothing for which I had not adequate authority ; and,
without expecting or attempting to give to each life the same
degree of interest, my anxiety has been to invest all with that
trustworthiness, that their details might be referred to with
confidence. In the compilation of the earlier sketches I have
derived my principal facts from the publications of the Record
Commission, for the grant of which I am indebted to the
liberality of Government. As I advanced in my work, the
materials became more abundant, and I was aided by many
friendly communications, which I have, I hope without
exception, invariably acknowledged as I used them. In some
of the accounts of the chief justices I have ventured to differ
from Lord Campbell ; and that which he has given of Sir
Thomas Billing I have felt myself compelled to discuss at
some length, from a conviction that what little we know of
that judge will not justify the disreputable character which
his Lordship has attached to his name.

INTRODUCTION. vn

In the Surveys of the reigns I have pursued my original
plan of describing every thing that was remarkable connected
with the. law ; and among other interesting subjects I have
endeavoured to trace the successive institution of the several
Inns of Court and Chancery, and also of the three different
Inns occupied by the judges and the Serjeants. From the
rulers of some of them I have received the most cordial
assistance ; and if all of them have not been equally forward,
I can readily make allowance for legal caution, even when it
is exercised where no danger is to be apprehended.

I should be ungrateful were I not to acknowledge the kind
and flattering reception which has been accorded to my two
former volumes by those who report on the literature of the
day. Making a generous allowance for the difficulties which
surrounded me, they have given me far greater credit than I
expected for my performance ; and their valuable encourage-
ment has removed any doubt I might have felt of pursuing
my undertaking, and has induced me unhesitatingly to keep
my promise of persevering to the end. The two volumes I
now offer may satisfy those, who wTere afraid of the wrork
expanding to too great a length, of the groundlessness of
their calculations. They, like the first two volumes, extend
over more than 200 years ; so that, seeing that something
more than a century occupies each volume, the remaining
period will not fill more than three, or at most four, in addi-
tion to the present.

My next volumes will embrace a period so far advanced
that many of the families of the judges who lived in it are
still flourishing. From the representatives of several of these
I have received, and from others have been promised, the
most liberal assistance : and as I have now given proof of my
perseverance, I trust that all of those who bear a judge's
name, or pride themselves in being connected with a judge's

Viil INTRODUCTION.

family, will honour my pages by allowing mc to record what
they know of their ancestors' career. Let them not refrain
from an apprehension that they have but little to commu-
nicate. The minutest fact often becomes important in an
enquiry, and sometimes supplies the very link in the chain of
circumstances that is wanting to complete the history. I
shall highly appreciate the information they may forward
to me, and faithfully and gratefully acknowledge the source
from which I derive it.

Street-End House, near Canterbury,
June, 1851.

THE

JUDGES OF ENGLAND.

EDWARD I.

Reigned 34 years, 7 months, and 17 days; from November 20, 1272,
to July 7, 1307.

SURVEY OF THE REIGN.

By the undoubted adoption in this reign of the improved
system founded on the charters of John and Henry III.,
with the complete establishment of a separate court for the
trial of common pleas, distinct from those devoted to the
hearing of pleas of the crown and matters relating to the
revenue, and by the extensive judicial improvements intro-
duced by King Edward, a new era in the administration
of the law may be said to have commenced. Before we
enter upon the arrangements consequent upon this alteration,
it may not be uninteresting to take a slight retrospect of the
judges who flourished in the eight previous reigns.

The number of those of whom biographical sketches have \
been given amounts to J

But to these must be added a few whose names are included ^
in the previous volumes, and are repeated in this, their me- V
moirs not appearing till the termination of their career J

Making the total number during the first eight reigns

580

25

605

Dividing these into the Chancellors, and others connected
with the Chancery, the Chief Justiciaries, Justiciaries,
VOL. III. B

CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS.

Edw. I.

Justices Itinerant, and Barons of the Exchequer on the
new system, the following will be nearly the appropriation
for each reign ; premising that some of these acted in two or
three reigns, and are only counted in one, and that where
any filled more than one character, they are introduced into
the highest of these divisions.

Kings.

Reigned

Y. M. D.

Chancery.

Chief
Justiciaries.

Justiciaries.

Barons
Exchequer.

Justices
Itinerant.

Total.

William I.

20 8 15

7

7

14

William II.

12 10 7

3

1

—

—

—

4

Henry I.

35 3 27

8

6

—

7

21

Stephen

18 10 0

5

2

—

—

—

7

Henry II.

34 6 18

6

5

48

—

63

122

Richard I.

9 7 3

7

5

36

—

31

79

John

17 4 23

10

1

22

—

26

59

Henry III.

56 0 19

19

5

100

24

151

299
605

65

32

206

24

278

Total period, incluc

ing the da

ys between

the reigns,

205 years,

10 months,

and 22 daj

s.

Of the sixty- five individuals connected with the chancery,
thirty-five were undoubtedly chancellors or keepers ; all of
whom are clearly shewn to have been ecclesiastics, except
Roger Pauper and Philip, in the reign of Stephen, whose
profession is not mentioned, but who were probably of the
same order : twelve are altogether doubtful ; and the re-
maining eighteen consist of those who have been called
keepers, but who were apparently only clerks of the
chancery, or other officers of the court, performing the
duties during the occasional absence of the chancellor, or
attached to the treasury or wardrobe, where the seal was
usually deposited for greater security.

The thirty-two names mentioned as chief justiciaries
may be divided into twelve clerical ; seventeen baronial, of
whom five, in the reign of Henry I., ought, perhaps, to
be excluded; and three legal, viz., Ranulph de Glanville,
Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, and Stephen de Segrave.

1272—1307. JUSTICIARIES. — BARONS. 3

The two hundred and six justiciaries arc more difficult to
divide with any degree of certainty between the official and
baronial, and the strictly legal. The first class, compre-
hending all who acted as barons of the realm, or as officers
of the household, I estimate at eighty-one, considering the
remaining one hundred and twenty-five to have pursued the
law as a profession, and to have been ultimately raised to
the bench. In the first four reigns no justiciers of the
principal court, except the chief justiciary, are named ; but,
as before suggested, perhaps the five doubtful chief jus-
ticiaries of the reign of Henry I. ought to be removed into
this class, as they were all of the baronial order, to which
probably the administration of justice in the Curia Regis
was then almost wholly confined. Under Henry II. a great
alteration, as we have seen, was made ; and out of forty-
eight new justiciers, eighteen may be selected as probably
brought up as lawyers, the remaining thirty sitting in court
either as barons, or in right of their offices. Under
Richard I. there were thirty-six, viz., twenty-four baronial
and official, and twelve legal ; and in John, sixteen of the
twenty-two were of the former, and six of the latter class.
But in the reign of Henry III., during which the office of
chief justiciary was abolished, and legal proceedings were
placed on a more systematic footing, the proportions were
reversed; for out of one hundred justiciers, I can find only
eleven who may not be supposed to have previously practised
in some manner in the court.

Although the term Baron of the Exchequer was used as
early as the reign of Henry I., it was then applied solely to
the barons of the realm, who also performed the functions of
justiciers. It was not till the eighteenth year of Henry III.
that this title was given to private individuals selected for
the performance of the duties of that department. From
that time till the end of the reign, twenty-four are named.

B 2

4 THE ENGLISH JUSTINIAN. Edw. I.

The first justices itinerant occur in the reign of Henry I.;
from which period till the close of that of Henry III., their
number amounts to 278, in addition to the ordinary justiciers,
who shared in the same duties. They comprehended every
grade of the clergy; and earls, barons, knights, sheriffs,
coroners, and landholders among the laity.

The name of Edward I. is the most celebrated among the
English monarchs, for the improvements in the administra-
tion of justice introduced in his reign. The various statutes
enacted by him touch almost every subject of litigation
between party and party, and regulate the forms of pro-
ceeding in so stable and efficient a manner, that ages passed
without the necessity of any substantial alteration in them,
and the foundations on which they were established are in
many instances still unshaken. He well deserves the title of
the English Justinian, with which he has been distin-
guished ; and his merit must not be diminished by the sug-
gestion that the system was arranged by other heads, and
accomplished by other hands, since, however able or willing
his ministers might be, their learning or their zeal would have
been insufficient without their sovereign's approval. They
were prompted and encouraged by the royal suggestion: the
paternal desire of benefiting his people, even to the limitation
of his own prerogative, principally influenced the monarch's
mind, with some addition, no doubt, of a natural wish to
check and control the nobles ; his discrimination selected the
officers most competent to the task ; and his judgment was
capable of appreciating what their labours accomplished.
Bishop Burnel, however, during whose chancellorship the
most important amendments wrere introduced, must share in
the commendation ; and all of his successors in that office,
with several of the leading judges, seem, from the enactments
of the remainder of the reign, to have been fully competent
to further and to perfect their sovereign's efforts.

1272 — 1307. CHANCELLORS. 5

King Edward was in the Holy Land at the time of his
father's death ; when the great seal, as we have seen, was
delivered up to the council. The Archbishop of York and
the Earls of Cornwall and Gloucester were appointed guar-
dians of the realm, and the office of chancellor was given to

Walter de Mbrton, who had served the late king in the
same capacity. No entry of his appointment exists ; but his
attestation as chancellor appears to a record on the Close
Roll, dated November 29, 1272, nine days after King Henry's
decease,1 At the parliament called in the following January,
he was confirmed in the office, " et ut moram trahat ad West-
monasterium tanquam in loco publico usque adventum prin-
cipis injunctum est eidem."'2 He resigned soon after the
king's return to England, in 1274, and was made Bishop of
Rochester.

Robert Burn el, then Archdeacon of York, but soon
after Bishop of Bath and Wells, was appointed Merton's suc-
cessor on September 21, 1274 3; and held the seal till his
death, on October 25, 1292 4, a period of more than eighteen
years.

The Rolls record with great particularity the occasional
absences of the chancellor, and how the great seal was
disposed of till his return. Burnel seems to have exercised
the privilege of appointing a substitute on these occasions
without any interference on the part of the king.

On February 11, 1278, Burnel went into foreign parts
and placed the seal in the wardrobe, under the seal of JOHN
DE Kirkeby, " whom," the record adds, " the chancellor
enjoined to expedite the business during his recess ; " 5 which
he continued to do till Bishop Burnel's return on June 19,
1279.

1 Hardy's Catalogue. * An.il. Sac. i. 499.

3 Rot. Claus. 2 Edw. I., m. I. « Ibid. 20 Edw. I., m. 2.

4 Hot. Lib. 6 Edw, I., m. 2.

h 3

6 CHANCELLORS. Edw. I.

During this interval, Mr. Hardy has introduced the name
of Thomas Bek into his catalogue of keepers, because, when
John de Kirkeby was summoned on May 6, 1279, to attend
the king, he was directed to leave the seal, sealed up with his
own seal, in the custody of Thomas Bek; and on the 25th,
both of them were ordered to carry the seal to Dover, to
await the king's messenger. This seems scarcely sufficient
to entitle him to the designation, as he was merely the
deputy of a deputy. It appears by an order, cited in Madox
and signed by Bek, that he was an officer attached to the
courts 1 ; either connected with the revenue, or perhaps
another clerk of the Chancery. In little more than a year
afterwards he was promoted to the treasurership and became
Bishop of St. David's.

John de Kirkeby, it will be remembered, had been charged
in the last reign with the care of the great seal on the death
of Richard de Middelton, the chancellor, on August 7, 1272,
and had retained it during the few remaining weeks of King
Henry's life. It is evident that neither then, nor on the
several occasions on which it was entrusted to him in the
time of Chancellor Burnel, was he a keeper, as the word is
understood at the present day, but merely an officer of the
court, probably the senior clerk of the Chancery, natu-
rally selected from his experience to perform the ministerial
duties of the office. The last time he is noticed in that
character is during the month of March, 1283, when the
chancellor went " usque partes proprias." 2 Early in the
next year he was appointed treasurer.

On Kirkeby's retirement, the same duties were performed
by Hugh de Kendal and Walter de Odyham, who on
July 25, 1284, 12 Edward L, wThen the chancellor retired
for the summer to his seat at Acton Burnel, received the

1 Madox's Exch. i. 662. * Rot. Lib. 11 Edw. J., m. 8.

1272—1307. CHANCELLORS. 7

seal " ab eo."1 They perhaps also acted in the same character
in the preceding year, as several letters addressed to them on
the business of the Chancery, and dated 1283, are referred
to in the Second Appendix to the Seventh Report of the
Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (p. 240—258).
Hugh de Kendal was certainly a clerk of the Chancery, and
is so designated in a record of 14 Edward 1. 2 ; and Walter
de Odyham, of whom nothing more is known, most likely
was one of his brethren in the same department.

Bishop Burnel accompanied the king abroad on Sep-
tember 2, 1286, taking the seal with him, and remaining
away till August 10, 1289.3 The Rolls do not state what
seal was used in England, nor who performed the duties of
the Chancery during the king's absence ; but among the
letters above alluded to is one addressed to William de
Hamiltox, by Edmund, Duke of Cornwall, with official
directions, and another dated November 12, 1286, from the
Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he is styled " the king's
vice-chancellor" (p. 242, 251.) He therefore in all pro-
bability exercised the functions of the office till the chan-
cellor's return.

William de Marchia is the only other person named
as keeper during the time of Bishop Burnel ; the ground
stated being, that on the chancellor's going to his bishoprick
on February 24, 1290, he delivered the seal to him at the
king's wardrobe.4 It has, however, already appeared that
this was the usual place of its deposit ; and William de
Marchia was a clerk of that department. In the same
year he was raised to the office of treasurer, and afterwards
succeeded Robert Burnel in the bishoprick of Bath and
Wells.

1 Rot. Pat. IS Edw. I., m. 7. ' Madox's Exch, h. 257.

3 Rot. Claus. 14 Edw. I., n>. 4 ; 17 Edw. I., m. 5.
* II, id. is Edw. I., no. 14.

B I

8 CHANCELLORS, Emv. I.

On the bishop's death, on October 25, 1292, the seal was
delivered into the wardrobe to Walter de Langtont, under
the seal of William de Hamilton ; the former being
merely keeper of the wardrobe, and the latter acting in his
previous capacity, as the record adds, that he " thereupon
sealed writs from that day till the following Wednesday,
when he accompanied the late chancellor's remains to Wells." l
On his return from that solemnity, it is to be presumed,
in the absence of any record, that he continued to exercise
the functions of the office for the seven or eight weeks
that intervened before the appointment of the new chan-
cellor,

John de Langton, to whom the seal wTas delivered
on December 17, 1292, 20 Edward I.2 During the ten
years that he held it, the entries are as explanatory as
in the last chancellorship of the arrangements made with
regard to the great seal when he was absent from the
court.

On the chancellor's visit to his prebend of Aulton near
Cerne, between March 4 and 30, 1297, the seal was again
left in the keeping of William de Hamilton.3

The king went to Flanders on August 22 in the same
year, taking with him the great seal, wdiich, on the
chancellor delivering it to him at Winchelsea in a certain
ship, " quae vocatur Cog Edward," was placed by the king-
in the hands of John de Benstede, his clerk or secretary,
who accompanied him ; and on the 27th, Prince Edward,
who acted as regent during his father's absence, gave to the
chancellor another seal, which was accustomed to be used
when the king was abroad.4 This latter seal the chancellor
restored to the king " at his bedside " on his return,
March 14, 1298, and received back the great seal.5

1 Rot. Claus. 20 Edw. I., m. 2. 2 Ibid. 21 Edw. I., m. 10.

» Ibid. 25 Edw. I., m. 21. ' * Ibid. m. 7.

» Ibid. 26 Edw. I., in. 14.

1272—1307. CHANCELLORS. V

The next day (March 15), the chancellor going from
court, left the great seal, sealed up with his own seal, in
the custody of John l>e Craucombe, Master John de
Cadomo (Caen), and William de Birlaco (Byrlay)
until he returned to court. The seal was in the possession
of these three at the Litter end of the year, while the
chancellor went to advise with the Archbishop of Canter-
bury relative to his election to the bishoprick of Ely ; and
there is an entry shewing that John de Caen came into the
Exchequer on October 3, as locum tenens of the chancellor.1
On December 28, all the three deposited the seal in the
king's wardrobe with Walter de Langton, Bishop of
Lichfield and Coventry, the treasurer, by whom it was
immediately delivered to John de Drokenesford, the
keeper of the wardrobe, to be carried to the chancellor,
who received it from him in London on the 10th of the
following January.2 As it is not likely that the chancellor
was absent for so long a time as nine months, and as the see
of Ely was not vacant at the first of these dates, an entry of
the return of the seal to the chancellor after March 15, and
another of its second delivery to these officers, are probably
omitted.

On February 14, in the following year, 1299, the chan-
cellor went to Rome to urge his claims to the bishoprick
on the Pope ; on which occasion he delivered the seal to
John de Benstede in the wardrobe, and on the 20th,
William de Hamilton received it, and sealed writs with it
until the return of the chancellor on June 16, when it was
delivered back to him.3

After the final resignation of the seal by John de Langton,
which took place on August 12, 1302, 30 Edward I., the
office of chancellor was vacant for about seven weeks ;

1 Madox'a Exch. L 421. ' Rot. Claus. '27 Edw. I., m. 18.

1 Ibid. m. 11.

10 CHANCELLORS. Edw. I.

during which the seal was in the first instance deposited
Avith John de Drokenesford in the wardrobe 1 ; but on the
23rd, it was delivered to Adam de Osgodby, the Master or
Keeper of the Rolls, to be kept under the seals of three
persons, viz., the before mentioned Caen and Byrlay, and
Robert de Bardelby, and it was to be so held until the
king should provide himself with a chancellor.2 This is the
first time that a Keeper of the Rolls was, eo nomine, appointed
to act in that capacity.

On September 30, 1302, 30 Edward I., William de
Greenfield, Dean of Chichester, was appointed chancellor3,
and he held the seal till December 29, 1304, 33 Edward I.,
when, in consequence of his election to the archbishoprick of
York, he resigned his office, and proceeded to Rome to obtain
his consecration.4

During his time only one absence is recorded, viz., from
October 30 till December 11, 1302, when he was employed
on an embassy. The seal was then placed in the custody of
Adam de Osgoclby, to be kept under the seals of his three
former associates.5

William de Hamilton, Dean of York, was constituted
chancellor immediately on the resignation of William de
Greenfield; and held the seal from December 29, 1304, till
his death on April 20, 1307, 35 Edward I., being the second
chancellor in this reign who died while invested with the
office.

On the next day, April 21, 1307, the treasurer and barons
of the Exchequer were ordered by writ of privy seal dated
at Carlisle, to deliver the great seal to Ralph de Baldock,
Bishop of London ; who thereupon took the accustomed oath
of chancellor before them.6

1 Rot. Claus. 30 Edw. I., m. 8. 2 Ibid. m. 6.

3 Ibid. m. 5. 4 Ibid. 33 Edw. I., m. 22.

5 Ibid. 31 Edw. I., m. 18.

6 Pasch. Comraun. 35 Edw. I. ; Rot. 46. a. p. 1.

1272—1307. CHANCELLORS. 11

The king died on July 7, in the same year, at Burgh on
the Sands ; and the chancellor being then in London, in
ignorance of the event, continued to seal writs of course till
July 25 ; and on the Saturday following, sent the seal to the
new king at Carlisle.1

I have been the more particular in recording the names of
the various persons with whom the great seal was deposited
during this occasional absence of the chancellors of this reign,
because Mr. Hardy, in his catalogue, has designated them all
as keepers of the great seal. It is apparent, however,
that some of them were merely keepers or other officers of
the wardrobe, the usual place of deposit of the seal, which
they received solely in that capacity, without any power to
use it in any way. The others were clerks in the Chancery,
who, being officially acquainted with the ordinary business of
the seal, were on most of these occasions entrusted with the
performance of the ministerial duties of the office, sometimes
by the chancellor and sometimes by the king; but in no
instance as an independent keeper, except during the two
short intervals between the death or retirement of the old
chancellor and the institution of a new one, in neither in-
stance amounting to two months.

Those standing in the former character were William de
Marchia, Walter de Langton, John de Benstede, and John
de Drokenesford : those in the latter were John de Kirkeby,
Thomas Bek, Hugh de Kendal, Walter de Odyham, William
de Hamilton (before he was chancellor), John de Craucombc,
John de Caen, William de Byrlay, Robert de Bardelby, and
Adam de Osgodby ; the last of whom, under the title of
keeper of the Rolls, being the head of the clerks of the
Chancery. I have therefore omitted them all in the table of
chancellors.

1 Rot. Fin. 35 Edw. I., at. i.

12 ROLLS. Emv. I.

Although the Rolls of Chancery must, long ere this time,
have been both numerous and important, and though their
arrangement and preservation must have devolved on some
officer of that department, yet the name of the individual
specially appointed to the service never occurs till this reign.
The title of " Custos Eotulorum Cancellarise domini Regis "
is attached, for the first time, to the name of John de
Langton, in an entry on the Patent Roll of 14 Edward L,
1286, cited by Mr. Hardy1; and he is mentioned in the
parliament of Hilary and Easter, 18 Edward I., as receiving
the letters sent to Rome by the king and the nobles to be
enrolled in the Chancery.2

It is evident, however, that he was not the first person
■who held that place ; as in the appointment of Adam de
Osgodby on October 1, 1295, 23 Edward L, the custody of
the Rolls was given to him in the same manner " quo alii
custodes earn habere consueverunt temporibus retroactis." As
these words could scarcely apply to appointments so recent
as that of Langton, or of any other who might have held it
between his elevation to the chancellorship in December,
1292, and Osgodby's nomination, we are left to suppose that
the office, the duties of which had been probably performed
by one of the clerks of the Chancery, had not heretofore been
considered of sufficient importance to be recorded on the
Rolls ; and that either the extent of the responsibility, or the
addition of other duties arising from the division of the
courts, rendered it now of so much greater consequence as
to be placed in the king's nomination.

The terms of the appointment are : " Memorandum quod
primo die Octobris anno regni Regis Edvardi vicessimo
tertio in ecclesia conventuali Sancti Augustini Cantuar.
commissa fuit custodia Rotulorum Cancellar. Domino Adas de

1 Hardy's Catalogue, p. 13. » Rot. Pari. i. 25.

1272—1307. MASTERS IN CHANCERY. 13

Osgoteby per Dominum Johannem de Langton Cane. Domini
Regis ex -parte dicti Dom. Regis, Ita quod custodiam illam
eodem modo habeat quo alii custodes earn habere consueve-
runt temporibus retroactis."

Adam de Osgodby continued to hold the office during the
remainder of this reign. That he still was considered as
one of the clerks of the Chancery is apparent from many-
entries of the deposit of the great seal in the custody of
himself and others of his brethren, in the various absences
of the chancellor from the court.

He was not necessarily the chancellor's substitute on these
occasions ; for during the seven years that the then chancellor,
John de Langton, continued in the office after Osgodby's ap-
pointment, the duties of the seal were performed, in his
absence, by William de Hamilton alone, or by three other
clerks of the Chancery jointly appointed. It was not till
the vacancy occasioned by Langton's resignation in August,
1302, 30 Edward I., that the seal was placed in Osgodby's
hands, under the seals of three other clerks, till a new
chancellor was named.

There is nothing positively to shew the number of the
senior clerks of the Chancery, (in whose place the masters of
that court now stand,) unless the summons that was addressed
to Robert de Pykering and to ten others in 30 Edward I.,1
commanding them to appear before the chancellor to give
counsel on certain arduous affairs, and, if needful, " by the
inspection of their books," is to be considered as including
them all, except Adam de Osgodby, the Master of the Roll-.
Most of the persons so addressed were undouDtedly clerks in
the Chancery ; perhaps all of them : but if so, the number
must have been greater than twelve, because there were
several others who notoriously held that place both before

1 Pari Writs, i. no.

14 MASTERS IN CHANCERY. Edw. I.

and after that date. If the number of clerks, including the
Master of the Rolls, did not exceed twelve, as is generally
supposed, there must have been some other officers of the
court who were equally entitled to attend the parliament,
as the persons summoned apparently on this account frequently
extend beyond that number.

We have seen that several of them acted for the chan-
cellor, holding the seal when he was absent ; and in addition
to their attendance in parliament, several instances of their
being appointed proxies for bishops and abbots occur in
this reign, and of their being named as receivers and triers
of petitions.

The following list contains the names of those who are
known or suj>posed to have held the office within the periods
mentioned : —

John de Kirkeby ----- 1 to 12 Edw. I.

? Thomas Bek ----- 7 _

Hugh de Kendal - - - - - 11 to 19 —

Walter de Odyham - - - - 11-12 —

"William de Hamilton (afterwards chancellor) - 14 to 33 —

John de Langton, UK. - - - -14 to 21 —

William de Chyrinton - - - - 21 —

John de Cadomo - - - - - 21 to 35 —

Robert de Radeswell- - - - - 23 to 35 —

John de Derby - - - - - 23 to 29 —

John de Craucombe - - - - - 23 to 33 —

Adam de Osgodby, M. R. - - - - 23 to 35 —

William de Grenefield (afterwards chancellor) - 23 to 30 —

William de Kilkenny - - - - 23 to 33 —

Peter de Dene - - - - - 23 to 35 —

Reginald de Braundon - - - - 23 to 33 —

John de Lacy - - - - - 23 to 29 —

Thomas de Logore - - - - - 25 to 35 —

William de Birlaco - - - - - 26 to 33

Peter de Insula - - - - - 28 to 33

Robert de Pykering - - - - -29 to 35

William de Pykering - - - - - 29 to 35

William de Sardenne - 29-30

1272—1307. TERMS. 15

Philip Martel - - - - - 29 to 33 Edw. I.

Richard de Plumstok - - - - 29 to 35 —

Robert de Bardelby - - - - - 30 to 35 —

John Bussh - - - - - - 30 to 35 —

John Fraunceis - - - - - 35 —

Geoffrey de Welleford - - - - 35 —

All of these were ecclesiastics, and most held dignities in
the church.

It will be remembered that by the law of Edward the
Confessor, confirmed by William the Conqueror, certain
sacred periods were devoted to the church, during which no
judicial business was to be transacted. In the first par-
liament held by Edward I., in the third year of his reign,
1275, in the statute of Westminster 1, chap. 51., it is pro-
vided, "at the special request of the king made unto the
bishops," and by their assent, that during three of these
periods, viz., Advent, Septuagesima, and Lent, assizes of
Novel Disseisin, Mortdauncestre and Darrein Presentment,
may be taken " even as well as Enquests." The reason for
this change in the old law is stated to be, that "it is a great
charity to do right unto all men at all times;" but it is
evident that with regard to "Enquests" an encroachment
had already taken place.

It is curious that, notwithstanding this statute, Thomas
de Weyland, in the following year, deemed it necessary to
procure a licence from the Bishop of Norwich to try an
assize of last presentation to a church, non obstante instantl
Quadragesima. ' This, however, may have been procured
only ex abundante cautela, or, perhaps, because ecclesiastical
matters were connected with the trial.

The court of Common Pleas was always held, according
to the provision of Magna Charta, "in aliquo ccrto loco,"
which in this reign was at Westminster. But the courts of

1 Spelman's Original of the Terms, Appendix, p. 104(

16 COURTS. Edw. I.

King's Bench and Exchequer were frequently removed, ac-
cording to the urgency of the time, to different localities ;
and the Abbreviatio Placitorum mentions ' several places
where the judges of the King's Bench occasionally sat.

In 5 & 10 Edward I., 1277-1282, the King's Bench and
the Exchequer were removed to Shrewsbury, when the
king unfurled the royal banner against the Welsh.1 For
seven years, from 26 to 33 Edward I., 1298-1305, they sat
at York 2 ; during which period, by the statute Articuli
super Cartas, 28 Edward I., it was enacted, u that the
chancellor and the justices of his bench should follow the
king, so that he might have at all times near unto him some
sages of the law, who might be able to order all such matters
as should come into the court at all times when need should
require."

The term " Justiciarius de Banco," continued occasionally,
during Edward's reign, to be applied to the judges of both
courts. A repetition of the enactment made by Henry III.
relative to leap year, and mentioned in Yol. II. p. 183, occurs
in the sixth year of this reign, addressed, in the same manner,
to the judges by this title.3 The word "Bench" also is
often indiscriminately used ; the ordinance for the removal
of the King's Bench to York in 26 Edward I. describing it
as " Bancus," without any addition.4 The court of Common
Pleas is designated in one instance, in 10 Edward I., "Mag-
num Bancum."5

Although the office of chief justiciary had been entirely
abolished under Henry III., and the three courts of King's
Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, had been formed
out of the Curia Regis before the end of that reign, it is
probable that the precise duties of each had not been fully
defined, and that the appropriation of the judges of the two

1 Lingard, iii. 193.; Lei. Coll. i. 459. 2 Ibid. 460.; Lingard, iii. 240.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 14. 4 Ibid. 143. 5 Abbrev. Plac. 274.

1272—1307. KING'S BENCH. 17

former benches had not been strictly established. Even
under the reign of Edward I. it is not possible in all cases
to distinguish to which court the different judges belong;
and I have accordingly found it necessary, in some instances,
to affix the mark ? as denoting a doubt.

Of the justiciers under Henry III. nineteen were alive at
the end of the reign ; six of whom, as far as I can discover
from the published records, did not resume their functions
in that of Edward I. These were

Robert de Brus, chief justice of the king's bench,
Laurence de Brok, Thomas Trevet,

Adam de Greinvill, Henry de Wollavinton.

John de Oketon,

The rest certainly acted in this reign ; and I have placed
them, except Geoffrey de Leuknore, who does not appear to
have been appointed till some years after the accession, in
the first year in the courts to which they seem to belong ;
because, though some of them are not mentioned judicially
till the second or third years, there is a sufficient probability
that they were not removed at the death of Henry III.

In pursuing the enquiry in each court the most convenient
course will be to trace the succession of the chief justices in
the first instance.

Chief Justices of the King's Bench.

Robert de Brus, who filled the office of chief justice of
the King's Bench at the close of the last reign, does not
appear, from any existing evidence, to have acted at all in
thin. I have, therefore, not felt myself warranted in in-
serting his name, although the :iksence of it leaves the place
vacant during the whole of the first and part of the second
year of Edward's reign; since it is not till the concluilin^
month of the latter year that the name of

VOL. III. c

18 king's BENCH. Edw. I.

Ralph de Hengham is first introduced. He is then
mentioned in such a manner as to shew plainly that he occu-
pied the highest place in the court, though he is not expressly
called chief justice. The words are, " Placita coram Domino
Rege et R. de Hengham et sociis snis, justiciis de Banco
Domini Regis in Octabis S. Michaelis anno regni, &c. secundo
incipiente tercio apud Westm."1 That he was not appointed
in the first year, but was then a justice of the Common
Pleas, appears from the fact that fines were levied before
him till fifteen days of St. Martin in the second year, viz.
November 26, 1273 2 ; so that his nomination must have
occurred between that date and the following October. He
continued to preside in the court till 18 Edward L, when,
sharing in the disgrace with which several of his brethren
were visited, he was removed from his office and fined.

Gilbert de Thornton succeeded Hengham, and a
curious confirmation of the view I have taken of the use of
the title " Justiciarius de Banco" in those days, is afforded
by that designation being applied to him'5, although he never
filled any judicial office but that of chief justice of the
King's Bench. If, as Dugdale alleges, he had previously
acted as the king's attorney, and there are several instances
of his being employed in the courts for the king, as late as
13 Edward I., his appointment forms the first example of
that officer being raised to the highest place on the bench,
though it may be doubtful whether he was the king's attorney
at the time of his elevation. This occurred in 18 Edward I.,
1289-90, and the last date on which his pleas are mentioned
is August, 1295.4

Roger de Brabazon, who was a justice of the King's
Bench at this time, was his successor ; but there is no
evidence of the precise date of his appointment. As, how-

1 Abbrev. Placit. 263. "■ Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 44.

3 Abbrev. Placit. 286. 4 Rot. Pari. i. 134.

1272—1307. KING'S BENCH. 19

ever, he is mentioned in this character in Hilary Term, 25
Edward I., 1297 l, he was probably constituted in the previous
year, and he continued in the office during the remainder of
the reign.

Judges of the King's Bench.

The surviving judges of this Court, under Henry III.,
were —

I. 1272-3. John de Cobbeham, ? John de Reygate,
Walter de Helyun, ? Richard de Stanes.

Martin de Littlebiri,
Those subsequently appointed were the following : —

William de Saham, Nicholas de Stapleton.

III. 1274-5. Walter de Hopton, vice R. de Stanes, removed to the

Common Pleas.

IV. 1275-6. John de Metingham, in the room perhaps of J. de

Cobbeham, removed to the Exchequer.
Walter de Wymburn, loco ? M. de Littlebiri.
XI. 1282-3. Dugdale inserts ? John de Cave in this year ; but I
can find no other evidence of his acting as a
justice.
XIII. 1284-5. Elias de Sutton.
XVII. 1288-9. ? Ralph de Sandwich ; but probably only acting as

constable of the tower.
XVIII. 1289-90. Roger de Brabazon, loco John de Metingham, made
chief justice of the Common Pleas.
Robert Malet, loco William de Saham, disgraced.
XXII. 1293-4. John Lovel, perhaps in the place of Nicholas de

Stapleton.
XXIIL 1294-5. Gilbert de Roubury, loco John Lovcl.
XXIV. 1295-6. AVilliam de Ormesby, loco Roger de Brabazon, made

chief justice of this court.
XXIX. 1300-1. Henry Spigurnell.

No change took place in this court for the remaining ten
years of this reign. The number of its judges, leaving out
those who are doubtful, seems to have been generally four,
but for the latter years only three, besides the chid": and
at the death of the king they were, —

Roger de Brabazon, chief justice,
Gilbert de Roubury, William de Ormesby

Henry Spigurnell.

I Abhrev. IMacit. 39
C 2

20 COMMON PLEAS. Emv. I.

Chief Justices of the Common Pleas.

Gilbert de Preston, who filled this office at the end of
Henry's reign, was continued in it by his successor, and the
Liberate Roll of the first year so designates him, being the
first instance, as Dugdale declares, of the title being used.
The last fine that was levied before him was in the Octaves
of St. John the Baptist, 2 Edward L, June, 1274.1

Roger de Seyton was put in his place in the following
Michaelmas, having occupied a seat on the same bench
from April, 1268, 52 Henry III.2 He continued to preside
till after the Octaves of Trinity, 6 Edward I., 1278, the
last fine levied before him bearing that date.

Thomas de Weyland was his successor in the same
year, having been also previously a judge in this court.
His disgrace and removal occurred before Hilary Term, 18
Edward I., 1290, as he is called " nuper justiciarius " at the
parliament then held.3

John de Metingham, at that time a judge of the King's
Bench, was raised to the presidency of the court of Common
Pleas in the same term. The last fine levied before him was
in fifteen days of Michaelmas, 26 Edward L, 1297 ; but his
name appears after that of Roger de Brabazon, the chief
justice of the court of King's Bench, in the Statute de
Escaetoribus, Hilary, 29 Edward I., 1301. He lived for a
few months only after this, as his successor,

Ralph de Hengham, the late chief justice of the
King's Bench, now restored to favour, was appointed on the
19th of the following September. He retained his place
during the remainder of the reign, and was continued in it
by Edward II.

1 Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 39. 43. z Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 469.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 23.

1272—1307. COMMON PLEAS. 21

Judges of the Common Pleas.

Besides the chief justice, Gilbert de Preston, the following
were the judges of the court of Common Pleas under
Henry III., who acted in this reign.

I. 1272-3. Robert Fulcon, Henry de Monteforti,

Ralph de Hengham, Roger de Seyton,

Stephen Heym, William de Weyland.

The following were subsequently appointed :

II. 1273-4. Richard de Stanes, f aPP^ently in the room of Ro-

removedfromK.B.i?er.de Se?ton' made cllief

Thomas de Weyland, JUSj1C! °f '\he Common Pleas'
*-and of William de Weyland.

{in the room of Ralph de
Hengham, constituted chief
justice of the K.B., and Ste-
phen Heym.
IY. 1275-6. Roger de Leicester, in the room of Richard de Stanes.
Dugdale introduces three others for whom I cannot find
a place, nor any other evidence of their sitting in this
court ; viz. Geoffrey de Leuknore, Geoffrey de Newbald,
and Roger Loveday ; and on a reference to the patent
he quotes, I find that they were merely appointed to hold
the pleas pertaining to the tenants of the liberty of the
priory of Dunstable. I have therefore inserted them
among the justices itinerant.
VI. 1277-8. William de Brompton, in the room of Thomas de
Weyland, made chief justice of this court.
Walter de Ilelyun, in the place of Ralph de Frening-

ham.
? Stephen dePencestre is introduced by Dugdale; but
I think only acted judicially as warden of the
Cinque Ports.
Elias de Beckingham, loco Walter de Helyun.

Robert de Hertford, f in the PIaces of lloSer de Lei"
Robert de Thorpe, J cester' John de Lovet°t> **
William de Giselham, WlIham de Brompton, dis-

^graced.
William <le Hereford, loco Robert de Thorpe.
Peter Mallore, loco William de Berefbrd.
i 9

XII.

1283-4.

XIII.

1284-5.

XVIII.

1289-90

XIX.

1290-1.

XX.

1291-2.

22 EXCHEQUER. Edw. I.

XXII. 1293-4. William de Hereford, loco William de Giselham.
XXV. 1296-7. William Howard, loco Robert de Hertford.
XXVIII. 1299-1300. Lambert de Trikingham.

XXXIII. 1304-5. ? Henry de Guldeford, though introduced by Dug-

dale, is not otherwise noticed than as a justice
itinerant.

XXXIV. 1306-7. Hervey de Staunton, loco Elias de Beckingham.

The number of judges of this court during this reign
was sometimes six, often four, and for the last few years
five, besides the chief; and those who sat in it at the
death of the king were

Ralph de Hengham, chief justice,
Peter Mallore, William Howard,

William de Hereford, Lambert de Trikingham,
Hervey de Staunton.

Even in this reign we have clear evidence that common
pleas still continued to be heard in the Exchequer. In 5
Edward I. the king addressed a writ to the barons of that
court, prohibiting them from holding a certain plea between
private parties then before them, or any other common pleas
contrary to the tenor of Magna Charta.1 This was repeated
in the Statute of Rutland, 10 Edward I., 1282, whereby,
after stating that pleas were taken in the Exchequer, which
did not concern the king and the officers of that court, by
which not only the king's pleas but the causes of the people
were unduly prorogued and impeded, it is expressly enacted
that no plea shall be holden there, unless it specially concerns
the king or the said officers. Again, in the Articuli super
Cartas, 28 Edward I., 1300, a similar provision was in-
troduced : — and so difficult was it entirely to stop the
practice, that the prohibition was renewed by a royal ordi-
nance two years afterwards.2

The court was generally held at Westminster, but some
instances occur during this reign of its being held in other
places. In Michaelmas, 8 Edward I., it sat at Shrewsbury ;
in 18 Edward I. it was ordered to be transferred to the

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 74. a Prynne on 4 Inst. 55.

1272—1307. EXCHEQUER. 23

husting of London, and in the twenty-sixth year the king
caused it to be removed to York, commanding the sheriff to
fit up the castle hall with a square chequer- board, and seats
for the treasurer, barons and officers, with a bar for those
who attend to plead there.1

The barons of the Exchequer seem all to have been equal
in rank, having no other distinction than that of seniority.
The office of chief baron had not yet been introduced;
although some authors so designate Adam de Stratton when
he was disgraced and fined in 18 Edward I., and Dugdale in-
serts William de Carleton in his list, with that title, in 31
Edward I. Stratton, however, was only an officer, and not
even a baron of the court; and the authority quoted by
Dugdale in support of his assertion as to Carleton, so far from
establishing it, contains no expression capable of such an
interpretation, but grants precisely the same salary, forty
marks per annum, to him and to Peter de Leicester, they
being then the two senior barons.2

The Issue Roll of 19 Edward I. contains an entry of
some curious payments made to the usher of the Exchequer:
from which we learn that the salary of that officer was 5d.
a day ; that three scribes had each the same salary ; that the
two chamberlains received 8d. a day, and the four tellers
only 3c?. a day.3

Barons of the Exchequer.

I. 1272-3. Roger de la Leye, a baron in the last reign,
llervey de Boreham.
II. 1273-4. Walter de Hopton, Roger de Northwood, John de St.
Valerico.

III. 1274-5. Philip de Wileby.

IV. 1275-6. John de Cobbeham.

XII. 1283-4. Peter de Chester, loco Philip de Wileby.
XIV. 1285-G. William de Middleton, loco Roger de Northwood.

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 7. 9. * Ibid. ii. 68. 3 Devon's Issue Roll, p. 103.

c 4

24

CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS.

Edw. I.

William de Carleton,
Peter de Leicester,

-on the extinction of

their former office of

justices of the Jews,

XIX. 1290-1. William de Carleton, were made barons.

They took the places
of Peter de Chester
and William de Mid-
L dleton.
XXIII. 1295. Oct, 21. John de Insula.

Dugdale has erroneously introduced Richard de Saham
as appointed a baron in the place of Elias de Wynton.
They were both barons of the Exchequer in Ireland.

XXVI. 1297-8.
XXVII. 1299. Oct. 17.
XXXIV. 1306

Roger de Hegham.

Richard de Abyndon, loco John de Cobbeham.
Oct. 19. Humfrey de Waledene.
The acting barons at the end of the reign were,

William de Carleton, Roger de Hegham,
Richard de Abyndon, Humfrey de Waledene.

In 31 Edward I. the treasury was broken open, and,
according to the commission of enquiry issued to some of the
judges on that occasion, no less than £100,000 carried away,
with other things of enormous and inestimable value.

Table of Chancellors and Keepers of the Seal, and
of Masters of the Rolls.

R.A.

A.D.

Chancellors and Keepers.

Masters of the Rolls.

1

1272,

Nov.

Walter de Merton, Chanc.

2

1274,

Sept. 21

Robert Burnell, Archdeacon of
York, afterwards Bishop of Bath
and Wells, Chanc.

14

1286

—

John de Langton.

20

1292,

Oct. 25

William de Hamilton, Keeper

—

21

Dec. 17

John de Langton, Chanc.

made Chancellor.

23

1295,

Oct. 1

—

Adam de Osgodby.

30

1302,

Aug. 26

Adam de Osgodby, M. R., Keeper.

—

Sept. 30

William de Greenfield, Dean of
Chichester, Chanc.

—

33

1304,

Dec. 29

William de Hamilton, Dean of
York, Chanc.

—

35

1307,

April 21

Ralph de Baldock, Bishop of Lon-
don, Chanc.

—

The king died July 17, 1307.

1272—1307.

king's bench.

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28 JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. Edw. I.

At the convocation of bishops, peers, and commoners, held
at Westminster in January, 1273, just after the death of
Henry III., it was ordained that there should be no itinerant
judges until King Edward's return to England.1 He arrived
in the following year, when the circuits were renewed ; all
the regular justiciers acting in their turns, with the assistance
of other lawyers, whose commissions were limited to this
duty.

Delays, however, being frequently occasioned by the
inability of the judges to attend at the times and places
appointed, in consequence of the pressure of their other
duties, or of special precepts, a new ordinance was issued by
the king in the 21st year of his reign, 1293, directing that
eight justices should be assigned to take assizes, jurats, and
certificates throughout the year ; namely, two to each of four
divisions, comprehending all the counties in the kingdom,
with the exception of Middlesex, which was left to the sole
jurisdiction of the justices of the bench.2 There does not
seem to have been any real difference between these and
the other justices itinerant, except that they were to be
constantly engaged in their functions. Several of them
were afterwards raised to the superior bench.

Towards the end of the reign another itinerant court was
erected, the judges of which were called Justices of Trail-
baston.

The first commission is given in Hemmingford, under the
year 1304, and is confined to Yorkshire, being there ad-
dressed to Ralph Fitz- William, then the king's lieutenant in
that county, and John de Barton, a resident.3 It occurs
again among the parliamentary writs bearing the date of
November 22, 1304, 33 Edward I., with the addition of two
other justices, viz,, William le Vavassur and Gerard Salveyn.

1 Angl. Sac. i. 499. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 99.

3 Historia. Ed. Hearne, p. 208.

1272—1307. JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. 29

Whether this is the same writ as that mentioned in Hem-
mingford, or one of subsequent date, is uncertain ; but
another writ was at the same time issued to three justices to
act in the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, and Derby ; and
a short time afterwards, others to three in Norfolk and
Suffolk, dated January 9, 1305, and to two in Lancashire,
dated March 12.1

A new arrangement, however, was made in the following
April, when four commissions were issued, comprehending
all the counties in the kingdom, except Cheshire and Durham,
which were subject to separate jurisdictions, and the five
counties in the home district.2 These latter were added in a
fifth commission, in February, 1307, 35 Edward I., when the
other four were renewed.3

Both of these latter series of commissions included the
counties mentioned in the earlier writs ; and neither Ralph
Fitz- William nor John de Barton, nor several others, were
re-appointed; so that it seems probable that the offences
which the first commissions were intended to punish, and
which were probably supposed to be confined to the northern
and eastern counties named, were found to be more widely
extended than was originally suspected, and to require larger
powers to be given for their suppression, and more experienced
judges to be appointed for the purpose.

Accordingly, to that division which comprehended York-
shire five justices were appointed, one of whom, both in the
commission of 1305 and in that of 1307, was a regular
justicier at Westminster, and was always to be present, while
the rest were barons and knights resident in the several
counties to which it extended. The same course was adopted
in each of the three other districts, under both these coin-

1 Pari. Writs, i. 407. » Unci. 403. ; N. Podera, i. 970.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 218.

30 JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. Edw. I.

missions, while the justices named in 1307 for the five home
counties were all of them members of the superior courts.

There is a curious petition to the parliament of 35 Edward
I., alledging that persons who had been convicted before the
justices of trailbaston for conspiracies and other misde-
meanors,, and had paid their fines for them, got themselves
afterwards placed on inquisitions and juries to confound those
who had honestly indicted them. An order was therefore
given to forbid this in future.1

To the writ of this parliament, appointing the justices of
trailbaston, is added the oath to be taken by them; one
clause of which is, " that they shall take no gift of any one
for pleading or other thing which he may have to do before
them, except it be to eat and drink d lajornee"2

Various significations have been given to the term trail-
baston. There is no doubt that the judges under these com-
missions were called justices of trailbaston ; but the question
is, from what they received their designation. In the Annals
of Worcester3, under the year 1305, it is said, "hoc anno
Justiciarii Domini Regis, qui vocantur Trailbaston, primo
itineraverunt." Thomas Trivet, in his Annals 4, says that this
name was given them by the people ; " ab hominibus popu-
laribus vocati sunt de Traylebastoun," adding, " quod sonat
trahe baculum." Holinshed5, who quotes from Trivet,
translates this last expression, " which signifieth traile or draw
the staff; " and Jacob, in his Law Dictionary, professing to
quote from Holinshed, calls this staff "the staff of justice."
Thus, out of Trivet's simple statement of a fact, an hypothesis
is framed for which his words certainly give no authority ;
namely, that these justices were so styled from trailing the
staff of justice. I find no other foundation for this inter-
pretation, and I have little hesitation in discarding it ; for if

1 Rot. Pari. i. 201. 2 Ibid. i. 219. 3 Angl. Sac. i. 529.

1 Trivet, p. 404. s Holinshed, ii. 538.

1272—1307. JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. 31

such were the meaning of the words, no reason appears why
they should not have been used in the previous years of the
reign, or in reference to any of the itinerant justices who had
traversed the counties from the time of Henry I. Indeed, in
this view, it might be applied as appropriately to our modern
judges, when they go their circuits.

Sir Edward Coke's definition, — that they were so called
from the rapidity of their proceedings, which equalled that of
the blow with a baton, — seems to be even less defensible.
It is not very probable that a term, which, according to this
interpretation, must have been given to them by the people,
in something like derision, to express the hastiness of their
judgments, should have been adopted, as it undoubtedly was,
in the records of the state.

Both the origin and termination of these commissions
appear to point out that the institution of them was a tempo*
rary measure, adopted to meet a particular emergency.

Neither in the commissions of 1304, nor in that of April,
1305, does the word trailbaston occur ; but the latter is
docketed " De transgressionibus nominatis Trailbaston au-
diendis et terminandis." The ordinance also made at the
parliament of the latter year1, referring to that commission,
does not contain the word, but is marked " Ordinatio de
Trailbastons." There is little doubt, therefore, that the word
trailbaston applied originally to the offences or the offenders,
and not to the judges ; although the latter, beinu; assigned to
try them, were, as they naturally would be, subsequently so
denominated. Thus, in the list of those summoned to the
parliament at Carlisle in Hilary, 1307, 35 Edward I., we find
William le Vavasour called " Justic. Trailb. ;" and William
Inge, the judge, is excused his attendance " pro Trailb." - I n
the petition, also, to the same parliament, already referred to,
the phrase " coram Justic. de Trailbaston" is Qsed.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 178. * Ibid. i. 188.

32 JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. Edw. I.

The expressions " Pleas of Trailbaston," and " business of
Trailbaston," inserted in the two writs dated in February,
1307, afford further proof that the pleas or business were not
derived from the designation of the judges, but that the
judges were so called from the duty they had to perform ; and
the king's anxiety to expedite the work, by adding his own
judges to those already specially appointed, as exhibited in
the body of these writs, shews that the offence had not yet
been eradicated, and that the offenders were numerous and
bold.

The precise nature of the offence it is difficult to discover.
In the original commissions, — after reciting that " many male-
factors and disturbers of the peace, perpetrating homicides,
depredations, fires, and other wrongs, both by day and night,
wander about in woods, parks, and divers other places, in
the counties named, and there are harboured, to the great
danger of those travelling through those parts and resident in
them, and in the king's contempt and the manifest breach of
his peace, — by which greater evils might happen, unless a
remedy were more quickly applied," — the king, " desirous
of obviating this mischief, and providing against these evils
and dangers," appoints certain persons his justices, " to
enquire who are these malefactors and their harbourers and
confederates, affording them aid and assistance, or procuring
and instructing these transgressions to be done : And also to
enquire of those who for gifts make a compact with male-
factors and disturbers of the peace, and lure them to beat,
wound, illtreat, and kill many in the kingdom, in fairs,
markets, and other places, from enmity, hatred, malice, and
also because they spoke the truth on assizes and inquisitions
of felony ; whereby the jurors, from fear of these malefactors
and their threats, often dare not speak the truth or indict the
said malefactors : And also to enquire of those who give
gifts of this nature, and how much,- and to whom, and who

,

127 2—1307. JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. 33

encourage, support, and maintain malefactors of this sort in
their wickedness : and of those, who, by reason of their
power and influence, take others under their protection for
hire (pro suo dando): and of those who maliciously extort
money from any one by threats : and to hear and determine
those felonies and transgressions according to the law and
custom of the kingdom, and the form of the ordinance made
hereon by the king and his council, and delivered to them in
parliament."1

These instructions are contained in the " Ordinatio de
Trailbastons " before referred to ; and principally direct that
all offences committed before Easter, 33 Edward I. (the date
of the commission) shall be tried according to law ; but that
those charged with the above transgressions shall be proceeded
against, although no one prosecutes, and if convicted shall be
committed to gaol.

This commission is evidently very different from that
which was ordinarily issued to the justices itinerant ; and it
may be inferred from its language that about this period
bands of men congregated together and infested the country,
robbing and ill-treating the people ; that they hired them-
selves to revenge private quarrels, and received payment
from the timid to be free from their attacks ; that jurors and
witnesses were prevented from prosecuting or giving evidence
by their threats, and were beaten, and even killed, if they did
so ; and that persons of rank and property were not exempt
from the charge of supporting these villains for their own
purposes. It is observable that no allusion is made to the
arms they bore, except what may be collected from the
words, " beat, wound, ill-treat and kill ; " but it has been
supposed that they carried no other weapon than a club, and
that they thus obtained their name.

1 See also the "Ordinatio de Conspiratoribus" in the same parliament, upon
which, it would seem, the writ was founded. Rot. 1'arl. i. 183.

VOL. III. D

34

JUSTICES ITINERANT.

TRAILBASTON.

Edw. I.

This seems probable from the following extract from Peter
Langtoft's Chronicle \ which not only evidences that they
were called Traylbastouns, but describes their practices and
their punishment.

" Respouns ount fet au reys gentz de been voyllance,
Coment parmy la tere fet est grant grevaunce
Par comune contekours, ke sunt par fiaunce
Obligez ensemble a, une purviaunce ;
Traylbastouns sunt nomez de eel retenaunce,
En fayres et marchez se proferent fere covenaunce,
Pur tres sous ou iiii, ou pur la valiaunce,
Batre un prodomme ke unk fist nosaunce
A cors cristiene, par nuli temoygnaunce.
Si homme countredye a nul de l'aliaunce,
Ou marchaund de ses merz li vee fere ereaunce,
En sa mesoun demene, sauntz altre daliaunce,
Balut serrait been, ou par Tacordaunce
Dora de ses deners et prendre aquitaunce.
Si en la riot ne seit fet desturbaunce,
Une commune guere se levera par chaunce.
Entendu ad ly reys la plaint et la parlaunee,
Escutez ore coment purveu est la vengaunce.
Parmy Engletere gentz de graunz resouns
Assignez sunt justizes sur les traylbastouns;

Mr. Wright, from whose " Political Songs," p. 319., this passage is taken,
thus translates it : —

" People of good will have made answer to the king how a great grievance
is made in the land by common squabblers, who are by oath obliged together
to a purveyance ; this company are called trailebastons ; they offer to make
conventions at fairs and markets for three or four shillings, or merely to show
their courage to beat a good man, who never did hurt to any christian body,
by the testimony of no one. If a man contradict any one of the alliance, or a
merchant will not trust them with his merchandise, taken in his own house,
without other interference, he shall be well beaten, or by agreement he shall
give of his money and take acquittance. If there be no hindrance made to
their riot, a war among the commons would by chance arise. The king has
heard the complaint and the talk, now hear how the punishment is provided.

" Throughout England men of great account are assigned as judges on the
trailbastouns ; some by inquest are judged to prisons; others to go to the
gallows, to hang thereabout; many are deprived of their possessions ; those who
had done least ill, are obliged to pay fines. If there was not chastisement of
ribalds and rascals, people would not dare to live in their houses."

1272—1307. JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON. 35

Les una par enquest sunt jugez It prisouns ;
Li altre alcz a fourches a pendre envirouns ;
Plusours sunt privez de [lour] possessiouns ;
Ke meyns mesfesaynt sunt passez par raunsouns.
Si chastiment ne fust de ribaldes et bricouns,
Ose ne serrait homme vivre en niesouns."

The commission of 1305 into Cornwall and nine other
counties, south-western and western, was addressed to
William Martyn, Henry Spigurnell, William de Knovill,
Roger de Bellafago, and Thomas de la Hyde; the first
four of whom are mentioned in a contemporary song on the
subject, the date of which is thus identified, as one of them
was not re-appointed in 1307.

" Ly Martyn et ly Knoville sunt gent de piete,
E prient pur les povres qu'il eyent sauvete ;
Spigurnel e Belllour sunt gent de cruelte,
Si il fuisent en ma bay lie ne serreynt retornee." x

This song, a version of which, at once spirited and faithful,
has been published by Mr. Lockhart 2, although it professes
to be written by one who had fled to the woods to eschew
the cruelty of the justices, is in fact an evidence of the
general detestation in which the new commission was held.
It opens thus : —

" In rhyme I clothe derision, my fancy takes thereto,
So scorn I this provision, provided here of new ;
The thing whereof my geste I frame, I wish 'twere yet to do,
An guard not God and Holy Dame, 'tis war that must ensue.

" I mean the articles abhorred of this their trailbaston ;
Except the king himself our lord, God send his malison
On the devisers of the same : cursed be they every one,'
For full they be of sinful shame, and reason have they none.

" Sir, if my boy offend me now, and I my hand but lift
To teach him by a cuff or two what's governaunce and thrift :
This rascal vile, his bill doth file, attaches me of wrong;
Forsooth, find bail, or lie in gaol, and rot the rogues among."

1 Wright's " Political Songs," p. 23:5. * The Bijou, 1838, j>. J.

i, a

36

JUSTICES ITINERANT. — TRAILBASTON.

Edw. I.

And so through four-and- twenty stanzas does the writer
enlarge on the quick injustice administered, and the tempta-
tion thus held out to persons to join the " outlaw's crew," in
order to avoid its penalties. One verse peculiarly exemplifies
the practices of the trailbastons. After speaking of the two
cruel justices, as above, it proceeds : —

" I'd teach them well this noble game of trailbaston to know,
On every chine I'd stamp the same, and every nape also ;
On every inch in all their frame I'd make my cudgel go ;
To lop their tongues I'd think no shame, nor yet their lips to sew."

In these two compositions we thus see the contemporary
arguments for and against the institution ; and it is worthy
of observation, that while one anticipates a war from a con-
tinuance of the mischief, the other predicts a war from the
adoption of the remedy. Both, however, speak of beating as
the common practice of the offenders.

Commissions of trailbaston continued to be issued at
intervals till the middle of the reign of Bichard II., when
they finally ceased. We find the preparation for the dis-
continuance of separate justices itinerant, which occurred
about the same time, in the statute of Nisi Prius, West-
minster II., chap. 30., 13 Edward I., followed by those
of gaol delivery and persons appealed, 27 and 28 Edward I.

Stow relates that in 1294 and divers other times, the
justices itinerant sat without London at the stone cross in
the High Street near unto the Strand, over against the
Bishop of Coventry's house, and sometimes within the
bishop's house.1

It will be the most convenient course to include all these
justices itinerant in one list, naming them in that year in
which they were first appointed, omitting all who were

1 Thorns' Stow, p. 165.

1272—130:

JUSTICES ITINERANT.

37

regular justices at the time, and distinguishing those who in
this reign were justices of trailbaston only with the letter T.

Justices Itinerant.

II. 1273-4.

III. 1274-5.

IT. 1275-6.

VI. 1277-8.

VII. 1278-9.
VIII. 1279-80.

IX. 1280-1.

XIII. 1284-5.

XIV. 1285-6.

XV. 1286-7.
XX. 1291-2.

XXI. 1292-3.

XXIII. 1294-5.
XXVII. 1298-9.

XXX. 1301-2.

Elias de Beckingham,
William de Northbury,
"William de St. Omero,
Geoffrey de Leuknore,
Roger Loveday,
Godfrey Giffard, Bishop

of Worcester,
Geoffrey de Picheford,
Richard de Boyland.
William de Braboef,
? Roger de Clifford, Se-
nior,
? Matthew de Colum-

biers,
Thomas de St. Vigore.
Nicholas le Gras,
? Richard de Crepping,
? Thomas de Norman-

ville,
Roger le Brabazon,
Walter de Stircheleye,
? William de Bereford,
John de Berewyk,
Hugo de Cressingham,
? John de Crokesley,
? Simon de Ellesworth,
Peter Heym,
John de Batesford,
John de Bosco,
Walter de Cambhou,
Hugh de Cave,
Adam de Crokedayk,
Henry de Eyncfeld,
Robert de Retford.
John de Bank well,

William de Burnton,
John Randolf,

d 3

Solomon de Rochester.
? John de Saunford.

Geoffrey de Newbald,
Thomas de Sadington.
John de Vaux,
Richard de Ware, Abbot
of Westminster.

? Adam Gurdon,

? William de Hamilton,

Alan de Walkingham.

Hamon Hauteyn.
William de Vescy.

William Wyther.

John Lovel,
William de Mortimer,
William de Ormesby,
Roger le Strange,
John Wogan.

Thomas Fisheburn,
William Howard,
William Inge,
John de Insula,
Gilbert de Kirkeby,
John de Lythegrenes.

Lambert de Triking-

hum.
Hervey de Staunton.

38

COERUPTION OP THE JUDGES.

Edw. I.

XXXII. 1303-4.
XXXIII. 1304-5.

XXXV. 1306-7.

Henry de Guldeford.
John de Barton, T.
Roger de Bellafago,
John de Botetourt, T.
John le Breton, T.
Thomas de Burnham, T.
William de Cressy, T.
Edmund D'Eyncourt, T.
Nicholas Fermbaud.
Ralph Fitz-William, T.
Robert de Harwedon, T.
Thomas de la Hyde, T.
Geoffrey de Hertelpole,
Hugh de Louthere, T.
John de Mutford, T.

William de Kerdeston, T.
Gilbert de Knovill, T.
Peter de Malo Lacu, T.
William Martyn, T.
Adam de Middleton, T.
Gerard Salveyn, T.
Milo de Stapleton, T.
William le Vavasour, T.
Richard de Walsing-
ham, T.

Thomas de Snyterton, T.
John de Thorp, T.

Edward was not merely desirous of establishing the laws
on a firm foundation by judicious enactments, he was equally
anxious to preserve the purity of their administration, and
ready to punish those who perverted them to selfish and
corrupt purposes. The correspondence of the time, as
exhibited in the various appendices to the Annual Reports
of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, contains many
instances of interference with the judges in reference to
private suits, by princes, nobles, patrons and friends; any
one of which would justly excite the indignation of a modern
member of the bench. The influence which these recom-
mendations would have would of course vary with the
dispositions of the receivers ; but there is too much reason
to believe that a very general corruption prevailed; and
it was not long before the king determined to make an
example that should effectually prevent any future de-
linquency.

In May, 1286, Edward, leaving the Earl of Pembroke
regent in his absence, went to France, where he remained
more than three years. On his return in August, 1289,
17 Edward I., he was met with complaints that his judges^
corrupted by bribes, and enriched by extortion, gave false

1272 — 1307. CORRUPTION OF THE JUDGES. 39

judgments, and were guilty of even more heavy transgres-
sions. He immediately instituted enquiries; the result of
which was the disgrace and dismissal of almost all the mem-
bers of the judicial bench.

In the King's Bench, Ralph de Hengham, the chief
justice, and William de Saham, were removed ; leaving only
John de Metingham untouched.

In the Common Pleas four of the five were discharged,
viz., Thomas de Weyland, the chief justice, John de
Lovetot, Roger de Leicester, and William de Brompton ;
while Elias de Beckingham was the only one found pure.

The justices itinerant who were charged with corruption
were, Solomon de Rochester, Thomas de Sodington, Richard
de Boyland, and Walter de Hopton.

Besides these, Adam de Stratton, an officer of the Ex-
chequer, erroneously described by some writers as chief
baron, Henry de Bray,.escheator, and Robert de Lyttiebury,
styled by some master, and by others clerk of the Rolls,
were also involved in similar charges.

The precise nature of the offences committed by most of
these individuals it is difficult now to ascertain with precision.
No parliamentary enquiry seems to have been instituted;
but the king appointed the Earl of Lincoln, Bishop Burn ell,
the chancellor, and others, enquirers into the various charges ;
and no record of their discoveries is extant. It may well be
supposed that their task was not a light one; as, inde-
pendently of any real grounds of complaint, they would no
doubt be inundated with querulous representations of suitors
dissatisfied with judgments pronounced against them, and
willing to take advantage of such a chance of reversal.

One of the charges against Thomas de Weyland is de-
scribed with some particularity in the Chronicle of Dunstable. J

1 Ed. Hearne, p. 573.

i. i

40 CORRUPTION OF THE JUDGES. Edw. I.

He is stated to have been guilty of having instigated his
servants to commit a murder, and then to have screened them
from punishment. Escaping from those who arrested him,
he took sanctuary among the Friars Minors at St. Edmunds-
bury, where he remained for forty days. He was then
forced, by the prohibition of all food, to surrender himself;
when, rather than stand his trial, he was allowed to abjure
the realm, and was taken, with all the usual formalities, to
the place of his transportation. He was thenceforth described
in the records as a felon ; and all his real and personal pro-
perty was confiscated to the king's use.

The extent of the guilt of the other judges can only be
estimated by the amount of the fines (which, however, vary
according to different authorities) by which they were
eventually permitted to redeem themselves from imprison-
ment. The highest of these, 7000 marks, is stated to have
been imposed on Ralph de Hengham. The falling off of one
invested, as he was, with high authority during the king's
absence, and holding the principal judicial position in the
kingdom, would deserve to be visited with the severest retri-
bution ; but the nature of his crime is nowhere recorded ;
and the complaints that appear against him on the rolls of the
parliament held in the following year, 18 Edward I., were
evidently the consequences, rather than the causes of his
disgrace. He is charged in one petition with confirming a
false judgment pronounced by Solomon de Rochester ; and
by another with having arbitrarily imprisoned Robert de la
Ward.1 His restoration to the bench some years afterwards
is a sufficient indication that his offence was not very
grievous; and, according to a tradition in the reign of
Richard III., his fine was only 800 marks, which was
imposed for altering a record by reducing a penalty inflicted

1 Rot. Pari. i. 48. 52.

1272—1307. CORRUPTION OF THE JUDGES. 41

on a poor man from 13s. Ad. to 6s. 8d. Justice Southcote,

temp. Eliz., refused to consent to a similar rasure of the roll,

saying that " he meant not to build a clock-house ; " and

adding that with Hengham's fine the clock-house at West-
er O

minster was built, and furnished with a clock to be heard in
Westminster Hall. Chief Justice Holt also alludes to this
story, the probability of which is attempted to be impugned
by the assertion that clocks had not come into common use
till a hundred years afterwards ; but this is not a sufficient
denial, as they were certainly invented before this time ; and
a nearly contemporary entry of expenses in Canterbury
Cathedral proves that a great clock, costing SOL, was put up
there in 1292.1 Though there is no positive evidence of the
erection at this time of " the great clock within the palace of
"Westminster," there is clear proof of its existence in 1370;
when its keeper, John Nicole, had sixpence a day "for his
wages for the custody thereof2 ; " and no doubt in earlier rolls
entries would be found of similar payments.

Fines of 4000 marks each were imposed upon Solomon de
Rochester and Richard de Boy land, justices itinerant. The
specific charges against them do not appear ; but several
complaints were made in the succeeding parliament against
the former, besides the false judgment already referred to,
including the imprisonment of Christopher de Axon without
cause.3 Boyland was one of the commissioners of the
government during the king's absence, and is supposed
to have accumulated large property in Norfolk by his
iniquitous proceedings.

Three were fined 3000 marks each as the price of their
redemption, viz., William dc Saham, justice of the King's
Bench, and John de Lovetot and William de Brompton,
justices of the Common Pleas. Against William de Saham,

1 Areln-rologla, xxxiii. II. 2 Issue Roll, 44 Eilw. III., 108.

3 Rot. Rail, i. 46". 48. 59.

42 CORRUPTION OF THE JUDGES. Edw. I.

I can find nothing imputed, and in one document he is
described " in quo dolus seu fraus non est inventus ] ; " but one
of the charges against John de Lovetot, "coram auditorihus
querelarum " is, that he took a verdict from eleven jurors,
although the twelfth disagreed with them ; and as to William
de Brompton, it is a curious circumstance that a complaint
before these auditors, that he had pronounced a partial verdict,
was discharged as unconfirmed.2

The next grade of punishment was a fine of 2000 marks,
which Thomas de Sodington and Walter de Hopton, justices
itinerant, were each adjudged to pay. No recorded allusion
to the offence of the former exists ; but the latter seems to
have been charged with some judicial transgressions in Nor-
folk, in which Solomon de Rochester was chiefly implicated ;
as in the parliament of Easter, 18 Edward I., he declares by
his petition that he was not joined in the commission with
Solomon, at the time the transaction took place.3

Three others, Roger de Leicester, justice of the Common
Pleas, Henry de Bray, the escheator, and Robert Littlebury,
were fined 1000 marks each; but the records are silent as to
the specific charges against them. The detention, however,
of money, and the illegal seizure of property by Henry de
Bray in his office, are the subjects of some petitions to the
next parliament.4 Of Robert Littlebury I can find no entry
whatever, except that the document before alluded to calls
him clerk of the Rolls, and adds " qui minimus censebatur."

The fine inflicted upon Adam de Stratton, who was merely
an officer in the Exchequer, and not chief baron, is stated
at the enormous sum of 32,000 marks, but the actual price
of his redemption seems to have been only 500 marks.5 To
this, however, must be added the amount of his possessions
both real and personal, which, it is clear, he forfeited ; and

1 Pari. Writs, i. Chron. Abst. 15, note. s Rot. Pari. i. 286, 287.

8 Ibid. 56. * Ibid. i. 56. 61. 5 Ibid. ii. 42. :

1272—1307. JUDGES. 43

from the word "felo" being frequently added to his name, it
is evident that a more than common degree of guilt attached
to him.

We have seen the oath against receiving any kind of gift
which was imposed upon the justices of trailbaston in 35
Edward I. Rapin refers its introduction to this earlier period,
and makes the exception " a breakfast, which they might
accept, provided there was no excess." l

Some instances occur in this reign of parties being punished
for contempt of the judges. In 21 Edward I. Eustace dc
Paries and John his brother were convicted of insulting
William de Bereford in the Aula Regis, by imputing to
him corrupt and improper conduct during his circuit in
Staffordshire, contrary to his oath of office ; a charge which
was proved to be false by the testimony of his companions on
that iter. The offenders were both committed to the Tower
at the king's pleasure ; but John, having less transgressed than
his brother, was allowed to be bailed.'2 In 34 Edward I., also,
Roger de Hegham, a baron of the Exchequer, complained3,
that having pronounced a judgment against William de Brewcs,
the said William contemptuously mounted the bar, and with
gross and bitter words, called in question the said judgment,
and afterwards insulted the judge as he was passing from the
court. Whereupon the king, after alluding to his having
dismissed his son Edward, Prince of Wales, from his house
for nearly half a year for some outrage towards one of the
king's officers4, ordered that William de Brewes, with his
body ungirt, his head uncovered, and his coif laid aside, should
go from the King's Bench at Westminster through the
middle of the hall, when the court was full, to the Exchequer,
and there ask Roger de Hegham'e pardon, and apologise for

1 EUpin, iii. 245. 8 Rot. Pari. i. 95. 3 Abbrov. Plant. S

1 This probably refers to the punishment ho bad inflicted on Prince Edward
for an offence against Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.

44

judges' robes and salaries.

Edw. I.

his offence to him ; and that for the contempt done to the
king and his court, he should be committed to the Tower,
there to remain at the will of the king. The "coif laid aside"
(" tela deposita ") would ceem to shew that this contumacious
defendant was a serjeant at law.

The robes of the judges were still supplied by the crown,
but their salaries seem to have been reduced in this reign.
The 100 marks, allowed by Henry III. to Gilbert de Preston
as the head of the court of Common Pleas, was continued to
him during his life; but his successors, chief justices of
either court, were not paid even to that extent of stinted
liberality, none of them receiving more than 60 marks or
40/. a year.

There was some little difference in the payments made to
the other judges of the two courts ; 50 marks being given to
a few, and 40 marks to the remainder.

That the barons of the Exchequer held a lower grade than
the judges of the two other courts is evident from the amount
of their salaries being limited to 201. or 30 marks a year,
which, to some of them, was increased, towards the end of the
reign, to 40 marks.

Making every allowance for the difference in the value of
money, such stipends must have been wholly inadequate for the
support of these officers; and if the deficiency was to be made
up by fees in every variety of form, we can scarcely be
surprised that the anxiety to increase them should sometimes
look like extortion, and that this temptation to bribery should
now and then overcome their virtue.

The designation "Attornatus Regis" was certainly adopted
before 6 Edward I., inasmuch as there are two instances in
that year of such an officer appearing, without any name being
mentioned.1 The title was not yet, however, in common use,

Abbrev. Placit. 193, 194,

1272—1307. THE KING'S ATTORNEYS. 45

for though some few are $o called, the ordinary mode of
description is " qui sequitur pro rege." In the following list
of those who are distinguished by one or the other of these
terms, it will be apparent, as several are acting in the same
years, that some were only locally engaged on special occa-
sions. It is equally clear, also, that in most years two were
regularly employed, who may perhaps be supposed to answer
to our modern officers, the Attorney and Solicitor General.
The latter title, however, had certainly not been then adopted;
and, as far as I can find, was not used till the reign of
Edward IV.

That there was an established advocate on the part of the
king appears probable from the fact that in the last year of
Edward's reign, John de Mutford was called before the
treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, to inform them of
the king's right in the matter of a petition then presented.1
In that year also, both John de Chester, " who followed for
the king," and the " King's Serjeants," are mentioned as
arguing a case on the king's behalf.2

Attornati Kegis.

VI. 1277-8. William Boneville, in Essex.3
VII. 1278-9. William de Giselham4 ; and in 8, 9, 10, 14 Edw. I.
He is called Attornatus Regis in 9 Edw. I., and
also king's serjeant5, and was raised to the bench
in 18 Edw. I.
VIII. 1279-80. Gilbert de Thornton4; and in 10 and 13 Edw. I.
In 10 Edw. I. he and William de Giselham arc
called narratores pro rege in the same process.6
In 9 Edw. I. he was a king's serjeant, and was
made chief justice of the King's Bench in 18
Edw. I.

IX. 1280-1. Alan de Walkingham, in Yorkshire.4

1 Rot. Pari. i. 197. 8 Abbrev. Placit. 261. 3 Ibid. 1

4 Dugdale's Chronica Series. « Ablnvv. Placit. 873, 8 Ibid. '274.

46

SERJEANTS.

Edw. I.

X. 1281-2. John le Fawconer ; and in 14 Edw. I. l
XIII. 1284-5. William de Seleby, in Warwickshire.2
XY. 1286-7. William Inge ; and in 18, 19, 20 Edw. I.2 Justice
of assize in 21 Edw. I., and chief justice of
King's Bench under Edw. II.
XVITI. 1289-90. John de Bosco, in Norfolk.3

Nicholas de Warwick2 ; and in 23, 28, 29, 32, 33
Edw. I.4 A king's serjeant in 21 Edw. I.; died
about 34 Edw. I.
John de Haydell, for the king and queen-mother.5
XX. 1291-2. Richard de Breteville, Attornatus Regis.6

Hugh de Louther, in Salop. 2
XXI. 1292-3. Roger de Hegham, in York7; made a baron of the

Exchequer in 26 Edw. I.
XXII. 1293-4. John de Mutford ; and in 30 and 35 Edw. II. 8 In
the latter year a justice of assize ; and a justice
of the Common Pleas under Edw. II.
XXIX. 1300-1. John de Chester2 ; and in 32 and 35 Edw. Lfl He
also acted in the same character under Edw. II. ;
in the tenth year of whose reign he was made
marshall of the court.
XXXIII. 1304-5. John de Drokenesford is also mentioned on one
occasion10; but evidently only in connection
with his office of treasurer.

The queen also had an attorney to attend to her separate
interests11, but the name of no one who held the office is
recorded.

In the statute 4 of 18 Edward I., as to the manner of
levying fines, the word "Countour" appears, without the
addition of serjeant; and in the statute of Champerty, 33
Edward I., the terms " Countours, Attournees, Apprentis,"
are used. In the enactment also against Maintenance, in
the Articuli super Cartas, chap. 11., 28 Edward I., provision
is made that it is not to prohibit parties from having counsel

1 Abbrev. Placit. 202. ; Rot. Pari. i. 368.

8 Dugdale's Chronica Series. 3 Abbrev. Placit. 284.

4 Rot. Pari. i. 18. 140. 146. 149. 172. 5 Ibid. 18, 19.

G Ibid. 102.; Abbrev. Placit. 286. 7 Arch. Inst. York, Holy Trin. 154.

8 Rot. Pari. i. 197. 9 Abbrev. Placit. 261. 297.

10 Ibid. 255. » Rot. Pari. i. 53.

1272—1307. SERJEANTS. 47

of "Contours c de sages Gentz" for their fee. The former
word Coke says includes Serjeants at law, and " Sages Gentz"
he interprets apprentices at law.1

An action for conspiracy, maintenance, &c, had been
brought in 25 Edward I. against Thomas le Mareschall, who
pleaded that he was a common scrjeant-narrator before jus-
tices and elsewhere, and that he stood with and assisted the
party in his plea as much as he could as his serjeant, and as
it is lawful for such Serjeants in such cases.2 Although it
was adjudged that he ought not to answer, such a plea may
very well have been the origin of the above mentioned pro-
vision in the statute three years afterwards.

That Serjeants were not exempt from the corruption of the
time may be inferred from the existence of an enactment for
its punishment. The statute of Westminster I., 3 Edward I.,
chap. 29., provides, that if any " serjeant-countre do any
manner of deceit or collusion in the king's court, or consent
unto it in deceit of the court, or to beguile the court or the
party, he shall be imprisoned for a year and a day, and from
thenceforth shall not be heard to plead in the court for any
man." An instance is recorded in the petitions to the par-
liament of 1 8 Edward I. of a counsellor of one party having
received a bribe from the other, for whom he procured a
false verdict.3

Coke, in his preface to the Tenth Keport, says, that in the
great case of Thomas de Weyland, the Serjeants are called
" Servientes in legibus et consuetudinibus Anglire experti.',
But this is not quite so. By a convenient omission of the
context, he confines to the Serjeants the description which
is given of those whom the king commanded to attend him
on the question raised in that case, viz., as well the judges

] Preface to 10 Report. * Abbrev. Placit. 237.

'■' Hot. Pari. i. 59.

48

APPRENTICES.

Edw. I.

of both benches, as others of his kingdom, "tarn Milites
quam Servientes in legibus, &c. experti."1

In this reign the list of Serjeants commences. All those
named by Dugdale and by Wynne2 are called Servientes
Regis ad legem ; and the only one I find, to whom that
title is not given, is Thomas le Mareschall, who, as we have
seen, calls himself " a common serjeant-narrator, or countor."

The following is the order in which their names appear ;
but as they are extracted from Liberate Rolls, their actual
appointments probably took place at earlier periods.

John de Cobbebam,
Elias de Beckingham.
William de Giselbam.

Serjeants.

III. 1274-5. Thomas de Weyland,
John de Metingham,
IX. 1280-1. Gilbert de Thornton,
XX. 1291-2. William Inge.
XXI. 1292-3. Nicholas de Warwick.

All of these had some allowance out of the Exchequer,
perhaps for their service to the king ; and all, except
the last, became judges : indeed Thomas de Weyland
and John de Cobbeham appear to have been paid after
they were raised to the bench ; but this might have
been only for an arrear then due.
XXV. 1296-7. Thomas le Mareschall.

The word Apprentices, as applied to the law, was first used
in this reign. By an ordinance of the parliament of 20
Edward I., entitled " De Attornatis et Apprentices," John
de Metingham and his companions were enjoined to provide
a certain number for every county of the better and more
legally and liberally learned, according to what they con-
ceived to be for the convenience of the court and the people ;
and none but those were to follow the court or interfere in
its proceedings. The mandate suggests that 140 will be

1 Rot. Pari. i. 67.

8 Dugdale's Chron. Series ; Wynne's Serjeant at law.

1272—1307. REPORTERS. 49

sufficient, but gives these judges power to increase or di-
minish the number.1 The words "attornatis et appren-
tices" are probably used here synonymously, and were in-
tended to apply to pleaders in the court. The necessity for
this addition no doubt arose from the division of the courts
being carried into full effect, and the Common Pleas being
fixed at Westminster, while the King's Bench and Exchequer
frequently followed the king. About the same time, also,
all justices of assize were appointed to perambulate the
kingdom, while all the courts were sitting.

Weever mentions Edmund de Hengrave as a renowned
lawyer flourishing at this period.2

Although the published editions of the Year Books com-
mence with this reign, they contain no reports of cases
decided within it, but only a few memoranda of the Ex-
chequer, from Michaelmas, 2 Edward I., to Trinity, 29 Ed-
ward I., omitting six years during that interval and the
six concluding years.

In Keilway's Reports there are eight cases in the sixth
year of this reign. David Jenkins reports a few in the 18th
and 34th years; and some others are in Fitz-Herbert's
Abridgment. A very valuable selection also from the Rolls
of Pleadings in the court of King's Bench is contained in
the Abbreviatio Placitorum, published in 1811.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 84. * Wccvcr, 86ii.

VOL. 111.

50

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF

THE JUDGES UNDER THE REIGN OF EDWARD I.

ABYNDON, RICHARD DE.

B. E. 1299.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

BALDOCK, RALPH DE, Dean and Bishop of London.

Chancellor, 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

BANKWELL, or BAUKWELL, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1299.

See under the Reign of Edward II.
BARDELBY, ROBERT DE.

? Keeper, 1 302.

See under the Reign of Edward II.
BARNSTAPLE, Archdeacon of. See G. Giffard.

BARTON, JOHN DE.

Just. Ttin. T. 1304.

John de Barton is the second of the two justices (Ralph
Fitz- William being the first) to whom the commission of
trailbaston confined to Yorkshire, and copied in Spelman, is

1272—1307. JOHN DE BARTON. 51

directed.1 The date is there omitted; but in Hemingford
(p. 208) it is placed under the year 1304. Among the
parliamentary writs is one dated November 23, 1304,
addressed not only to these two, but to two others 2 ; so that
it is probable there were two commissions, and that the
first was issued before the great extent of the offence was
known; especially as in April, 1305, a still more formal
appointment of judges for almost every county in England,
including Yorkshire, took place 3 ; among whom, or among
those afterwards nominated, neither Fitz- William nor Barton
appear.

In the above commission he is erroneously called " de
By ton," as he is afterwards designated "de Fryton," not
only in the parliamentary writ, but also in a commission
to enquire relative to a chest of specie found on the sea shore
in Yorkshire, claimed by the king as a wreck ; in which he
was afterwards superseded by four other commissioners, at
the head of whom was the above-named Ralph Fitz- William ;
and the whole proceedings were stopped in 8 Edward II.4
He is so called, also, in another commission in the latter year,
by which he was assigned to collect and levy the scutage of
the county of York.5 He was summoned to perform military
service against the Scots in 24 Edward I., and in the 28th
and 31st years of that reign, was named in commissions of
array in Yorkshire.6

BATESFORD, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1293.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

1 Glossary, Traitbastvn* '' Pari. Writs, 1. 407.

3 N. Feeders, i. 970. ' Rot Pari. i.

■ Abbrer. Rot Orig. L Pari. Writs, L 277. 345. 370.

E 2

52 ELIAS DE BECKINGHAM. Edw. I

BATH AND WELLS, Bishops of. See R. Burnel ; W. de
Marchia ; I. de Drokenesford.

BAUKWELL, JOHN DE. See Bankwell.
BECKINGHAM, ELIAS DE.

Just. Itin. 1274. Just. C. P. 1285.

It is to be regretted that so little is known of the history of
a man, who, amidst the corruption of his fellows, stood with-
out taint. Elias de Beckingham was one of the two judges
who alone were found pure, when all the others were con-
victed of corrupt practices, and dismissed in disgrace from
the seat of justice.

Nothing is recorded of him beyond this fact, and the
dates of his judicial career. He is first mentioned at the
bottom of the list of justices itinerant into Middlesex in
2 Edward I., 1274; and it would appear that the appoint-
ment was cancelled, as another commission follows in the
next Roll of that year, in which the name of Solomon de
Rochester is substituted for his. He clearly was not then a
regular justicier, as he is mentioned in a Liberate of the
following year as a king's serjeant. In 4 Edward I. he was
one of the justices of assize then appointed.1

He afterwards filled the office of keeper of the records and
writs of the Common Pleas ; and an allowance of twenty
shillings was made to him for the expenses of their carriage
from Westminster to Shrewsbury, where the king, on his
expedition to Wales in 1 1 Edward I., had ordered the court
to be held.2

It was not till Michaelmas, 13 Edward I., 1285, that he
was raised to the bench as a judge of the Common Pleas ;
and, except that he went the circuit into Dorsetshire in 16

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 8 Madox's Exch. ii. 7.

1272—1307. THOMAS BEK. 53

Edward I., and that fines were levied before him, there is no
other mention of him till the period when the judges were all
apprehended by the king on charges of bribery and corrup-
tion, and he and John de Metingham only were honourably
acquitted. This occurred towards the end of 17 Edward I.,
1289 ; and the Parliament Roll of 20 Edward I. contains an
honourable record of his purity. After stating that a certain
proceeding in the Common Pleas was not found on the Roll
of Thomas de Weyland and his companions, it proceeds thus :
"Et quia Elias Bekingham, qui de societate praedicti
Thoma3 tunc fuit, recordatur, quod tenens semper formam
brevis calumpniavit, cujus soli recordo major fides est adhi-
benda quam rotulis predicti Thoma?, in quibus falsitas mani-
festa reperiebatur ; per quod idem Thomas et alii de societate
sua omnes tunc justic. preter predictum Eliam, et falsitati sue
consentientes penitentiam suam sustinuerunt, et idem Elias
semper fidelis extiterit, et in servitio regis fideliter se ges-
serit," &C.1

He retired from the bench, or died, in 34 Edward I., 1305,
the last fine levied before him being dated in fifteen days of
St. Martin in that year.2

He was buried at Bottisham church in Cambridgeshire ;
and on his sepulchral memorial he is designated " Justiciarius
Domini Regis Anglige." 8

BEK, THOMAS, Archdeacon of Dorset, Bishop of St.

David's.

? Keeper, 1 279.

Thomas Bek, or Becke, was second son of Walter Ink,
baron of Esseby in Lincolnshire; and Mr. Hardy places him

in his Catalogue of Keepers of the Great Seal, on the

1 Rot. Pari. i. 84. * Dugdale*i Orig. .lurid, p. 44.

3 Proceedings of the Areh.i'ological Inst., vol. i. p. 24.

E 3

54

THOMAS BEK.

Edw. I.

questionable ground that when John de Kirkeby, in whose
possession it was left by Robert Burnel, the chancellor, was
commanded to attend the king in May, 1279, 7 Edward I., he
was directed to leave the seal, sealed up with his own seal, in
the custody of Thomas Bek; and that in the same month
they were both ordered to attend with it at Dover, and there
to await the king's messenger.1 There is also a writ from
the king to them both, dated June 8, relative to a prebend in
the church of St. Martin's-le- Grand.2 Bek was no doubt
at that time, as he certainly was three years before 3, keeper
of the king's wardrobe, the usual place of the seal's deposit.
In the same year, also, he was constituted treasurer ; but re-
mained so a short time only, as Joseph de Cancy, prior of St.
John of Jerusalem, held it very soon after.4

Like most of the officers of the court in those days he was
an ecclesiastic, and in 3 Edward I. was in possession of the
archdeaconry of Dorset, which he held till he was elected
Bishop of St. David's on June 3, 1280. He sat there for
thirteen years, during which time he founded two colleges in
Wales, one at Aberguilly, and the other at Landewy-brevy.
He died on April 14, 1293.5

His two brothers, John and Anthony Bek, were both
officers in the Exchequer about this time, the former of
wThom succeeded his father as eldest son, and the latter was
employed in various missions, and ultimately became Bishop
of Durham.6

1 Hardy's Catalogue, 12. 2 7 Report Pub. Rec, App. ii. 25.3.

3 Issue Roll, iii. 91. 4 Dugdale's Chron. Ser.

5 Godwin de Praesul. p. 580. ; Le Neve, 218. 512.

6 Madox's Exch. ii. 103. ; Sixth Report Pub. Rec, App. ii. 91. 102. 107.
Nicolas's Siege of Carlaverock, 288. ; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 426.

1272—1307. ROGER DE BELLA FAGO. 55

BELLA FAGO, ROGER DE.

Just. Itin. 1305.

Dugdale does not mention Roger de Bella Fago, (Beaufoe,
or Belfour,) but the rolls of parliament prove that he was one
of the justices of assize for Warwickshire in 33 Edward I.,
1305, in conjunction with William de Mortuomari1, and that
he was appointed in 33 and 35 Edward I. a justice of
trailbaston for Cornwall and nine other counties.2 His
harshness and cruelty in performing this duty is commemo-
rated in a contemporary song.3 His connection with the
court is further evidenced by his being named in a patent
of uncertain date, as one of the commissioners to survey
the obstructions of the river Thames between London and
Oxford.4 It does not appear in what manner he was related
to the opulent family of his name, which was settled in
Norfolk, and which traced its lineage to Ralph de Bella
Pago in the time of the conquest; but we find that he
resided in Oxfordshire, and that his daughter Isabella
married John de Walerico, and, being afterwards divorced
from him, became the wife of William Ulgar.3

BENSTEDE, JOHN DE.

? Keeper, 1296.

See under the Reign of Edward II.
BEREFORD, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1298. Just. C. P. 1296.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 168. * Ibid. 218. j N. Fcedert, i. 970.

:' Wright's Political Songs, p 233. ' Hot. Pari. i. 475.

5 Abbrev. Placit. 214.

i i

56 JOHN DE BOSCO. Edw. I.

BEREWYK, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1292.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

BEVERLEY, Provost of. See P. de Chester.

BOREHAM, HARVEY DE.

B. E. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Harvey de Boreham was of a family which took its name
from the village so called in Essex. He was an officer of
the Exchequer, and also belonged to the ecclesiastical pro-
fession. The latter is shewn by his being a canon of St.
Paul's ; and the former by his appearing before the barons of
the Exchequer with Adam de Stratton for Isabella, Countess
of Albemarle, and in her name presenting Ralph de Stratton,
her clerk, to act as chamberlain in her place.1 This was
in 49 Henry III., 1264, and in the same year fines were
levied before him from November till the following Easter.
Dugdale accordingly introduces him at that time among the
justices of the Common Pleas2, but he does not appear
to have acted afterwards in that character. He is, however,
recorded as a baron of the Exchequer in 1 Edward I.3,
and probably continued so till his death in the fifth year
of that reign.4

BOSCO, JOHN DE.

Just. Ass. 1293.

John de Bosco was an advocate in the courts, and in 18
Edward I. was employed to plead on the part of the king.5

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 296. 8 Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 21. 42.

3 Madox's Exch. ii. 28. 320. 4 Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 62.

5 Abbrev. Placit. 284.

1272—1307. JOHN DE BOTETOURT. 57

On the appointment of the eight justices of assize in 21
Edward I., 1293, he was selected as one, and the circuit
to which he was attached comprehended the counties of
Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Wilts, Hants, Oxford,
Berks, Suffolk, and Surrey.1 In the same year he claimed,
with his brothers-in-law, the manors of Toleshunt, Tregoz,
and Blunteshale in Essex, as son of Lucy, one of the four
sisters of Nicholas de Tregoz.2 He was summoned among
the judges to parliament in the twenty-third and twenty-
fifth years of that reign.3 His career seems to have termi-
nated disgracefully, as he was convicted in 6 Edward II. of
abstracting a king's writ, and substituting a false one in its1
place.4

BOTETOURT, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

John de Botetourt was appointed one of the justices of
trailbaston in 33 Edward I., 13055, and in the same year
received his first summons to parliament6, and was sent
to treat with the Scots on the affairs of that kingdom.7
Dugdale states nothing of his origin, but mentions his ap-
pointment as governor of St. Briavel's Castle in Gloucester-
shire, and as warden of the Forest of Dene in 19 Edward I.
Two years afterwards he was a justice of gaol delivery in
the counties of Warwick and Leicester8; and in 22 Edward
I., being then admiral of the king's fleet, he was summoned
to serve in Gascony, and was in the expedition there in the
twenty-fourth year, during which period various sums of
money were paid to him on the king's account.9 In the

1 Dugdale's Cbron. Scries. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 92.

:< Pari. Writs, i. 29. 52. 4 Abbrev. Placit. 316.

5 N. Pettier*, i. 970. ; Rot. Pari. i. 330. 478. ; ii. I

6 Nicolas's Synopsis, Corrigenda, SI. .7 Rot. Pari. i. 267.
8 Ibid. 95. 8 Ibid. 169. 194.

58 JOHN DE BOTETOURT. Edw. I.

following years he accompanied the king in his Scottish wars,
and was present in June, 1300, at the siege of Carlaverock,
the metrical chronicler of which describes him as " light of
heart and doing good to all."1 He wras a party to the
barons' letter to the pontiff in 29 Edward I., in which he is
styled "Lord of Mendlesham," in Suffolk. Two years
afterwards he was nominated the king's lieutenant in Cum-
berland, Westmoreland, &c. 2 and in 33 Edward I. he was
assigned with two others to hear and determine certain trans-
gressions committed at Bristol.3

Under Edward II. he wras equally distinguished, being
appointed one of the peers to regulate the royal household,
and afterwards to treat with the Earl of Lancaster. He was
again admiral of the king's fleet, and governor of the castles
of St. Briavel and Framlingham ; he also served again
against the Scots, besides being engaged in several commis-
sions of a civil character. He died in 18 Edward II.4, leaving
his wife, Matilda, surviving him.5 She was the daughter of
Beatrice de Beauchamp, widow of William de Beauchamp,
and on the death of her brother Otho became his heir.
By her he had three sons, Thomas (wTho died in his father's
lifetime), John, and Otho; and two daughters, Elizabeth, who
married, first, William, Lord Latimer, and secondly Robert
de Ufford, and Joane, married to Robert Fitz -Walter.

Thomas's son John succeeded to the honours, which
devolved at his death on his grand -daughter Joyce, the
wife of Sir Hugh Burnell. At Joyce's death, without issue,
in 1406, the barony fell into abeyance among the three
daughters of the last baron, and so remained till 1764, a
period of 358 years, when Norbonne Berkely, the lineal
descendant and heir of one of the daughters, was summoned

1 Nicolas's Siege of Carlaverock, 32. 202.

2 Pari. Writs, i. 368. 3 Rot. Pari. i. 168.

4 Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 319. 5 Abbrev. Placit. 355.

1272—1307. KICHAKD DE BOYLAND. 59

to parliament by the old title; but, dying in 1776 without
issue, the barony again remained in abeyance till 1803, when
it was confirmed to Henry Somerset, fifth Duke of Beaufort,
the son of Charles, the fourth duke, by Elizabeth, the sister
and sole heir of Norbonne Berkely, the last lord, and it is
still held by the present duke.1

BOYLAND, RICHARD DE.

Just. Itik. 1279.

Blomefield thinks that Richard de Boy land was the son
of Roger de Boy land and Alice his wife. In 1268 he pur-
chased part of the manor of Brisingham in Norfolk, which was
afterwards called by his name. In part payment he gave
eighty acres which he had previously held in Pulham in the
same county. He was then a successful lawyer, and in
7 Edward I., 1279, he was appointed one of the justices
itinerant into Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, an
office which he continued to execute in various other counties'-,
until, for his corruption in the administration of justice, he
was disgraced in 1289, 18 Edward I., and was fined 4000
marks for his extortions.

After his discharge he retired to his manor of Boylands,
and built a noble mansion there, famous for the moat that
surrounded it, and for the magnificent conduit which he
constructed. He lived for six years afterwards, dying in
24 Edward La His son, John Boy land, presented a petition
to the parliament of 30 Edward I. relative to a debt of 400/.
due by his father to the king.4

The name of his first wife was Matilda, and his second
was Ellen, the daughter of Philip de Col vile. The extent

1 Dugdale'a Baronage, ii. 46. ; Nieolas'a Synopsis.

* Dugdale'a Cbron. Series, ;| Cal, Inquis. post mortem, i. i

1 Rot. Pari, i. 158.

60

WILLIAM DE BRABOEF.

Edw. I.

of his possessions, which, in 1295, comprehended many
manors and lands in Norfolk and Suffolk, over part of which
he had a grant of free warren in 1285, may shew either his
success as a lawyer or his corruption as a judge ; but it
would be unjust to attribute his riches to the latter, con-
sidering that King Edward was not likely to be lenient or
to discourage complaints against him. He left, besides
the above mentioned John, another son named Richard, but
in three generations the family became extinct in its male
branch.1

BRABAZON, ROGER LE.

?Just. Itin. 1287. Just. K. B. 1289. Ch. K. B. 1295.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

BRABOEF, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1280.

The ancestor of William de Braboef came into England
with the Conqueror, and his descendants held lands in Surrey,
Hampshire, and several other counties.2 William de Braboef
acted as assessor for Hampshire for the fifteenth granted in
3 Edward I., and in the sixth year that county was com-
mitted to his charge as sheriff. He held the office for the
next two years, in the latter of which he had a licence to
convert his wood of Haywoode within the forests of Penbere
and Everle into a park.3 In the same year he was the last
named of the four justices itinerant in Hampshire, De-
vonshire, Cornwall, and Wiltshire ; a duty which the same
four, with one added, again performed in Cornwall in 10 Ed-

i Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 38.; Abbrev. Placit. 208. 319. 339.

2 Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 86. ; Abbrev. Placit. 48. 78. 1 64.

3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 48.

1272—1307. JOHN LE BRETON. 61

ward I.1 He was again employed as assessor in Hampshire
for the thirteenth granted in the following year.

He died in 12 Edward I., soon after which Joane, his
widow, and John Randolf (hereafter mentioned as a justice
itinerant in this and the next reign), the executors of his
will, accounted for the issues of the forfeitures of certain
Jews, to discover and sell whose goods and chattels he had
been appointed a commissioner.2

BRETON, JOHN LE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

The family of Breton held considerable possessions in Nor-
folk, but to what branch of it this John le Breton belonged is
uncertain. He was probably the " Dominus de Sporle" of
that name who joined in the barons' letter to Pope Boniface
VIII. in 29 Edward I. On January 9, 1305, 33 Edward I.,
he was one of the justices of trailbaston, then appointed
for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and was again
nominated on April 6, 1305, and on February 18, 1307.;3
It was no doubt in this character that his name occurs
among the judges and clerks of the council summoned to
parliament in 1 & 2 Edward II. In the next year he was
an assessor of the twenty-fifth granted in Norfolk4, and he
died in 4 Edward II.5

In 17 Edward I., the king committed to a John le Breton
the city of London, which had been deprived of its liberties6 ;
and we find him still custos in the twenty-fifth year7, when the

1 Dugdale's Chron. Ser.

8 Pari. Writs, i. 3. 13. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 32. 34. 48.; Madox'a Exch.
i. SSL

3 Pari. Writs, i. 497. ; N. Fcedcra, i. 970. ; Hot. Pari. i. 218.

4 Pari. Writs, ii. 592. 8 Abbrt-v. Rot. Orig. i. 177.
6 Cal. Rot. Pat. 53. 56. 59. 7 Madox'a Exch. II

62 WILLIAM DE BROMPTON. Edw. T.

liberties were restored ; but whether he was the same person
as the justice of trailbaston is not apparent.

BROMPTON, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1278.

The Fine Roll of 52 Henry III., 1268, contains an entry
that William de Brompton and Cecil his wife paid for an
assize in Essex.1 He was constituted a judge of the Common
Pleas in 1278, 6 Edward I.2; and fines were levied before
him from the morrow of St. Martin in that year till
Michaelmas, 17 Edward I., 1289.3 Soon after this he was
disgraced and imprisoned in the Tower for corruption in his
office.4 One of the charges against him was that he im-
peded the prior of Huntingdon in an assize of Darrein
Presentment to the church of Suho, whereby the bishop took
it by lapse of time.5 An enquiry also took place as to a
judgment he was alleged to have pronounced through favour
to John de Kirkeby, Bishop of Ely, for one John Paynell,
against the abbot of Rupe by default of the latter. It was
attempted to be proved by witnesses on one side that the
abbot was dead at the time of the supposed default, who
were met on the other by evidence that he was alive. The
result was that the new abbot's witnesses were disbelieved,
and the judgment was ordered to stand.6

But his offences must have been of a far more heinous
nature than either of these, as the fine of 6000 marks, which
he is stated to have been compelled to pay for his enlarge-
ment, was one of the highest that was imposed upon those
who shared in his disgrace.

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 471. 2 Pari. Writs, i. 382.

3 Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 44., where he is called Burton.

4 Stow's London, 44. 5 Rot. Pari. i. 48.
8 Abbrev. Placit. 287.

1272—1307. ROBERT BURNEL. 63

His name is sometimes spelled Burnton, two instances of
which occur during the time he was upon the bench.1 A
William de Brompton is named as one of the king's coun-
cillors in the Statute de Escaetoribus, 29 Edward L, 1301 2,
and as one of the justices of the Bishop of Durham in the
same year3; and in the following a justice itinerant in Corn-
wall called William de Burnton occurs4, but whether they
were the same person I have not been able to discover.

BURNEL, ROBERT, Archdeacon of York, and afterwards
Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Chancellor, 1274.

The parentage of Robert Burnel is variously described.
Dugdale 5 makes him uncle (as he certainly was) of his heir
Philip, whom he calls the son of Hugh, who was the son of
another Philip, the brother of William and Robert, both of
whom, he adds, were drowned in 1282, 11 Edward I. ; thus
the bishop must have been the brother of Hugh, and the
son of the last named Philip. Godwin 6 agrees in his being
the brother of Hugh, but says that he was the son of Robert.
Again, by Dugdale's account, the Robert who was drowned
procured a market and two fairs for Acton Burn ell in Shrop-
shire, in 54 Henry III. ; while Mr. Hartshorne, in his in-
teresting article on the subject 7, appropriates this grant as
one made to Robert, the bishop. In regard to this, it
appears probable that Dugdale is in error; for there is no
doubt that the bishop, four years before this date, was in
possession of property at x\cton Burncll, an annual payment of
fifteen shillings for certain lands reduced into cultivation in
the woods of that manor, and others within the forest of

1 Abbrer, Placit 205. 277. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. I

:; Stat, at lar^e, i. 147. :l Pari. Writs, i. [08.

1 Dugdala'a Cbron. Series. 5 Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 60.

■ Godwin de PrSBSuL :;7 1. 7 Arclnvol. Journal, ii. SS

64 ROBERT BURNEL. Edw. 1.

Salop, being remitted to him by a patent of 50 Henry III.,
1265, wherein he is described as clerk to Edward, the king's
eldest son.1

Discarding the story of a Robert being drowned with his
brother William, for which there does not seem sufficient
authority, another Robert is mentioned by Dugdale, at an
earlier period, who died 1249, 34 Henry III. He, probably,
was the father of William, Robert, the bishop, Philip and
Hugh. William died before his father, and homage was done
in 31 Henry III. for some lands he held in Shropshire by
William, his son 2 ; who, if he be the same, was in a state of
outlawry for felony in 35 Henry III. 3, and was dead in
the following year, his widow, Ducia, being mentioned in
36 Henry III.4

Bishop Robert, if the eldest son, would have succeeded at
his father's death in 1249, or, if the second, at his nephew
William's death, about 1252. In either case the discordant
statements would be reconciled, and his possession of Acton
Burnell in 1265 be accounted for.

However this fact may be, there is proof on the Patent
Rolls that he was born there 5 ; and it has been already shewn
that, in 1265, he was acting as clerk or secretary to Prince
Edward. In the year previous, also, certain demands for
which he had been summoned into the Exchequer were
respited, as he was then going as nuncius or agent for the
king and prince into Ireland.6 He therefore was, no doubt,
the Robert who is mentioned by Dugdale as being signed
with the cross with Prince Edward in 1269. If he accom-
panied that prince to the Holy Land, he must have returned
to England before him ; as Madox cites two records in the
first year of Edward's reign, by which it is evident that he

1 Archaeol. Journ. ii. 326. ■ Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 21.

3 Ibid. p. 118. * Ibid. p. If56.

5 Tat. 12 Edw. I. m. 7. 6 Madox's Exch. ii. 218.

1272—1307. ROBERT BURNEL. 65

held a high place in the council during the king's absence ] ;
and there are also several letters addressed by him to Walter
de Merton the chancellor.2

Although Godwin states that he was treasurer before he
was chancellor, there is nothing to show that he held that
appointment. Indeed, one of the two records last cited
seems to prove the contrary, as it is a view taken of an ac-
count before Brother Joseph de Chancy, Prior of St. John
of Jerusalem, then treasurer, and Robert Burnel, without any
addition. He was at this time Canon of Wells and Arch-
deacon of York, and, from the above fact, probably held some
office in the Exchequer.

King Edward returned to England on August 2, 1274, in
the second year of his reign, and was crowned on the 19th.
Within a month afterwards, Burnel, on the retirement of
Walter de Merton, was raised to the chancellorship, the
Great Seal being delivered to him on September 21, 1274.3
He filled this office all the remainder of his life, and
never, during the eighteen years that it lasted, lost the
confidence of his royal master ; a distinction which he well
merited from the wisdom of his counsels, and the zeal and
assiduity with which he aided his sovereign's efforts in the
improvement of the law.

In January, 1275, he was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells,
and was consecrated at Merton on the 7th of the following
April.4 On the abdication'of the Archbishoprick of Canter-
bury by Robert Ascwardby in 1278, the monks elected
Bishop Burnel as his successor ; but the pope, not deeming
him a man fitted for his purposes, annulled the appointment,
and placed John Peckham in the vacant seat.5

In 6 Edward I. he went into foreign parts, when he ap-

1 Madox't Exch. ii. 207.

2 6 Report Pub. Etee., App. ii. 92, 93. 113.

8 Dugdale's Chron. Ser. * Godwin dt Prmul. 374. s Ibid. p. 97.

VOL. III. F

66 ROBERT BURNEL. Edw. I.

pointed John de Kirkeby to transact the business of the
Chancery during his absence, leaving the Great Seal under
his custody1 : and in February, 1283, 11 Edward L, he
pursued the same course on his going "usque partes pro-
prias." 2 In the following year he left the Seal in the care
of Hugh de Kendal and Walter de Odyham3: and in
14 Edward L, August, 1286, when the king went abroad, he
accompanied him with the Seal, and did not return till
August, 1289 4; and lastly, on his visiting his diocese in
the next year, he left the Seal in the custody of Magister
William de Marchia.5 All these were evidently officers of
the Chancery.

Acton Burnell, the place of his birth and residence, has
acquired an interest in historical recollections by having
given its name to the Statutum de Mercatoribus, which was
enacted there on October 12, 1283, 11 Edward I. The
king was then paying a visit to his chancellor, while a par-
liament, which he had summoned to meet at Shrewsbury,
were determining the fate of the Welsh Prince David.
When that trial was over, the parliament joined the king at
Acton Burnell, and passed this statute ; after which the king
extended his royal visit till November 12. Some remains of
the room in which the parliament sat, still exist. They belong
to the old mansion of the Bishop's ancestors. But soon after
this he commenced a new building, for the erection of winch
he had the royal permission to take timber from the Forest
of Salop, and a license to embattle it. This mansion still
remains, but the interior is now so much choked up with
modern erections that its original arrangement can scarcely
be ascertained.6 The great hall in the episcopal palace at

1 Lib. 6 Edw. I., m. 2. 2 Lib. 1] Edw. I., m. 8.

3 Pat. 12 Edw. I., m. 7. * Claus. 14 Edw. I., m. 4; 17 Edw. I., m. 5.

5 Claus. 18 Edw. I,, m. 14.

6 Mr. Hartshorne's Paper, Archaeol. Journal, ii. 325., &c.

1272—1307. THOMAS DE BURNHAM. 67

Wells, which was destroyed by Sir John Gates, was erected
by Burnel ; and it is amusing to see Bishop Godwin assigning
the knight's subsequent decapitation as a just reward of his
sacrilege.1

One of the last acts which is recorded of Bishop Burnel
is his attendance at Norham as chancellor at the meeting of
the Scottish peers, on June 3, 1291, when King Edward
acted as arbitrator between the competitors for that crown.2

On October 25, 1292, he died at Berwick on Tweed, when
his body was removed to Wells and buried there. His large
property devolved on his nephew Philip, whose son Edward
was summoned to parliament in the next reign, but died with-
out issue. His nephew Nicholas, the son of his sister Maud
by John de Handlo, assumed the name of Burnell, and was
also summoned under Edward III. ; but his son Hugh
leaving only daughters, the barony fell into abeyance.3

Robert Burnel was an active and a wise minister, serving
the crown with zeal, energy, and prudence. No chancellor
before him had ever held the Seal so long, or retained so un-
interruptedly his sovereign's confidence. The monk of Wor-
cester gives his character in these words : " Regi tarn utilis,
plebi tarn affabilis, omnibus amabilis : vix nostris temporibus
illi similis invenietur." 4

BURNHAM, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1304.

In the first commission of Trailbaston into the counties of
Lincoln, Nottingham, and Derby, dated November 23, 1304,
33 Edward I., Thomas de Burnham was the last justice of
the four to whom it was addressed.5 On the renewal of the
commissions in the following April, he was not re-appointed :

1 Godwin de Pnecul. 374. * Lingard. iii. 206.

! Dugdale; Nicolas's Synopsis. 4 AngK Sac. i. 514.

8 Rot. Pari. i. 407.

F 2

68

WILLIAM DE BYRLAY.

Edw. I.

but he had in the mean time been returned as knight of the
shire for Lincolnshire, which he had already represented in
three parliaments, and was again elected to that of 2 Ed-
ward II. l

BURNTON, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1302.

William de Burnton was the last named of five justices
itinerant appointed in 30 Edward I., 1302, for the county of
Cornwall- : whether he was the same as William de B romp-
ton, the justice of the Common Pleas in this reign, whose
name was sometimes written Burnton, does not clearly
appear ; but as thirteen years had elapsed since his disgrace,
it may have been his son.

BYRLAY, WILLIAM DE.

? Keeper, 1298.

Although Mr. Hardy introduces William de Byrlay
(Birlaco) among the keepers, he can hardly be considered
entitled to that designation. He seems to have been merely
a clerk in the Chancery, to whom, with two of his brethren,
the Great Seal was on some occasions entrusted during the
temporary absences of the chancellor. On March 15, 1298,
26 Edward I., John de Langton, the chancellor, deposited the
Great Seal in the hands of him and of Master John de
Craucombe and Master John de Caen, to be kept in their
custody till his return.3 Another entry on December 28,
1298, of these three delivering the Seal into the wardrobe to
be taken to the chancellor, states that it had been committed
to them when that officer went to advise with the Archbishop

1 Rot. Pari. i. 86. 97. 120. 146.
8 Hardy's Catal. p. 14.

2 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

1272—1307. JOHN DE BYRUN. 69

of Canterbury relative to his election to the see of Ely. ! I
am inclined to think that Mr. Hardy is mistaken in noticing
these two entries as having relation to each other ; because
the interval between them is too long for an occasional
absence, and because at the first date the bishoprick of Ely
was not vacant, as William de Luda did not die till March
25 or 28, and the election would not take place till some
time afterwards. The Seal was next placed under his seal
and those of John de Caen and Robert de Bardelby, on
August 23 and October 30, 1302, 30 Edward I.2; and on
December 29, 1304, it was again in his possession in conjunc-
with Adam de Osgodby, the Master of the Rolls, and Robert
de Bardelby.3 After the latter date his name does not occur.

BYRUN, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

A separate commission of Trailbaston was issued on March
13, 1305, 33 Edward L, for the county of Lancaster, ad-
dressed to two justices, one of whom was John de Byrun.
In the following month, Lancashire was consolidated with
the other northern counties in a new commission, in which
his name was not included. 4

John de Byrun was a lineal descendant from Ralph dc
Burun, who at the time of the Conqueror's survey had eight
lordships in Nottinghamshire and five in Derbyshire. His
great-grandfather Robert obtained considerable property in
Lancashire by his marriage with Cecilia, the daughter and
heir of Richard Clayton, of Clayton in that county, by whom
he had a son, also Robert, the father of a John, who by marry-
ing Joan, daughter of Sir Baldwin Thies, and widow of Sir
Robert Holland, greatly increased his possessions in Lanca-

1 Rot. Claus. 27 Edw. I., m. 18. * Madox's Exch. i. 4S1.

3 Rot. Claus. 33 Edw. I., m. 22. * Pari. Writs, i. 407, 408.

r 3

70 JOHN DE BYRUN. Edw. I.

shire by the addition of extensive lands in Rochdale. He
was the father of John de Byrun, the subject of the present
notice.

It was said that the barony was lost in the reign of King
John, who gave it to William Briwer. We find John the
father, however, seated at Clayton, and appointed one of the
conservators of the peace for that county in 15 Edward I. 1
He was sheriff of Yorkshire for seven years from 21 Ed-
ward 1. 2, and actively engaged in raising the forces for
the Scottish wars. In 28 Edward I. he held a high place in
the commission to perambulate the forests of that and the
neighbouring counties.

John the son for the first nine years of the reign of
Edward II. held an equally prominent position in Lanca-
shire 3 ; after which he is not mentioned. Some little con-
fusion arising from the identity of name, renders it difficult
to distinguish precisely the acts of the two. The date of
neither of their deaths is given. The son married Alice,
cousin and heir of Robert Banastre of Hyndeley, Lancashire,
and was succeeded by his son Richard de Byron. In regular
descent from him came Sir John Byron, who for his faithful
adherence to the fortunes of King Charles I., and his valiant
support of his cause, was created Baron Byron of Rochdale
on October 24, 1643. The present baron, the seventh lord,
is his lineal descendant. The surpassing genius of George
Gordon Byron, the last lord, has given to the title an immor-
tality, which it could have never derived either from the
antiquity of the family or the devoted loyalty for which the
peerage was granted : his works will remain a lasting monu-
ment of his glory, but a sad record of his unhappy disposition
and of his unfortunate fate. 4

1 Pari. Writs, i. p. 389. * Fuller's Worthies.

3 Pari. Writs, i. 299. 398., ii. 8—17.

4 Dugdale's Baron, i. 518., ii. 469. ; Collins's Peerage, vii. 89.

1272—1307. JOHN DE CAEN. 71

CAEN, JOHN DPI

? Keeper, 1298.

There can be little doubt that John de Caen (Cadomo)
was one of the clerks in the Chancery. He is mentioned in
December, 1292, as present on John de Langton's being
appointed chancellor 1 ; and on four different occasions his
name subsequently appears in connection with the Great Seal.
On March 15, 1298, John de Langton, on retiring for a
time from court, left it, under his own seal, with Master
John de Craucombe, Master John de Caen, and William de
Byrlay till his return2; and on December 18 of the same
year, another record states that the three delivered it into the
king's wardrobe, to be taken to the chancellor.3 Although it
is improbable that they had possession of the Seal during the
whole of this interval, for the reasons mentioned under
William de Byrlay, yet it is certain that on October 3,
John de Caen was acting in the Exchequer as locum tenens
for the chancellor.4

Twice also in the year 1302, viz., on August 23, on
the resignation of John de Langton ; and on October 30,
when his successor, William de Greenfield, was sent abroad
on a mission, the Seal was delivered to Adam de Osgodby,
the keeper of the Rolls, to be kept by him under the
seals of John de Caen, William de Byrlay, and Robert
de Bardelby. On the first of these occasions, they held
it till the vacancy was supplied, on September 30 ; and on
the last, the chancellor was only absent twelve days, return-
ing on December ll.5

When William de Hamilton was constituted chancellor in

1 Rot. Clans. '21 Edw. I., m. 10. ■ Hardy's Catalogue, 11, 15.

3 Rot. Claus. 27 Edw. I., m. 18. 4 Madox's Exch, i. 121.

5 Rot. Claus. 30 Edw. I., m. 6. 52. ; Ibid. 31 Edw. 1., m. 18.

F 4

72

WALTER DE CAMBHOU.

Edw. I.

December, 1304, John de Caen's name was not among those
who were directed to keep the Seal till his arrival l ; but he
was a receiver of petitions in the parliament at Westminster
in September, 1305, 33 Edward I., and was also summoned
to that held at Carlisle in January, 1307 2; and in the next
reign as late as February, 1310, 3 Edward II.3

CAMBHOU, WALTER DE.

Just. Itin. 1293.

Among the pleas of the crown at Newcastle in 14 Edward I.,
Walter de Cambhou is mentioned as a keeper of the tallies
of the Exchequer.4 He was appointed a justice itinerant in
Tindale in 21 Edward I.5, being at that time custos of the
castle of Baumburgh 6 ; but he does not appear to have
acted afterwards. In that year, he and Isabella his wife
levied a fine of considerable property in Colwell in Nor-
thumberland, in favour of their son William de Cambhou
and his heirs, and in failure thereof to the right heirs of
Isabella: and in a plea of Michaelmas term, 19 Edward II.,
it is shown that both William and his brother John (who
was in the king's service in 26 Edward 1. 7) died without
heirs, and that Emma, the wife of Robert de Coventre, the
grand-daughter, through a daughter of Isabella, was en-
titled to the estate.8

Walter was elected one of the knights of the shire
for Northumberland in 24 Edward 1. 9 ; and died in the same
year.10

1 Rot. Claus. 33 Edw. I., m. 22.
3 Pari. Writs, vol. i. div. i. 42.
5 Dugdale's Chron. Series.
7 Madox's Exch. ii. 219.
9 Pari. Writs, i. 39.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 182. 189.
4 Rot. Pari. i. 122.
6 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 78.
8 Abbrev. Placit. 354.
10 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 94.

1272—1307. JOHN DE CAVE. 73

CANTERBURY, Archdeacon of. See J. de Langton.
CARLETON, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1286.
See under the reign of Edward II.

CAYE, HUGH DE.

Just. Itin. 1293.

Hugh de Cave in 5 Edward I. was clerk to Ralph de
Hengham, chief justice of the King's Bench, as appears by a
grant of lands to which the chief justice's seal was affixed
in his presence.1 In 21 Edward I., 1293, he was the last
named of four justices itinerant assigned for the county
of Surrey 2 ; and he was among the justices summoned to
the parliament of August, 23 Edward 1. 3, in which year he
is mentioned as acting also at Tamworth.4 He and his
brother, I presume the undernamed John, in 15 Edward I.,
had a grant of land at Cokefrueddinge in Staffordshire, from
Alwyn de Norton and his wife.5

CAYE, JOHN DE.

? Just. K. B. 1283.

A Justicier of this name has already been noticed
under Henry III., whose judicial life commenced in 1254,
and terminated in 1261. Dugdale inserts a John de Cave
as having been appointed a justice of the King's Bench in
1283, 11 Edward I. Although there is no absolute im-
possibility that he may have been the same person, the lapse

1 Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. p. 94. 8 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

3 Pari. Writs, i. 29. * Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 92.

5 Abbrev. Placit. 213.

74 ROGER DE CLIFFORD. Edw. I.

of time renders it very improbable. Whether he were so or
not, I can find no subsequent record of his name in which
his connection with the courts is recognised.

He appears to have been the brother of the last-mentioned
Hugh de Cave, and to have had grants of land made to him
by various persons in 11, 15, 16 Edward I., and 2 Ed-
ward II., in Shropshire, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, and
Yorkshire.1

CHESTER, PETER DE, Provost of Beverley.

B. E. 1284.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Peter de Chester is another of the justices itinerant
whose duties on his iter in 54 Henry III,, 1270, were
confined to pleas of the forest. His name next appears as
a baron of the Exchequer, to which he was appointed in
12 Edward I., 1284, and he continued to act till 1288.2 In
1282 he received the provostship of Beverley, and as his
successor was named in 1298, it may be presumed that his
death occurred about that time.3

CHICHESTER, Bishop of. See J. de Langton.
CHICHESTER, Dean of. See W. de Greenfield.

CLIFFORD, ROGER DE.

? Just. Itin. 1280.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Roger de Clifford traced his descent from Richard Duke
of Normandy, the grandfather of William the Conqueror.
Richard's third son, called Ponce, was Earl of Arques and

> Abbrev. Placit. 213. 215. 275. 305.

2 Madox's Exch. ii. 322. 8 Dugdale's Monast. vi. 1307.

1272—1307. ROGER DE CLIFFORD. 75

Thoulouse, and accompanied his nephew Duke William into
England. His son Richard Fitz-Pontz, by his wife Maud,
daughter of Ralph de Toney, became lord of Clifford Castle
in Herefordshire, and left a son, Walter, who assumed that
surname.1 Walter's grandson, Roger, married Sibilla,
daughter and heir of Robert de Ewyas and widow of Lord
Tregoz ; and by her had the subject of the present notice,
who at his father's death, in 16 Henry III., 1231, was a
minor.2 He attended the king in his expedition into France
in 43 Henry III. For a short time he joined the rebellious
barons, but, returning to his duty, he gave effective assistance
to his sovereign, both at the siege of Northampton and in
Wales, and in the decisive victory at Evesham in 1265. In
the next year he was made justice of the forests south of the
Trent, the duties of which he performed till August 1, 1270,
54 Henry III., when he went to the Holy Land, and was
named one of the executors of the will which Prince Edward
made there.3 His son, Roger junior, was appointed justice
of the forests in his stead.4 According to Dugdale's list he
was placed, in the year previous to his retirement, at the
head of the justices itinerant visiting Rutland, and five other
counties ; and again held the same position in 8 Edward I.,
1280. On the last occasion his commission was certainly
confined to pleas of the forest only ; and it seems most pro-
bable that those of the former iter did not extend beyond the
same object.

His bravery and experience in military affairs obtained for
him many important governments ; among which were, at
various times, the custody of the castles of Marlborough,
Ludgershall, Gloucester (with the sheriffalty of that county),

1 This "Walter was the father of Fair Rosamond.

8 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. i. 219.

J Testaments Vetusta, 8.

4 Excerpt, e Rot Fin. ii. 520.

76 ROGER DE CLIFFORD. Edw. I.

and Erdesley in Herefordshire. His last office of trust and
responsibility was justice of North Wales, to which he was
appointed in 8 Edward I. ; and his severity in the execution
of its duties is said to have induced David, the son of the
Prince of Wales, to break out into open hostility. He was
attacked by the Welsh in the castle of Hawardyn in
10 Edward I., and taken prisoner 1 ; and in a skirmish that
followed in the next year, his eldest son, Roger junior, was
unfortunately slain on November 6, 1182. His own death
occurred in 14 Edward I., 1286, when he was succeeded by
his grandson Robert, the son of Roger junior.

The name of his first wife is not recorded : but his second,
whom he married a few years before his death, was the
Countess of Lauretania, who survived him.2

Robert, his grandson, was summoned to parliament from
28 Edward I. ; and his descendants enjoyed the title till
1525, when Henry Clifford, the then baron, was created
Earl of Cumberland. By the death of the third earl in 1605
without male issue, the earldom devolved on his brother ; on
the death of whose son in 1643, it finally became extinct.
The barony, however, fell to his daughter Anne, successively
the wife of Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset (by whom she
had two daughters), and of Philip, Earl of Pembroke. The
future succession to the barony is remarkable for the fre-
quency with which it fell into abeyance. The claim made
to it by Anne was not decided till 1691, when her grandson,
Thomas Tufton, Earl of Thanet, succeeded in establishing
his title to it. At his death in 1729, leaving five daughters,
a second abeyance occurred among them ; which was termi-
nated in 1734 by a confirmation of the barony to the third
daughter, Margaret, the wife of Thomas Coke, Earl of
Leicester, on whose death without issue in 1775, there was

1 Pari. Writs, i. 222. » Dugdale's Baronage, i. 335.

1272—1307. JOHN DE COBBEHAM. 77

a third abeyance among the descendants of the four remaining
daughters. This was decided in 1776 in favour of Edward
Southwell, the grandson of Catherine, the eldest daughter.
Edward Southwell's son died in 1832 without issue ; by
which the barony was a fourth time in abeyance among the
issue of his three sisters. This was terminated by William IV.,
in the following year, in favour of the present Baroness de
Clifford (then Mrs. Russell), the heir of the eldest daughter,
Catherine.

The third son of Roger, the fifth Lord de Clifford, was
Sir Lewis Clifford, a knight in the reign of Edward III. ;
from whom, in regular descent, came Thomas (son of Hugh
Clifford, of Ugbrooke, in Devonshire), whom Charles II*
elevated to the peerage, April 22, 1672, by the title of Baron
Clifford of Chudleigh, and his lineal descendant, the seventh
lord, still enjoys it.1

COBBEHAM, JOHN DE.

Just. ? K. B. or C. P. 1272. B. E. 1276.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

John de Cobbeham, the third in succession of the same
family who occupied the judicial bench, was grandson of
Henry de Cobbeham. the justice itinerant, and eldest son of
John de Cobbeham, the justicier in the reign of Henry III.2
He was made constable of Rochester Castle so early in life
that he was called the young constable ; and was entrusted
with the sheriffalty of Kent for four years from 44 Henry III.
His seat was at Monkton, in the Isle of Thanet in that county.3
In 52 and 55 Henry III., 1268, 1271, he acted as a justice
itinerant for Surrey and Kent4 ; and was advanced to the

1 Nicolas's Synopsis of the Peerage ; Burke's Peerage.

8 Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 65. 3 Hasted's Kent, i. 181., iii. 407.

4 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

78 JOHN DE COBBEHAM. Edw. I.

bench at Westminster in 54 Henry III. ; from February in
which year, 1270, till July in the following, there are fre-
quent entries of payments for assizes to be held before him.1
In the former of these years he had a grant of 40Z. for his
salary; and Dugdale, who quotes a Liberate Roll, places him
at that time among the judges of the Common Pleas.

The same writer, on similar authority, inserts him as a
judge of the King's Bench in 2 Edward I., and then in
4 Edward I. removes him again to the Common Pleas. It
is difficult, however, to fix precisely from the Liberate Rolls
the court to which judges are attached, especially as the
mode of designating them was then scarcely fixed. There is,
therefore, probably an error in one or other of these appro-
priations. In the latter year he was certainly constituted a
baron of the Exchequer, the mandate for which is dated
June 6, 1276, with a salary of forty marks per annum2, and
there are several records showing that he continued in that
office during the remainder of his life.3 By an entry in the
Year Book of Hilary, 28 Edward I., 1300, it appears that
he was authorised to stay at home at his pleasure, and to
come to the Exchequer and remain there when he would.
This license was no doubt granted to him in consequence of
bodily infirmity, as he died in the same year.4

The Liberate Roll of 3 Edward I. m. 2., directs the payment
to him of a fee or pension as one of the king's Serjeants5, an
entry which it is difficult to explain, except on the presump-
tion that it was an arrear due to him in that character before
he was raised to the bench. In 16 Edward I., while he was
a baron of the Exchequer, we find him going the circuit into
Dorsetshire, and in the next year taking an assize in Essex.6

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 505 — 543. 2 Madox's Exch. ii. 56. 62.

3 Ibid. i. 291. 357., ii. 20. 255. 265.

4 Year Book, Part I. 40; Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 156.

5 Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 110. 6 Abbrev. Plac. 218.

1272—1307. MATTHEW DE COLUMBIERS. 79

He was summoned among the justices to most of the par-
liaments from 4 to 28 Edward I.1

He was twice married. His first wife was Joane, the
daughter and heir of Sir Robert de Sept vans, by whom he left
two sons, Henry and Reginald : his second wife was named
Methania.2 The succession of the family has been already
traced under Henry de Cobbeham in the last reign.

COLUMBIERS, MATTHEW DE.

? Just. Itin. 1280.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Matthew de Columbiers, or Columbariis, is stated by
Dugdale to belong to the noble family of that name flourishing
at this time, but in what manner is not mentioned.

It is evident, however, that he includes in the history of
one Matthew the facts which relate to several individuals,
creating a terrible confusion. He makes him governor of
Winchester Castle in 1 John, 1199, when it is to be pre-
sumed he was not quite a boy; — marries him to Maude,
daughter of Eudo de Morevill, in 22 Henry III., 1237;
names him as justice itinerant in 55 Henry III., 1268; and
kills him in 1 Edward I., 1272, making his brother Michael
his heir, who he afterwards states died in 19 Henry III.,
1234, thirty- eight years before him. It seems probable that
these were four individuals ; that the Matthew, who was
governor of Winchester, was the father of him who married
Maude de Morevill ; that the second Matthew was succeeded
by Michael, his brother, who married Avicia, daughter of
Elias Croc ; and that they were the parents of the Matthew
who is the subject of the present notice.

By the Fine Roll it appears that he did homage as the heir

1 Pari. Writs, i. 6—83. * Hasted's Kent, iii. 408.

80 MATTHEW DE COLUMBIERS. Edw. I.

of his mother Avicia de Columbariis on her death in October,
1259, 43 Henry III., for all the lands she held in capite,
together with the bailiffwick of the forest of Cette (Chute)
in Wiltshire.1

In the following year he was constituted governor of the
castle of Salisbury, and soon after joined the rebellious
barons, by whom, after the battle of Lewes, he was made
governor of Rockingham Castle. He availed himself of the
Dictum de Kenilworth to make his peace, and was appointed
warden of the forests south of the Trent.2 Although Dug-
dale introduces him as an ordinary justice itinerant in 53
Henry III., 1268, it seems more probable that his duties on
that occasion were confined to the trial of pleas of the forest,
as well on account of his above-mentioned appointment, as
because the commission was headed by Roger de Clifford,
the chief justice of the forests. If Dugdale's statement, that
this Matthew died in 1 Edward I., be correct, which is not im-
probable3, there must have been still another Matthew, who
was chief assessor in Hampshire of the Fifteenth granted in
3 Edward I.4, and one of the king's butlers in the following
year5, to whom was committed in the sixth year the office of
one of the king's chamberlains, and of gauger of the wines
sold in England.6 He was a justice itinerant of the forests
in 8 Edward I., 12807, and his death is recorded in 10 Ed-
ward I., when his brother Michael did homage for the lands
he held in capite.8 To make the difficulty still greater, there
is among the records a roll entitled " Compotus Mathaei de
Columbariis Camerarii vinorum," from Michaelmas at the
end of the ninth year to the same feast in the thirteenth ; and a
Matthew is again mentioned as king's butler in. 18 Edward I.9

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 3 IS. 2 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 633.

3 Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 53. 4 Pari. Writs, i. 3.

5 Devon's Issues Exch. iii. 92. 6 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 31.

7 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 8 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 41.

8 Second Report, Public Records, Appendix, ii. 55. ; Cal. Rot. Pat. 54.

1272—1307. JOHN DE CRAUCOMBE. 81

COVENTRY, Archdeacon of. See John de Kirkeby.
CRAUCOMBE, John de, Archdeacon op York.

? Keeper, 1298.

Master John de Craucombe was probably the son of
Godfrey de Craucombe, who served King Henry III. as
seneschall.1 He was evidently a clerk in the Chancery, and,
like most of his fellows, an ecclesiastic, sharing in the dignities
usually distributed among that class of officers, by being
made archdeacon of the East Riding of Yorkshire. This
preferment he was possessed of in 1288 2, and a letter is
extant from him under this title, and in the character of
vicar-general to the Archbishop of York, addressed to the
king in 1292, praying the removal of certain laymen, who
had seized the church of Bonigton.3

The great seal was deposited in his hands and in those of
Master John de Caen and William de Byrlay during the
temporary absence of the chancellor, John de Langton,
which commenced on March 15, 12984, and by another
entry we find that it was in their possession on December 28
in the same year5; but I have already shewn, under William
de Byrlay, that it could not have remained with them during
the whole interval. He was probably ill, when on August
23, 1302, a similar disposition of the great seal was made, as
his name was omitted, for he still continued to be summoned
to the parliament among the clerks of the Chancery till
February, 1305, 33 Edward I.6

1 Madox's Exch. i. 63. * Le Neve, 327.

3 Seventh Report Pub. Ilec., A pp. ii. 255.

4 Hardy's Catal. 14. 5 Rot. Claus. 27 Edw. I., m. 18.
Pari. Writs, i. 1:58.

VOL. HI.

82

HUGH DE CKESSINGHAM.

Edw. I.

CREPPING, RICHARD DE.

? Just. Itin. 1286.

Richard de Crepping was of a Yorkshire family ] , and, it
seems probable, the son of Robert de Crepping, who died in
8 Edward 1. 2, having for several years in the reign of Henry
III. been one of the king's escheators beyond the Trent3, and
in the forty-ninth year of that reign a justice of the Jews.4
Richard can scarcely be considered to have been a regular
justice itinerant, as he only acted in reference to pleas of the
forest, in Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, in 14 Edward L,
1286. 5 He was returned as knight of the shire for York in
18 Edward I.6 A John de Crepping, who may have been
his son, was made sheriff of Yorkshire, and custos of the
castle of York, in 1 Edward II.7

CRESSINGHAM, HUGH DE.

Just. Itin. 1292.

Hugh de Cressingham was an officer of the Exchequer.
In 10 Edward I. he went to Chichester, and took bail for
several persons charged with certain transgressions against
the property of the abbot of Ramsey8 ; and in the eighteenth
year he is called seneschall of the queen, and was one of
her bailiffs for the manor of Haverford. 9 In 20 Edward I.,
1292, he was appointed with two others to investigate and
audit the debts due to Henry III.10, and in that and the
three following years was at the head of the justices itinerant

1 Rot. Pari. i. 77.
3 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. i. & ii.
* Dugdale's Chron. Series.
T Madox's Exch. ii. 144.
9 Rot. Pari. i. 30. 33.

8 Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 69.
4 Madox's Exch. i. 234. ; ii. 319.
6 Pari. Writs, i. 21.
8 Abbrev. Placit. 274.
,ft Madox's Exch. ii. 291 .

1272—1307. HUGH L>E CRESS1NGHAM. 83

for the northern counties.1 Being also, as usual, of the
ecclesiastical profession, he held about this time the parsonage
of Doddington, and the rectory of Chalk in Kent.2

When the king defeated the Scotch and Baliol renounced
the throne in 1296, Cressingham was appointed treasurer
of that country, and, on the disorders which followed Ed-
ward's departure, was commanded not to scruple to spend the
whole money in the exchequer to put them down. Proud,
ignorant, and violent, he made himself hateful to the Scots
by his oppressions ; and on the rising of Wallace in the fol-
lowing year, preferring the cuirass to the cassock, he joined
the Earl of Surrey in leading the royal army to Stirling.
Wallace left the siege of Dundee, in which he was engaged,
and by a rapid march drew up his army on the other bank of
the river Forth before the arrival of the English forces. By
Cressingham's rashness the latter were led over the bridge,
and were terribly defeated, he being among the first who fell.
u So deep was the detestation in which his character was
regarded, that his body was mangled, the skin torn from his
limbs, and in savage triumph cut to pieces." It is said that
Wallace ordered as much of his skin to be taken off as would
make a sword-belt ; a story which has been absurdly extended
to its having been employed in making girths and saddles.3
The Scots called him " non thesaurarium sed trayturarium
regis."4 He held the town of Hendon and land in Finchley
in Middlesex, with the manor of Coulinge in Suffolk.5

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series ; Year Book, i. 33.

8 Hasted's Kent, iii. 471. ■ Ty tier's Scotland, i. 123—143.

4 Triveti Annales, 366, note. • Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 134.

84 ADAM DE CROKEDAYK. Ems. I.

CRESSY, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1304.

Hugh de Cressy, whom I have already noticed as a
justicier under the reign of Henry II., was the ancestor of
this William de Cressy, whose father and mother were
Stephen de Cressy, and Sibylla, the daughter and heir of
John de Braytoft.

William was summoned to attend the king on urgent affairs
in the twenty-second and again in the twenty-fifth years of the
reign of Edward I. : but Sir Harris Nicolas has stated reasons
why these should not be considered as regular summonses to
parliament ; and neither he nor his descendants were after-
wards summoned. He was returned as holding lands in
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire ; and when
the commission of trailbaston was issued for those counties,
on November 23, 1304, 33 Edward I., he was the second of
the three justices then assigned. In the following April
these counties were united with the northern counties, and
he was released from the duty. 1

CROKEDAYK, ADAM DE.

Just. Ass. 1293.

Adam de Crokedayk was one of the two justices of assize
appointed in 21 Edward I., 1293, for Lincoln and nine other
counties2, and was summoned among the justices to several
parliaments from the twenty-third to the thirty-third year of
that reign. 3 He is mentioned in 18 Edward I. as having been
guardian of Roger, the son of Robert de Hereford4 : and in 25

1 Pari. Writs, i. 407, 408. ; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 708. ; Nicolas's Synopsis.

* Dugdale's Chron. Series. 3 Pari. Writs, i. 29 — 138.

* Madox's Exch. i. 242.

1272 — 1307,

JOHN DE CROKESLEY. 85

Edward I. was assigned to assess and collect the ninth imposed
for the king's confirmation of Magna Charta in Northumber-
land, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire.1 Three
years afterwards he was appointed to perambulate the forests
of the counties of York and Cumberland2; and in 31 and 33
Edward I. there are writs in his name, shewing he was still
engaged in legal employments.3 In the latter year he died,
possessed of very considerable property in Cumberland. 4

CROKESLEY, JOHN DE.

? Just. Itin. 1292.

John de Crokesley was one of the king's escheators of
the forest of Kockingham 5, and also custos of Skipton and
other royal manors.6 It was only for pleas of the forest that
he was a justice itinerant in Essex, in 20 Edward I., 1292 7 ;
and he is mentioned as perambulating the forests in various
counties till the twenty-ninth year of that reign, and as
receiving six shillings a day for his expenses.8 He died in
the following year ; and another John de Crokesley, who was
probably his son, is recorded as connected with the king's
lands beyond the Trent.9

DEYNCOURT, EDMUND.

Jusr. Itin. T. 1305.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

DORSET, Archdeacon of. See Thomas Bek.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 239-241. 8 Pari. Writs, i. S98.

3 Abbrev. Placit. 249. 254. 4 Cal. Inquis. post mortem, i. 198.

5 Rot. Pari. ii. 414. 6 Madox's Exch. i. 721.

7 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 8 Pari. Writs, i. 88. 397.

9 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 123. 128.

JOHN DE DROKENESFORD.

Edw. I.

DROKENESFORD, JOHN DE, Bishop of Bath and
Wells.

? Keeper, 1298.

There is no other pretence for John de Drokenesford being
called keeper of the Great Seal, than that it was deposited in
the king's wardrobe, during the time he was keeper of that
department. On December 28, 1298, 27 Edward I., he was
merely the messenger to cany it to John de Langton, the
chancellor, on his return from Rome l ; and on the same
chancellor's resignation on August 12, 1302, 30 Edward L,
it was placed, as was the usual custom, under his care in the
wardrobe ; but with no power to use it, and eleven days after
it was given to Adam de Osgodby, the master of the Rolls.2

He possessed the manor of Eston Crok, in the forest of
Chute, and in 20 Edward I. had a licence to impark his
wood of Horsley there and eighty acres in addition. In
30 Edward I. he had grants from the king amounting
to 260 acres in Wolnemere and Windsor forests.3

He evidently had previously filled some office in the
Treasury or the Exchequer, as he is mentioned in 24 Edward
I., 1296, as the locum tenens of the treasurer ; an office to
which he was again appointed in 33 Edward I., 1305, in
which year he is also described as pleading for the king in
a suit relative to the manor of "Woodhull in Bedfordshire.4
In the first of these years he likewise held the position
of keeper of the king's wardrobe, which he retained till the
end of that reign, when it would appear that, in 1 Edward II.,
he exchanged it with John de Benstede for the office of
chancellor of the Exchequer.5

1 Rot. Claus. 27 Edw. I., m. 18. 2 Ibid. 30 Edw. L, mi. 8 & 6.

3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 55. 62.

4 Madox's Exch. ii. 324. ; Dugdale's Chron. Series ; Abbrev. Placit. 256'. 298

5 Madox's Exch. i. 72. 325. ; ii. 71.

1272—1307. SIMON DE ELLESWORTII. 87

His ecclesiastical preferment consisted at this time of a
canonry in the cathedral of Wells, and he was also a chaplain
to the pope ; but in the next year he was elected Bishop
of Bath and Wells, and was consecrated on November 9,
1309. King Edward II. entrusted him with the care of
the kingdom when he went into France in 1312; but he
afterwards joined the partisans of the queen against her
husband.

He is mentioned as no less attentive to the embellishment
of his see, and the preservation of its privileges, than to the
advancement of his kindred ; but the nineteen years of his
rule were continually disturbed by contests with the canons
of his church. He died at Dogmersfield on May 9, 1329,
and was interred in the chapel of St. Catherine in his own
cathedral.1

ELLESWORTH, SIMON DE.

? Just. Itik. 1292.

Simon de Ellesworth had a grant in 11 Edward I. from
Simon de Torp of lands in Torveston, Bucks, with the
advowson of the church there.2 He was not a regular justice
itinerant, but merely for pleas of the forest ; in which he is
mentioned as acting in 20 Edward I., 1292, for the county
of Essex.3 In 23 Edward I. the custody of the religious
houses belonging to France in the counties of Northampton,
Rutland, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, was committed to
him, and in the next year he was added to the chief justice
of the forests in a commission to rent out the wastes of the
forests beyond the Trent.4 In 21 Edward I. he was one of
the sureties for the appearance of William de Luda, Bishop
of Ely, on a complaint made against him by the Archbishop

1 Godwin de Prtesul. 375. 3 Abbrev. Thick. 206.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Series. * Abbrcv. Hot. Orig, i. !»1. 94.

G 4

88

NICHOLAS FERMBAUD.

Edw. I.

of Dublin J ; and on Ellesworth's death, in 25 Edward I., the
bishop returned the obligation by becoming security for the
payment of his debts to the crown.2

ELY, Bishop of. See J. de Kirkeby.
ESSEX, Archdeacon of. See R. de la Leye.
EXETER, Chancellor of. See R. de Hengham.

EYNEFELD, HENRY DE.

Just. Itin. 1293.

Henry de Eynefeld and John de Bosco were the two
justices who, in 21 Edward L, 1293, were appointed to take
assizes, &c. in Cornwall and nine other counties 3 ; and they
still continued to act in 24 Edward 1. 4 ; the former being
summoned among the justices to parliament till the twenty-
fifth year.5 I know not whether he is the person of this
name who was returned knight of the shire for Middlesex in
26 and 28 Edward I.6

FERMBAUD, NICHOLAS.

Just. Itin. 1305.

Nicholas Fermbaud, or Fernybatjd, was constable of
Bristol in 22 Edward L, and is named in that character as
late as the thirty-third year of the reign. In that city his
family was probably established, as one Reymund Fermbaud,
a burgess there, was ejected out of it in the reign of Edward
II.7 In 28 Edward I. Nicholas was appointed to peram-
bulate the forests of Gloucestershire and the neighbouring

1 Rot. Pari. i. 112. 8 Madox's Exch. ii. 44.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 4 Manning's Serviens ad legem.

s Pari. Writs, i. 29. 52. 6 Ibid. 72—86.

7 Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 82. ; Rot. Pari. i. 168. 360.

1272—1307.

RALPH FITZ-WILLIAM.

89

counties ] ; and two years afterwards the custody of the
bishoprick of Bath and YvTells was entrusted to him during
its vacancy.2

He is mentioned with William Inge as a justice taking
assizes in 1305 ; and in the same year he was also appointed
a justice of trailbaston for Essex and ten other counties, one
of which was Gloucestershire.3 He was re-nominated to the
latter office in 1307, 35 Edward L; when he was also assigned
to enquire into the facts mentioned in a petition to parliament
relative to the tithes of the forest of Dean.4 He possessed
considerable property at Wingrave and Rollesham in Buck-

inghamshire.5

FISHEBURN, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itin. 1293.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

FITZ-WILLIAM, RALPH.

Just. Itin. T. 1304.

The first two justices of trailbaston, whose names appear,
were Ralph Fitz- William and John de Barton. Their com-
mission was for Yorkshire, where they both resided, and of
which the former was the king's lieutenant. The date of the
writ is not stated, but it is inserted in Hemingford under
1304.6 In November of that year there is another writ ad-
dressed to these two and two others 7 ; and in the next year
new commissions, in which neither of them were named, were
issued for all the counties of England, except those in the
home district.8 It is therefore probable that the offences

Pari. Writs, i. 398.
N. Fcedera, i. 970,
Abbrev. Placit. 222.
Pari. Writs, i. 407.

276.

Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 121.
Rot. Pari. i. 161. 200. 218.
Heiningfbrd, ed. Hearne, 208,
N. Feeder*, i. 970.

90 RALPH FITZ-WILLIAM. Edw. I.

which these commissions were intended to suppress, were at
first supposed to be confined to the northern counties, and
that the original appointments were therefore limited to that
locality ; but that when they were found to be of a more
serious nature, and more universally extended, new commis-
sions were issued to meet the emergency, with larger powers
and more experienced judges.

Ralph Fitz- William Avas a son of William Fitz- Ralph of
Grimsthorp in Yorkshire, by Joane, daughter of Thomas de
Greystock. In 24 Edward I. he succeeded his brother,
Geoffrey Fitz- William, in his lands, and was one of the
barons summoned in the following year to join the king's
armies in Scotland. He served with so much zeal and valour
in those wars, that he was constituted capitaneus of the
garrisons and fortresses in Northumberland, lieutenant of
Yorkshire, and lord of the Marches, in which character, no
doubt, the commission of trailbaston was directed to him. In
28 Edward I. he was present at the siege of Carlaverock,
and was engaged in the Scottish wars to the end of the
reign.

Under Edward II. he was employed in the same manner, and
was made governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed and of Carlisle.
In the third year of that reign he was one of the ordainers to
regulate the king's household and government, and was fre-
quently appointed, in 8 Edward II., to take inquisitions as
to wrecks and otherwise. The last mention of him is as one
of the triers of petitions in the parliament of the following
year, February, 1316.1 According to Dugdale he died about
the feast of All Saints (November 1) in that year, which
would be 10 and not 9 Edward II., as he calls it; and this
agrees with the parliamentary writs and inquisitions post
mortem.2 He was buried in Nesham Abbey, Durham,

1 Rot. Pari. i. 288. 304. 306. 342. 3J0. 2 Cal. i. 282.

1272—1307

RALPH DE FRENINGIIAM.

91

among the ruins of which a monumental effigy has been dis-
covered, which is supposed to be his.1

The barony of Greystock was settled upon him by his
mother's nephew, John, the last lord of that name, upon
whose death, in 1305, he succeeded to it.

By his wife Margery, the daughter and one of the co-
heirs of Hugh de Bolebec, and widow of Nicholas Corbet, for
the king's licence to marry whom he paid 100 marks in
10 Edward I.2, he had two sons ; William, who died in his
father's lifetime, and Robert, who succeeded him, and died in
1317. His descendants assumed the name of Greystock,
and held the barony till 1487, when the then lord dying
without issue male, it was, by the marriage of his grand-
daughter, united to that of Dacre of Gillesland till 1569,
when it fell into abeyance among the sisters of George, the
fifth Baron Dacre.3

FREN1NGHAM, RALPH DE.

Just. C. P. 1275.

Ralph de Freningham wTas a canon of St. Paul's ; and
fines wrere levied before him, as a justice of the Common
Pleas, from Michaelmas, 3 Edward I., 1275, to Trinity, 6
Edward I., 1278.4 He died in 15 Edward I.5, and his
descendants apparently resided at East Farleigh, in Kent.6
One of them, of the same names, was sherhT of Kent in 17
Edward II.7

1 Siege of Carlaverock. p. 1G2. * Madox's Exch. i. 466.

3 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 740. ; Nicolas's Synopsis.

4 Dugdale's Orig. 21. 44. 5 Pari. Writs, i. 623, note.

6 Third Rep. Pub. llec., App. ii. 209.

7 Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 279.

92

ROBERT FULCON.

Edtv. L

FULCON, ROBERT.

Just. C. P. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Although Dugdale does not introduce Robert Fulcon
until 55 Henry III., commencing with a patent dated May
15, 1271, appointing him a justice of the Common Pleas,
there are frequent entries of assizes to be held before him,
proving that he was raised to the bench as early as Septem-
ber, 1267, 51 Henry III. As the fines mentioned by
Dugdale do not commence earlier than the former date, it is
not improbable that Robert Fulcon sat in the King's Bench
for the intervening period. These entries of assizes before
him are more numerous than before most of the other
judges, and they extend almost to the very day of King-
Henry's death. l

That he was continued in his office on the accession of
Edward I. appears from fines being levied before him till
about Michaelmas in the second year of this reign.2 After
that date he is not mentioned otherwise than as a justice
itinerant. In this character he acted in Hampshire in 6
Edward L, in Devonshire in 8 Edward I., in Wiltshire in
9 Edward I., in Cornwall in 10 Edward I., and in Hertford-
shire in 15 Edward I.3 There is no reason, however, to
doubt that he sat on one of the benches at Westminster
during the same period. He acted as assessor in Berkshire
for the fifteenth granted in 1 1 Edward I.4

1 Fin. ii. 460—590.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 4. 186.

4 Pari. Writs, i. 12.

8 Dugdale's Orig. 42.
Abbrev. Placit. 202. ; Dugdale's Chron. Ser.

127:2—1307. GODFREY GIFFARD. 93

GIFFARD, GODFREY, Archdeacon of Barnstaple, Bishop
of Worcester.

Just. Itin. 1277.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Bishop Godwin ] says that Godfrey Giffard was near to the
king in blood, and Richardson, his editor, adds that he was
the brother of Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York, alread}*-
noticed as chancellor in the reign of Henry III. It is not
improbable that he may be the Geoffrey (Galfridus) there
mentioned as Walter's brother; but I have not discovered
any evidence of the royal connection.

On November 6, 1265, he was collated Archdeacon of
Barum (Barnstaple)2; but it does not appear that he ever
held the archdeaconries of Wells or York, as stated by
Godwin and Richardson. On the 9th of the following May
he occupied the post of chancellor of the Exchequer ; and in
the next year also, when he had permission to appoint a
substitute to act during his absence.3

In the same year, 51 Henry III., 1266, he was appointed
chancellor of England, in the room of his brother, Walter
Giffard, probably soon after that prelate's translation from
the see of Bath and Wells to that of York. In June, 1268,
he was elected Bishop of Worcester, and continued chancellor
till the 29th of October following.4

When certain grievances were brought forward " a Bur-
gensibus Scholaribus Oxon." in 56 Henry III., he and
Roger de Mortuo Mari were appointed commissaries to
enquire into them : and in 6 Edward I., 1278, he was at the
head of the justices itinerant for the counties of Hereford,
Hertford, and Kent.

1 Godwin de Prscsul. 461. * Lc Neve, 98.

3 Madox's Ezeh. i. 476. ; ii. 52. * Rot. Pat. 5:5 Hm. III., m. 20.

94 WILLIAM DE GISELHAM. Edw. I.

He died on January 26, 1301, 29 Edward L, having
l^resided over his see nearly thirty-three years ; during which
period he greatly ornamented his cathedral, and finished the
castle of Hartlepool, which his predecessor, Walter de Canti-
lupe, had begun. He was a man of high spirit, overbearing,
and litigious, and made his visitations burthensome by the
extent of his retinue, which amounted to nearly a hundred
horse.1

GISELHAM, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1290.

William de Giselham probably took his name from the
place so called in Suffolk. On several occasions from 7 to
14 Edward I. he is described as the king's attorney ; and in
the tenth year both he and Gilbert de Thornton are desig-
nated " narratores pro rege." Other persons also during some
of the same years were distinguished by the same title 2 ; so
that it is difficult to determine whether any one of them was
what we now call the attorney general, or whether different
persons were not employed to conduct the king's business in
separate counties. In 9 Edward I. he was called to the
degree of king's serjeant at law : but it should be observed
that all who are noticed at this time as of the degree of the
coif seem to have been so designated ; and that it is doubtful
whether the modern distinction then existed.

When Edward I. purified the bench, in 1289, of those mem-
bers who had disgraced it, William de Giselham was consti-
tuted one of the new judges of the Common Pleas ; and fines
were levied before him from the octaves of the Purification,
18 Edward I., 1290, till the octaves of St. Martin, 21 Ed-
ward I., 1292.3 In the following January he came to an

1 Chambers's Illustrations of Worcestershire.

8 Dugdale's Chron. Ser. ; Pari. Writs, i. 382. ; Abbrev. Placit. 273, 274. 304.

3 Dugdale's Orig. 44.

1272—1307. NICHOLAS LE GRAS. 95

untimely end ; but I can find no other particulars of his death
than are contained in a letter written by William de Were-
minster to John de Langton, the chancellor, in which he
simply communicates to him that William de Giselham had
been killed. The date is ascertained by the same letter
announcing the election of William de Marchia to the
bishoprick of Bath and Wells, which took place on January
30, 1293.1

GRAS, NICHOLAS LE.

Just. Itin. 1285.

In the " Chronicon Petroburgense," published by the Camden
Society, we have a copy of the writ by which the five justices
itinerant into Northamptonshire were appointed, on August 3,
1285, 13 Edward I. The last of them is Nicholas le Gras,
whose name is omitted in Dugdale, although he mentions the
other four, viz. John de Vallibus, William de Saham, Roger
Loveday, and John de Metingham. They sat at Northampton
on the morrow of St. Michael, and for ten weeks afterwards.2

Nicholas le Gras was appointed sheriff of the counties of
Surrey and Sussex in 8 Edward I., and held the office for
five years. The castle of Odyham, in Hampshire, was also
committed to his charge in 10 Edward I.3

He was possessed of the manors of Renger in Terling and
of Little Badewe in Essex, which he gave up to his brother
Roger and Johanna his wife. Roger dying first, Nicholas
resumed possession, but they were recovered from him, in
33 Edward I., by Sir John de Tanny, who had married
Johanna, Roger's widow.4

1 Seventh Rep. Pub. Rec., App. ii. 249.

2 Cbron. Petroburg. 102. 118. 3 Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 35. 41.
4 Abbrev. Placit. 190. 255. 266. 305.

96

WILLIAM DE GREENFIELD.

Edw. I.

GREENFIELD, WILLIAM DE, Dean of Chichester, Arch-
bishop of York.

Chancellor, 1302.

William de Greenfield was born in Cornwall, but what
his earlier occupations were can only be presumed from his
subsequent career. From the practice that had been pre-
viously adopted by King Edward of raising the superior
officers of the court to the chancellorship, it is not unlikely
that he had passed his probation as a clerk of the Chancery
or Exchequer. Like those officers he was of the clerical
profession ; like them he had been rewarded with the dignities
of the church, the deanery of Chichester having, in 1299,
been superadded to his canonry of York ; and like them he
had been summoned to the parliament from 1293, on one of
which occasions he is called clerk of the council.1

A few weeks after the resignation of John de Langton,
the king appointed him chancellor, delivering the Seal to him
in the chapel of St. Radegund (Bradsole Abbey), near Dover,
on September 30, 1302 ; whither he took it, and sealed with
it at the Domus Dei there.2 Within a month he was em-
ployed on an embassy, which occupied him from October 30
to December 11, during which time his duties were per-
formed by Adam de Osgodby, the master of the Rolls.3

On December 4, 1304, he was elected Archbishop of York,
received the king's assent on the 24th, and on the 29th,
according to the special entry on the Roll, he declared to the
council, then at Lincoln, that it behoved him to take a journey
to Rome on the business of this election, and requested the
king to declare his will as to the custody of the Great Seal.4
William de Hamilton was immediately invested with the

1 Le Neve, GO. ; Pari. Writs, i. 28. 55—113.

2 Rot. Claus. 30 Edw. I., m. 5.
4 Ibid. 33 Edw. I., m. 22.

3 Ibid. 31 Edw. I., m. 18.

,

1272—1307. ADAM GURDON. 97

office of chancellor, and the archbishop elect proceeded to
the Roman court, where, notwithstanding the king's letters,
the pontiff detained him till January 6, 1306, before he
granted him consecration ; and then only on the payment of
9500 marks. To relieve him from the poverty resulting from
so extortionate an imposition, the clergy of his province
raised the money among them by benevolence and subsidy.

The ten years of his rule were principally illustrated by
his support of the knights templars in their fallen fortunes :
and by his assisting at the general council held at Vienne,
in 1311, where one of the highest places was assigned to
him, being that next to the' Archbishop of Treves.

He died at his palace at Cawrood on December 6, 1315,
9 Edward II., and was buried in the chapel of St. Nicholas
in his own cathedral. He had the character of an eloquent
man and an able statesman, with a sufficiency of learning :
and his library was extensive enough to be wrorthy of a
separate bequest to St. Albans abbey.1

GULDEFORD, HENRY DE.

Just. Ttin. 1304. Just. C. P. 1305.

GURDON, ADAM.

Just. Itin. 1280.

Adam Gurdon is mentioned in 16 Henry III., 1231, as
one of the bailiffs of Alton in Hampshire.2 He died in 38
Henry III., and was the father of the subject of the present
notice, who married Custancia, the daughter and heir of John
de Venuz, with whom he received extensive lands at Scl-
borne in that county, together with the bailiwick of the king's
forests of Wulvermar and Axiholt ; paying in March, 1257,

1 Godwin de Pr.csul. 685. * Madox's Excli. ii. 304.

vol. in. n

98

ADAM GUKDON.

Edw. I.

a fine of a mark and a half of gold for the king's confirmation
of the grant.1 Adam seems to have been of a litigious dis-
position, no less than six entries occurring in the Abbreviatio
Placitorum of causes decided against him.2 He joined the
party of De Montford, and even after the battle of Evesham
raised an array against his sovereign in Hampshire. Prince
Edward advanced against the rebels, and coming up with
them between Farnham and Alton he inconsiderately leaped
over the trench that surrounded their camp before his forces
could follow him. Aclam met him, and after a severe fight
hand to hand, was at last mastered and obliged to yield him-
self prisoner to the prince. Edward generously gave him
his life, and eventually his liberty, and thus secured the
services of a brave and grateful enemy.3

His lands and his office having been restored to him, he
built a mansion called the Temple, which overlooked the
forest. In 8 Edward I., 1280, Dugdale places him among
the justices itinerant in Wiltshire ; but the pleas of that iter
were confined to the forest, and he was no doubt appointed
in virtue of his bailiwick, as he is not mentioned upon any
other circuit.

He was frequently summoned to perform military service,
and in 23 Edward I. was nominated custos of the sea-shores
of Hampshire, and a commissioner of array in that county
and in Dorset and Wilts.

In 33 Edward I., 1305, he was elected a representative by
the "communitas" of Scotland, and constituted a justice
there ; and died in the same year.4

Besides his first wife Custancia, already mentioned, he
married two others ; viz. Almeria, whom he divorced after
having two sons ; and Agnes, by whom he had a daughter,

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 252.

2 Abb. Placit. 161, 162. 173. 177. 191. 267. 3 Rapin, iii. 170.

4 Rot. Pari. i. 267. ; Pari. Writs, i. 161. &c; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 12. 196. 212.

1272—1307. WILLIAM DE HAMILTON. 99

Johanna, to whom he left his property in Selborne, and who
married Richard Achard. That estate, still called Gurdon
Manor, now belongs to Magdalen College, Oxford.

I conceive that his wife Agnes was the daughter of Simon
de Punde, about whose legitimacy there Avas a suit in
4 Edward I. It is stated that Matilda her mother was never
married to Simon, but that he " aliquo tempore captus fuit
per amicos Matildae in camera fornicando cum ipsa Matilda
per quod compellabatur unum de tribus facere vel ipsam
am* dare vel vitam suam amittere vel ipsam Matildam retro
osculare." My opinion is founded on the fact that on the
decision against Agnes and in favour of Simon's sister, Adam
de Gurdon, although not previously mentioned, is recorded
as being " in mercy." 1

His representatives still flourish in two families, both de-
scended lineally from his second son Robert : one seated at
Assington Hall in Suffolk ; and the other at Letton in Nor-
folk, and Grundisburgh in Suffolk.2

HAMILTON, WILLIAM DE, Archdeacon and Dean of

York.

? Just. Itin. 1280. ? Keeper, 1292. Chancellor, 1304.

Where William de Hamilton was born, or who were his
parents, is not mentioned ; but that he had property in
Cambridge appears by his petition to the parliament in
18 Edward I., to grant three messuages there in mortmain
to the brothers of Mount Carmel in that city. His name is
first recorded as a justice itinerant, but for pleas of the forest
only, in Hampshire and Wiltshire in 8 Edward L, 1280,
standing last on the list.3 In 10 Edward L, he was custos
of the bishoprick of Winchester, and of the abbey of Hide. '

1 Abbrev. Placit. 267. 2 Burke's Landed Gentry, i. 514.

3 Dugdale'a Chron. Series. ' Abb, Rot. Orig. i. 401.

n a

100

WILLIAM DE HAMILTON.

Emv. I.

He seems afterwards to have become a clerk in the
Chancery ; as it was probably in that capacity that the Great
Seal was occasionally placed under his care. There is one
letter addressed to him as the king's vice-chancellor, dated
November 12, 1286, 14 Edward I.1, which was during the
interval that the chancellor, Robert Burnel, Bishop of Bath
and Wells, was absent with the king for three years in
France; and another from the regent Edmund, Earl of
Cornwall, with directions relating to the Chancery. On the
bishop's death, October 25, 1292, 20 Edward I, the Great
Seal was delivered into the wardrobe under William de
Hamilton's seal ; and the record expressly states that he
sealed the writs therewith for the few days that intervened
before his accompanying the chancellor's remains to Wells 2,
as one of his executors.3 During a visit also of the next
chancellor, John de Langton, to his prebend of Aulton
juxta Cerne, from March 4 to 30, 1297, Hamilton held the
Seal ; and so again, when the same chancellor proceeded to
Rome relative to his election to the see of Ely, and was
absent from February 20 to June 16, 1299, he performed the
necessary duties of the Seal in the meantime.4

During this period he received the usual ecclesiastical pre-
ferments which were conferred on this class of officers ;
being in 1292 made archdeacon of the West Riding of
York, and in December 1208 appointed Dean of York,
after a successful resistance of the pope's nomination of a
cardinal instead of him.5 He was also dean of the church of
St. Berian in Cornwall.6

His name does not appear during the chancellorship of
William de Greenfield, Dean of Chichester; but when
Greenfield resigned the Great Seal at Lincoln on Dec. 29,

1 Seventh Report, Pub. Rec, App., xii. 242. 251.

2 Claus. 20 Edvv. I., m. 2. 3
4 Claus. 25 Edvv. I., m. 21. ; 27 Edw. T., m. 18.

s Le Neve, 313. 322.

Rot. Pari. i. 117.

6 Cole's Documents, 421.

1272— 13G7. HAMON HAUTEYN. 101

1304, being then about to proceed to Home, the king
named William de Hamilton chancellor in his place. As he
was then absent, the Seal was ordered to be deposited in the
wardrobe till his arrival ; and it was delivered to him on
January 16, 13C5.1 He held it till his death, on April 20,
1307, when he was succeeded by Ralph de Baldock, Bishop
of London. -

HARWEDON, ROBERT DE.

Just. Itin. T. ]305.

The last-named of the four justices of Trailbaston in the
commission for Gloucestershire and ten other counties, dated
on April 6, 1305, 33 Edward I., was Robert de Harwedon,
who held land in the forest of Bernewood 3 ; but he was
not re- appointed on the issuing of the new commissions of
35 Edward I. The only further mention that I find of him
is, that he acted as deputy to Hugh le Despenser, the
justice of the forests south of Trent in the next reign, in
the fifth year of which the custody of the Manor of Rokele
in Wiltshire, belonging to the Templars, was committed to
him at an annual rent of eleven pounds, ten shillings, and
fourpence ; and that he had a license in 7 Edward II. to
inclose six acres of his wood of Shitelhangre within the
bounds of the forest of Salceto.4

IIAUTEYN, HAMON.

Just. Itin. 1285.

THESE is a manor called Hauteyn's in the parish of Bernham-
Broom in Norfolk, from which the family of Hamon Hauteyn

1 CUus. m Edw. I., m. 22. • Madox'a Exch. I. :

3 N. Foedera, i. 970.; Rot Pari. ii. 215.

4 Ibid. i. 321.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 184.; C«L Hot. Fat. 78.

H 3

102

WALTER DE HELYUN.

Edw. I.

no doubt was named.1 He held some office in the Exchequer
under Henry III. ; and was entrusted with the sheriffalty of
Lincolnshire in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth years of that
reign, during which he was either so negligent or corrupt,
as to incur an amercement of ten marks for delaying the
execution of a writ till it was too late to act upon it.2

In 1 Edward I. he was one of the justices of the Jews 3,
the functions of which he performed for several years, during
which he acted as assessor in London and Middlesex of
the fifteenth granted in 3 Edward I.4 ; and sat with Ralph
de Hengham and others as a justice itinerant for the county
of Suffolk in 1285, 13 Edward I.5 In the next year, how-
ever, being called to account by the treasurer and barons of
the Exchequer, and convicted of various misdemeanours, he
was suspended from his office of justice of the Jews in Trinity
term, 1286.6

HEGHAM, ROGER DE.

B. E. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

HELYUN, WALTER DE.

Just. K. B. 1272. Just. C. P. 1278.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Walter de Helyun is only noticed by Dugdale under
Henry III. as a justice itinerant in the fifty-third and
three following years of that reign. The Fine Roll, how-
ever, would seem clearly to show that he was at that time
a justicier at Westminster, as there are continual entries of

Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 636.
Pell Records, Introd. xxxiii.
Abbrev. Placit. 2 77.

2 Abbrev. Placit. 152.

4 Pari. Writs, i. 4.

6 Madox's Excb. i. 254., ii. 321.

1272—1307. ROBERT DE HERTFORD. 103

payments for assizes to be held before him from May, 1269,
53 Henry III., till July, 1272, 56 Henry III.1 He is called
" one of the king's justices appointed to hold the pleas of the
lord the king" on the Fine Eoll of Easter, 1273, 1 Edward I.,
when he received " ten marks as an advance from the king
till his return to England ; " and in the fourth year he was
paid twenty pounds for his expenses in visiting " eleven
places to expedite the king's business."2 It would appear
that he was removed to the Common Pleas in 6 Edward I.,
when a salary of fifty marks was assigned to him ; as from
that year till Trinity, 9 Edward I., 1281, fines were levied
before him.3 He was present at the parliament held at
Westminster at Michaelmas, 6 Edward L, when Alexander,
king of Scotland, did homage.4 It was probably his son of
the same name, who was returned as knight of the shire for
Gloucester in 24 Edward I.5

HENGHAM, RALPH DE, Chancellor of Exeter.

Just. C. P. 1272. Ch. K. B. 1273.
See under the Reigns of Henry III. and Edward II.

HERTELPOLE, GEOFFREY DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

HERTFORD, ROBERT DE.

Just. C. P. 1290.

Robert de Hertford was one of the judges of the
Common Pleas who were placed on the bench in the room

1 Excerpt e Rot. Fin. ii. 490 — 571. 2 Devon's Issue Roll, Si.

3 Dugdale's Orig. 44. * Rot. Pari. i. .

1 Pari. Writs, i. 37.

H 4

104 STEPHEN HEYM. Edw. I.

of those who were superseded for corruption. His name
appears on the fines levied between the octaves of the
Purification, 18 Edward L, 1290, and Michaelmas, 21
Edward I., 1293 l ; but he is subsequently mentioned as a
witness to a mandate dated at Westminster, June 24, 1294 2 ;
and he was summoned to the parliament which met in the'
following year.3 In 34 Edward I., his two sons, Master
Richard and Peter, fined forty shillings for license to enter
certain tenements in Kadeclyve in Notts.4

HEYM, PETER.

Just. Itin. 1292.

Nothing has been ascertained relative to Peter Heym,
except that he was appointed, in 20 Edward I., 1292, a
justice to take assizes in divers counties, and that his pleas
are recorded in 23 Edward I.5 He was probably the son of
the undernamed Stephen Heym.

HEYM, STEPHEN.

Just. C. P. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Stephen Heym is inserted in Dugdale's list of justices of
the Common Pleas at Easter, 55 Henry III., 1271, and
writs of assize were taken in his name from the following
May till the end of that reign.6 He was continued in the
office under the succeeding king, as fines were levied before
him from the former date till fifteen days of St. Martin, in
2 Edward I., 1273.7 He died early in the following year.8

1 Dugdale's Orig. 44. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 70. 391.

3 Pari. Writs, i. 29. 4 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 148.

5 Dugdale's Chron. Series ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 92.

6 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 537 — 589. 7 Dugdale's Orig. 44.
8 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 23.

1272-1307. WALTER DE HOPTON. 105

HOPTON, WALTER DE.

B. E. 1274. K. B. 1274.
See \inder the Reign of Henry III.

To the ancestor of this family, whose property was situate
in Herefordshire and Shropshire, King William is stated to
have granted the following rhyming charter : —

To me and to myne l, to thee and to thine

While water runs and the sun doth shyne ;

For lacke of heyrs to the king again.

I William, king, the third of my reign,

Give to the Norman Hunter,

To me that art both Line and Deare,

The Hoppe and Hoptoune ,

And al the bounds up and downc,

Under the Earth to Hell,

Above the Earth to Heaven,

From me and from mine

To thee and to thine,

As good and as faire

As ever they myne were.

To witness .that this is sooth,

I bite the white wax with my tooth

Before Jugg, Marode, and Margery,

And my third son Henery ;

For one bow and broad arrow

When I come to hunt upon Yarrow.2

"Whatever may be the authenticity of this record, there is
little doubt that Walter de Hopton was a descendant of the
alleged grantee. In 35 Henry III., 1251, Johanna, the
widow of Walter de Hopton, paid for an assize in Hereford-
shire.3 These probably were the father and mother of the
judge. His own wife was also named Johanna, the daughter
of William de Scalariis, on his marriage with whom he
received thirty shillings rent in Herefordshire, which he
recovered in Michaelmas, 1274.4

1 Qu. From me and from myne? 8 Blount*s Tenures, 108.

Excerpt, e Rot, I'm. ii. 11<>. ' Abbrey. Placit. 187.

J 06 WALTER DE HOPTON. Edw. I.

In the last year of the reign of Henry III., 1272, he
acted as a justice itinerant in Worcestershire, and on April
24, 1274, 2 Edward I., he was one of the barons of the
Exchequer. At the end of that, or the beginning of the
following year, he was removed into the King's Bench,
and is mentioned (erroneously under the name of William)
in 6 Edward I., when he was also one of the justices
itinerant into Hertfordshire and Kent. His name does not
again occur till 13 Edward I., 1284, in which and in the
two following years he was joined in various commissions
as a justice itinerant.1 In 15 Edward I., he and his wife,
called in the record Matilda, lost some land in Shropshire
in an action brought against them by the Abbot of Cum-
bermere.2 He is mentioned as one of the justices itinerant
who were fined for corruption by King Edward on his
return to England in 1289. By his petition to the king
at the parliament held at Michaelmas, 18 Edward I., 1290,
he represents that he was not guilty of a charge brought
against Solomon cle Rochester and his companions justices
itinerant in Norfolk, inasmuch as he was not associated with
them till after the time when the offence was committed,
nor did he know of the presentment until he was taken
before the council and committed to the Tower. If, as
Weever says, he was fined in the sum of 2000 marks, there
were probably further charges against him. It would seem,
however, that his appeal to the royal favour was successful,
for in the same year the king assigned to him the lands of
which his wife had died seised ; and in 20 Edward I., he was
impleaded of waste on property in Wemme, Shropshire, and
Tirlegh, Gloucestershire.3 From the twenty-fifth to the
thirtieth year of the reign, also, he was not only summoned
to perform military service in respect of his lands, but was

1 Dugdale's Chron. Ser. ; Madox's Excb. ii. 320. ; Abbrev. Placit. 2G9.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 56. 79. 3 Rot. Pari. i. 56. 79.

1272—1307. THOMAS DE LA HYDE. 107

twice elected as assessor of the fifteenth and other charges
on the county of Hereford. In 33 Edward I. he was
returned as knight of that shire1, and in the same year he
died in possession of property in Shropshire of very con-
siderable extent.'2 This family has continued to flourish
from that time at their manor of Canon, Frome Court, in
Herefordshire, producing sheriffs of the county and members
of parliament, and it is now represented by a lineal de-
scendant still resident there.3

It seems to be more than probable that the above facts
refer to two persons named Walter de Hopton ; that they
were father and son ; and that the division should be made
between the sixth and thirteenth years of the reign.

HOWARD, WILLIAM.

Just. Itin. 1293. Just. C. P. 1297.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

HYDE, THOMAS DE LA.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

Thomas de la Hyde possessed considerable property in
Cornwall, and was sheriff of that county from 29 Edward I.
till 6 Edward II., as well as seneschal of the castles of
Tintagel, Restormel, and Tremeton, and of the stannary and
the coinage there.4 It was doubtless on account of this
position that he was placed on the commission of Trailbaston
which was issued for the ten western and south-western
counties on April 6, 1305, 33 Edward I.5 He was not
reappointed in the new commissions dated in 35 Edward I.,
being probably found more useful in his other employments,

1 Pari. Writs, i. 107. 132. 144. 291. * Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 199.

8 Burke's Landed Gentry, i. 590.

* Fuller's Worthies; Madox's Exeh. Hi. 44. 5 N. Ftcdern, i. 970.

108

HUGH DE KENDALL.

Einv. I.

of which many instances occur among the parliamentary
writs. In 5 Edward II. a fine was imposed upon him for
non-appearance at the Exchequer on the day of account,
and his goods were ordered to be seized into the king's
hands, and his person to be attached for the contempt, but
the writ was discharged on its being shown that sickness
prevented his attendance.1 He died in the eighth year of

that reign.2

INGE, WILLIAM.

Just. Itin. 1293.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

INSULA, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1293. B. E. 1295.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

KENDALL, HUGH DE.

? Keeper, 1284.

By the Patent Roll of 12 Edward I., it appears that on
July 25, 1284, on the occasion of the chancellor visiting his
house at Acton Burnell, he left the Great Seal under the
care of Hugh de Kendall and Walter de Odyham.3 This
disposition of the Seal, however, seems to have been made to
them solely as clerks of the Chancery ; and Madox quotes a
record, two years later in date, which plainly proves that
Hugh de Kendall then held that office.4 Among the public
records there are many writs and directions addressed to
them jointly, and some separately, on the business of the
Chancery during July and the two following months ; but

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 237.
3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 51.

2 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 256.
< Madox's Exch. ii. 257.

1272— 13C7. WILLIAM DE KERDESTON. 109

it is to be remarked that wherever the year is named, it is
1283, 11 Edward I.1 This proves either that there is an
error in the former date, or that they were employed in the
same duties in botli years.

How long Hugh de Kendall had been one of the clerks of
the Chancery does not appear, but he had been for several years
engaged in official duties. In 1 Edward I., he received ten
marks for his expenses in going to the king beyond the seas
at his command'2; two years afterwards, he was appointed
assessor of the fifteenth imposed on the counties of Cam-
bridge and Huntingdon ; and in the ninth year he is styled
the king's clerk.3 In 17 Edward I., he was paid 11 6s. ±\d.
for erecting a house in the burial ground of the Abbot of
Westminster, in which the statues of King Henry and
Queen Eleanor, Edward's late consort, were being made ;
and in 20 Edward I., he received 20/. in reference to some
latten metal provided for the tomb of the former.4

KERDESTON, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

One of the five justices of Trailbaston, appointed on April 6,
1305, 33 Edward L, for Norfolk and Suffolk, was William
de Kerdeston5, who had been sheriff of those counties in the
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of that reign, and held
considerable possessions in the former of them. When the
new commissions were issued two years afterwards, his name
was omitted, probably on account of his death, as the fre-
quent entries about him in the parliamentary writs cease in
the thirty-fourth year.'5 They show him to have been
summoned to perform military service, and to have been

1 Seventh Report, Pub. lice, App., ii. 240— 258.

8 Devon's Issue [toll, 87. 8 Par]. Writs, i. 3. 9.

1 Devon'i Issue Roll, 99. 10 3. 8 N. Feeder*, i. 970.

s Pari. Writs, i. '27—409.

110 JOHN DE KIRKEBY. Edw. I.

variously employed in those counties. He married Margaret,
daughter of Gilbert de Gant, Baron of Folkingham, part of
whose property his son, Roger de Kerdeston, inherited as
one of his co-heirs.1 Roger was summoned to parliament in
6 Edward III. ; but the barony, on the death of his grandson
without issue, fell into abeyance between his half-sisters.2

KIRKEBY, GILBERT DE.

Just. Ass. 1293.

Gilbert de Kirkeby, like many of his namesakes, was
connected with the courts, and is mentioned in 18 Edward I.
as being put in the place, or as being the attorney of Roger
de Longspee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, in a pro-
ceeding he had before the parliament.3 That his standing
was a high one is shown by his being selected in 21 Edw. I.,
1293, as one of the eight justices of assize then appointed,
when Kent and eight other counties were assigned to him
and to John de Insula.4 He had property in Hinton and
Brackley in Northampton5; and was sheriff of that county
for five years, commencing 2 Edward I.6

KIRKEBY, JOHN DE, Archdeacon of Coventry,
afterwards Bishop of Ely.

? Keeper, 1278.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

"Whether this John de Kirkeby is in any way connected
with the justicier of those names in 11 Henry III., does not
appear : as there are several places so called, these individuals

1 Rot. Pari. i. 325.

2 Dugdale's Baron, ii. 112.; Nicolas's Synopsis; Burke's Ext. Peerage.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 16. 4 Dugdale's Chron. Series.
5 Abbrev. Placit. 269. fi Fuller's Worthies.

1272—1307. JOHN DE KIRKEBY. Ill

might not even have received their designation from the
same locality. This John de Kirkeby was rector of the
church of St. Berian in Cornwall1; Dean of Wymburn in
Dorsetshire; a canon in the cathedrals of Wells and York;
and in 1272, 56 Henry III., was appointed Archdeacon of
Coventry.'2 When, on the death of Richard de Middelton
on August 7th of the latter year, the Great Seal was
delivered into the king's wardrobe under the seal of John de
Kirkeby, to whom the king committed its custody, there is
no doubt that he was either an officer of the Exchequer, or
a clerk of the Chancery. He associated with him in this
custody P. de Winton, the keeper of the wardrobe; and the
Great Seal, secured under their several seals, was on the king's
death3 on November 16 following, delivered up by him to
the king's council. There is among the records in the Tower
a letter addressed to him as the king's vice-chancellor about
this time.4

It was not till nearly six years after this that he had again
possession of the Great Seal. When Robert Burnel, the
chancellor, went abroad on February 11, 1278, 6 Edward L,
John de Kirkeby was named as his substitute ; and the same
course was repeated on several other occasions during that
chancellor's temporary absences; viz., on May 25, 1279,
February 20, 1281, February 13, 1282, and March 1, 1283.5
Some of these deliveries of the Seal were made by the chan-
cellor himself, and under no special appointment from the
king; and as John de Kirkeby was left to expedite the
business of the Chancery in the mean time, it is manifest that
he was cognizant of the duties of the office, and most pro-
bably that he was the senior clerk in the Chancery, then a

1 Rot. Pari. L 14. 8 Le Novo, 132.

3 Excerpt, c Rot. Tin. ii. 515. 590. ; Rot. Pat 5G Hen. III., m. 6.
1 Seventh Report, Pub. Rec., A pp., ii.
Lib. (i EdV. I., m. 2. ; ll Edw. r., m. h. ; Pat. 12 EdV. I., m. 7.

112

GILBERT DE KNOVILL

Edw. I.

place of high importance. From this he was promoted, on
January 6, 1284, 12 Edward L, to the office of treasurer1,
which he filled until his death.

On July 26, 1286, he was elected Bishop of Ely, and
although he had previously held so many ecclesiastical digni-
ties, was obliged to be ordained priest before his consecration.
Within four years a violent fever terminated his career, on
March 26, 1290. He was buried in his own cathedral, and
was succeeded in his property by a brother named William.
He is charged with neglecting the care of his diocese in his
devotion to the affairs of the state, and to have borne him-
self with too much arrogance, sinking the bishop in the
treasurer. His successors, however, would not fail to bless
his memory for the munificent bequest he made to them of
the manor of Holborn, where their London palace was built,
near the site which is now called Ely Place.2

There was another John de Kirkeby, who was remem-
brancer of the Exchequer in 19 Edward I., and who, with
certain others, was appointed to receive petitions to the
parliament in 1305, 33 Edward I., at the dissolution of which,
he alone was authorised to give briefs to the members to
receive their wages in the several counties. He died in
1 Edward II.3

KNOVILL, GILBERT DE.
Just. Itxx. T. 1305.

It does not appear whether Gilbert de Knovill was a relative
of Bogo de Knovill, a baron at this time in Shropshire ; but
he was sheriff of Devonshire from 21 to 28 Edward I.4, during
which time he witnessed the charter by which Isabella de

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 36.

2 Godwin de Prsesul. 257.; Angl. Sac. i. 637.; Chron. Petroburg. 150.

3 Madox's Exch. ii. 265 — 268. ; Lingard's Eng. iii. 247.

4 Madox's Exch. ii. 156. 179.

1272—1307. WALTER DE LANGTON. 113

Fortibus, Countess of Albemarle and Devonshire, granted
to the king the Isle of Wight, and the manors of Christchurch
in Hants and Lambeth in Surrey ; and was also one of her
executors.1 He was indebted to her for the manor of
Batishorn in the parish of Honiton, which long remained in
his family. -

In 31 Edward L, 1303, he was sent as a justice itinerant
into the isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark ; and
two years afterwards was appointed one of the justices of
Trailbaston into ten counties, of which Devonshire was one,
and again in the thirty-fifth year.3

Judging from a contemporary song, he graced the seat of
justice with mercy and a tender consideration for the poor.4
In 2 Edward II. he petitioned the parliament for relief, in
consequence of having received during his sheriffalty 108/.
in a coin called pollards, which had been reduced to half
their value by a royal proclamation ; and the barons of the
Exchequer were afterwards ordered to make him the allow-
ance.5 He died in 7 Edward II.6

LANGTON, JOHN DE, Treasurer of Wells, Archdeacon
of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester.

M. R. 1286. Chanc. 1292.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

LANGTON, WALTER DE, Bishop of Lichfield and
Coventry.

? Keeper, 1292.

Mb. Hardy introduces Walter de Langton among the
keepers of the Great Seal, because, on the death of Bishop

1 Rot. Pari. i. 335, 33G. ■ Risdon's Survey of Devon, 40.

3 N. Fcedera, i. 970., called William by mistake; Rot. Pari. i. 218. 464.

4 Wright's Political Songs, 231. See ante, p. 35.

4 Rot. Pari. i. 273. ; Madox's Excb. i. 294. 6 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 808.

VOL. III. I

114

WALTER DE LANGTON.

Edw. I.

Burnel the chancellor on October 25, 1292, 20 Edward I.,
it was delivered to him as custos of the king's wardrobe,
under the seal of William de Hamilton. If either of these is
to be called Keeper, however, the latter is the more entitled
to the designation ; because the same record states that he
sealed the writs from that time till the following Wednesday,
when he accompanied the bishop's body to be buried at
Wells.1 They had no more than the temporary care of
the seal, while in its usual place of deposit, till the appoint-
ment of a new chancellor, which took place on the 12 th of
the following December.

Walter de Langton wTas born at West Langton, in the
county of Leicester; and was nephew of William de Langton,
Dean of York. He was himself dean of the free chapel at
Bruges, a canon of Lichfield, and one of the pope's chaplains.
In 18 Edward I. he received permission to impark his wood of
Ashle, and twelve contiguous acres in the forest of Rocking-
ham.2 He held the office of keeper of the wardrobe until he was
raised to the treasurership of England on September 28, 1295,
23 Edward I., his salary for which was 100 marks.3 In the
following February he was elected Bishop of Coventry and
Lichfield, and was consecrated on December 22, 1296, still
retaining the office of treasurer.4

Although possessing the king's confidence and favour, his
integrity and boldness in correcting the insolence of Peter de
Gaveston and Prince Edward's other servants, and restraining
their expenses, occasioned him much trouble and persecution.
In 1301, 29 Edward L, he was charged with such heinous
crimes by one Sir John Lovetot, as adultery, simony, and
homicide, that the king was obliged to dismiss him till he
had purged himself. For this he was compelled to take a

1 Clans. 20 Edw. I., m. 2.
3 Devon's Issue Roll, 164.
1 Dugdale's Chron. Ser. ; Madox's Excfa. ii. 42

Cal. Rot. Pat. 53. 55.

1272—1307. WALTER DE LANGTON. 115

journey to Home, where, after great cost, he succeeded, and
was not only reinstated in June, 1303, but received the
strongest proof of his sovereign's conviction of his innocence,
by being made principal executor of the king's will. On
Edward's death, however, his persecution recommenced. He
was turned out of his office, cast into prison, and a long list of
charges brought against him for malversation, which were
directed to be heard before William de Bereford, one of the
judges. After a long imprisonment at London, Wallingford,
and York, no proof could be brought against him, and he
was absolved by the court in October, 1308. In 1311 he
was again imprisoned on a charge of homicide, but again suc-
ceeded in confounding his accusers.

His adherence to the king against the barons was followed
by his restoration to his office in March, 1321, 5 Edward II.
There is a record showing, that in April, 1312, while he was
presiding in the receipt of the Exchequer, taking the proffers
of the accountants, Adomar de Valence, Earl of Pembroke,
Humfrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, Sir John Botetout,
and others, came there and held out threats to him if he con-
tinued to act in the office. The king, however, on this out-
rage being certified to him, issued his writ expressing his
wonder that the bishop should omit doing the business for the
threats of any man, and strictly charging him to execute his
duties according to his commission.1 He finally retired from
the treasurership in September, 1314, 8 Edward II., when
Walter de Norwico was appointed; and he spent the re-
mainder of his days in the quiet exercise of his episcopal
authority.

He died on November 16, 1321, and was buried in the
chapel of St. Mary, which he had added to his cathedra] at

1 Madox's Excli. i. 267. This entry affords another proof of the Bishop of
Lichfield and Coventry being sometimes called Bishopi of Cluster.

I 2

116 ROGER DE LEICESTER. Edw. I.

Lichfield. His benefactions to his see were numerous and
munificent.1

LEICESTER, PETER DE.

B. E. 1291.

The relationship of Peter de Leicester to the undermentioned
Roger de Leicester is uncertain. At the time of the disgrace
of the latter, Peter was one of the justices of the Jews, for
which he received an annual salary of forty marks up to
Michaelmas, 18 Edward L, 1290. He had previously been an
officer in the Exchequer, and was deputed in the seventh year
to act for the Earl of Warwick, one of the chamberlains, in
the Exchequer of Receipt. In 19 Edward I., 1291, the duties
of his former office having terminated with the expulsion of
the Jews from England, he was appointed a regular baron of
the Exchequer, in which office he continued to act till his
death in the thirty-first year of the reign 2, and was summoned
among the justices to parliament up to the previous year.
He left a son named Thomas, and had property at Stoke-
mandeville in Buckinghamshire, at Kingsbrome and Eccleshall
in Warwickshire, and at Horpol in Northamptonshire.3

LEICESTER, ROGER DE.

Just. C. P. 1276. ? B. E. 1293.

Roger de Leicester was the son of Sir Nicholas de
Leicester, who possessed large estates in Cheshire, by Mar-
garet, the daughter of Geoffrey Dutton, and widow of
Robert de Denbigh, through whom, among other manors, he

1 Angl. Sac. i. 441.; Godwin de Praesul. 318.

2 Madox's Exch. i. 237. 254., ii. 62. 265. 300. 304. 323.

3 Pari. Writs, i. 113.; Abbrev. Placit. 348.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 183. 187.
223.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 163.

1272—1307. GEOFFREY DE LEUKNORE. 117

acquired that of Tabley.1 He became a justice of the Common
Pleas, with a salary of forty marks, in 1276, 4 Edward I.,
from Trinity in which year till Michaelmas in the seven-
teenth, 1289, fines were levied before him.'2 Being then
removed from his office with several of his brethren for ex-
tortion and other judicial crimes, he was compelled to pay
for his release from imprisonment 1000 marks3, a sum so
much less than that imposed upon some of the others, that it
is to be hoped his offence was not of so deep a dye. Dugdale
introduces his name again on January 2, 1293, 21 Edward I.,
as being then appointed a baron of the Exchequer ; but both
on the above account, and because in Madox's list of those
who attended in the court after that date he is never men*
tioned, it seems not unlikely that his name was by mistake
substituted for that of Peter do Leicester, who certainly was
appointed about the same time, and whose subsequent attend-
ance is regularly noted.

Peter Leicester of Tabley, his lineal descendant, was created
a baronet on August 10, 1660 ; but the title became extinct
in 1742, for the want of male heirs. A daughter, however,
married Sir Peter Byrne, baronet, whose grandson, Sir John
Fleming Leicester (the surname having been assumed), was
created Baron de Tabley on July 16, 1826. His son George,
who has taken the name of Warren, is the present Baron.4

LEUKNORE, GEOFFREY DE.

Just. Itin. 1276.
See under the Reign of Henry III,

There was a Nicholas de Leuknore who at the time of his
death, in 52 Henry III., was keeper of the king's wardrobe.

1 Burke's Ext. Baronet :i06. ' Dugdale^ Orig. 14,

• Weever, 367. « Barke'i Peerage.

i 3

118 GEOFFREY DE LEUKNOEE. Euw. I.

Roger, his eldest son, succeeded him.1 This Geoffrey de
Leuknore was perhaps either his second son or his brother.
There is a record in the year after Nicholas's death of a
royal grant to Geoffrey of a field in Chiselhampton in Oxford-
shire, with a mill late belonging to a Jew ; and two years
afterwards he had an additional grant of further property
there.2 He appears with three others as a justice itinerant
in 39 Henry III., 1255, for that county and those of Hunt-
ingdon, Northampton, and Buckingham. The same four
visited other counties in the following year ; and as they are
then specially designated as justices itinerant for pleas of the
forest, the probability is that they were only entrusted with
the same duty in the former year. This seems the more
likely, from the entry of a payment to him in 41 Henry III.
of nine marks and eight shillings for his expenses in going
to sell the king's demesne woods.3 He is next mentioned
in the forty-fifth year, 1261, when he again acted as a
justice itinerant into various counties ; and in the two follow-
ing years he was also engaged in the same employment.
Dugdale does not introduce him at all as a regular justicier
in the reign of Henry III., but it would seem that he held
that position ; inasmuch as from March, 1265, 49 Henry III.,
till September, 1271, 55 Henry III., there are numerous
entries on the Rotulus de Finibus of payments made for
assizes to be held before him.4 He is only named on one
other iter in Henry's reign, being that to Cornwall and
Devonshire in the fifty-second year. But if he were then on
the bench, he must have been removed on the death of
Henry, for his name does not occur among those appointed
to either court on the accession of Edward I. Dugdale,
however, introduces him as a justice of the Common Pleas on

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 476. 512. ; Madox's Exch. i. 269.

2 Cal. Rot. Pat. 42. 44.

3 Devon's Issue Roll, 33. 4 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 422 — 549.

1272—1307. ROGER DE LA LEYE. 119

November 2, 1276, in the fourth year: but the patent which
he quotes as his authority can scarcely have been read by
him ; for it merely appoints Geoffrey de Leuknore and two
others to be justices to hold assizes and pleas in the liberty
of Dunstable, lie is mentioned as a justice itinerant in
6 Edward I., with a salary of forty marks per annum ; but
there is no record of his acting beyond the following year.1

Sir Roger Lukener, knight, one of the Serjeants in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, was descended from him, and the
family was still existing in 1684.2

LEYE, ROGER DE LA, Archdeacon of Essex, Dean of

London.

B. E. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Roger de la Leye was an experienced officer of the
Exchequer, acquiring those royal favours and clerical digni-
ties which were usually distributed among the high in place
in that department. The custody of the lands and heir of
Gilbert Daniel of Dunnesden was granted to him for a fine of
20Z., wbich he was allowed to discharge by small half-yearly
instalments of five marks each ; and he even obtained a
respite of a year for the payment of two of them.3 In 35
Henry III., 1251, he held the office of Remembrancer of the
Exchequer, and had a grant of 20Z. a year, until he was other-
wise provided for. 4 During the contests with the barons in
48 Henry III., 1263, the affairs of the Exchequer having got
into great disorder, the rents not being paid, and no baron
being resident there, the king, on November 1, directed that
Roger de la Leye, then Remembrancer, should fill the office of

1 Pari. Writs, i. 382. • Grandeur of the Law, 1684, p. 159.

3 Excerpt, e Hot. Fin. ii. 65. ' Madox'i Exch. ii. 266.

120

MARTIN DE LITTLE BEKE.

Edw. I.

a baron there ; and on the 30th of the same month com-
manded that he should execute the offices of treasurer and
chancellor of the Exchequer until otherwise ordered. In
the next year he was directed to continue to act as baron
and treasurer, and a salary of forty marks was assigned to
him. A treasurer and a chancellor of the Exchequer were
subsequently appointed; but in 52 Henry III. the seal of
that department, constituting him chancellor, was again
placed in his hands, and was held by him for the three
following years, when another was put in his place.

He continued one of the barons of the Court during the
first two years of Edward's reign ; and then was a third time
raised to the office of chancellor of the Exchequer, and re-
ceived a grant of 207. in discharge of his expenses in the
service. In the latter year, 1276, he was removed, as he is
spoken of as " nuper cancellarius," and was about that time
appointed Archdeacon of Essex, being so designated in the
same record. l From that dignity he was raised, on Octo-
ber 25, 1283, 11 Edward L, to the deanery of London,
which he held for less than two years; his death occurring
on August 18, 1285. 2

LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY, Bishop of.

W. DE LANGTON.

LINCOLN, Dean of. See P. de Wileby.

See

LITTLEBERE, MARTIN DE.

Just. K. B. 1273.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Martin de Littlebere wras evidently brought up to the
profession of the law. So early as 31 Henry III., 1247, an

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 28. 52. 55, 56. 112. 319, 320.; Dugdale's Chron. Ser.
» Le Neve, 183. 189

1272—1307. ROGER LOVEDAY. 121

assize was held before him in Kent1, but this was probably on
a special occasion. It was not tillJuly, 1261, 45 Henry III.,
that he was appointed a regular justicier. There is a letter
among the public records addressed by him to Walter de
Merton the chancellor, thanking him for past favours, and
begging him to expedite his present affairs. 2 From that date
assizes to be taken before him commence, and they continue
without interruption till the last month of the king's reign,
November, 1272. 3 In 1261 and the two following years he
acted as a justice itinerant, and in the two latter he held the
first place in the commissions for the counties to which he
was appointed. So also in 1268, from which year till Trinity,
1272, fines were levied before him.4 In 1269, he had the
grant of a salary of 20/. a year. He is mentioned as a judge
of the King's Bench in 1 Edward 1. 5 ; and Dugdale quotes
a Liberate in his favour in the following year, after which
his name does not occur.

LONDON, Bishop of. See R. de Baldock,
LONDON, Dean of. See R. de Baldock; R. de la
Leye.

LOVEDAY, ROGER.

Just. I tin. 1276.

The introduction by Dugdale of Roger Loveday's name
among those raised to the bench of the Common Pleas on
November 2, 1276, 4 Edward L, turns out to be an error,
the patent quoted only constituting him and two others
justices to hold assizes and pleas in the liberties of the priory
of Dunstable. He was appointed a justice itinerant, with a
salary of forty marks, in 6 Edward I. ; and continued to act

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 9-

2 Fifth Report, Till). Rec, A pp., ii. 96. 3 Fin. ii. 355—589.

4 Dugflale's Orig. 44. » Devon's Issue Roll, 87.

122

JOHN LOVEL.

Edw, I.

in that character till the fourteenth year of the reign, being
also summoned among his fellows to attend parliament on
several occasions. l He was one of the eight judges whom
the king in the eighth year selected to inquire what were the
services due from the tenants of the manor of Tavistock :
and again in the twelfth year he was a commissioner of
inquiry into the state of the walls, ditches, sewers, and
bridges in Heyland, in Lincolnshire, and the damage done by
an inundation there.2

His property was at Wytheresfield in Suffolk; and in
3 Edward I. he was proceeded against for having compelled
William de Sprouston, by fear of imprisonment and other
coercion, to execute a grant to him of lands in Sprouston and
Burstall in that county, but was acquitted of the charge.
He died in 15 Edward I., leaving a son named Richard.
His widow, Sibilla, afterwards married William de Ormesby,
the judge.3

LOVEL, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1292. Just. K. B. 1294.

There were at this time two noble families of this name ;
but to which of them Master John Lovel, as he is called,
belonged, does not appear. He had the living of Yling, in
the diocese of London, in 18 Edward I., and complaints wrere
made against him to the parliament by his parishioners, for
undue severity.4 He was the last but one of five justices
itinerant sent into the northern counties in 20 Edward I.,
1292, and two years afterwards is introduced into Dugdale's
List as a judge of the King's Bench. In the various writs
by which he was summoned to attend the parliament, he

1 Pari. Writs, i. 8. 16. 382. ; Chron. Petroburg. 136.; Chron. Ser.

2 Abbrev. Placit. 205. 270.

3 Ibid. 207. 242. 265. 307.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 49.

4 Rot. Pari. i. 60.

1272—1307. JOHN DE LOVETOT. 123

seems to hold that place in the twenty -third and twenty-
eighth years of the reign ; but in the intevening years he is
called clerk of the council, and appears among those who are
known to be clerks of the Chancery. In 26 and 28 Edw. I.
he was one of the justices appointed to perambulate the
forests of various counties, and is not mentioned after the
latter date.1

LOVETOT, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1 275.

John de Lovetot was of the noble family of that name,
lords of Wirksop in Nottinghamshire ; and son of Oliver de
Lovetot, of Carcolston in that county, and Alicia his wife.2
He was raised to the bench of the Common Pleas in 3 Ed-
ward I., 1275, and had a salary of fifty marks assigned to
him. There are entries of fines levied before him from that
year till Michaelmas, 17 Edward L, 1289: and his rolls were
carried into the Exchequer in the next year.3 At this time
he was charged with extortion and other crimes committed
on the judicial seat, one of which was taking a false verdict,
when one of the jury differed from his fellows ; and he was
accordingly removed and imprisoned in the Tower, for his
redemption from which he paid a fine of 3000 marks.4 He
died just before November 5, 1294, 22 Edward I., that being
the date of the writ of diem clausit extremum ; leaving a son,
also named John.5

LOUTHER, HUGH DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1307.

See under the reign of Edward II.

1 Pail. Writs, i. 29—83. 3!>7 .

* Dugdale's Baronage, i. 569. ; Thoroton's Notts, i. 23 5.

3 Dugdale's Orig. 44. ; and Cliron. Ser. ; Madox'l Kxeh. ii. 25.

4 Stow's London, 44 ; Weever, 367. ; Abbrev. Placit. 286.

5 Pari. Writs, i. 717.

124

JOHN DE LYTHEGRENES.

Edw. I.

LYTHEGRENES, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1293.

It seems probable that John de Lythegrenes was either a
native of, or established as an advocate in one of the northern
counties ; his name being mentioned so early as 52 Henry III.
as employed on the part of the king in a quo warranto
against the mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.1 In 8 Edward I.
he was appointed Sheriff of Yorkshire, and retained that office
for five years2 ; and he is noticed in the parliament of 18 Ed-
ward I. as a commissioner to inquire into the liberties
claimed by the priors of Tynemouth and Carlisle.3 In
21 Edward L, 1293, he acted as one of the justices itinerant
for Surrey ; two years afterwards he succeeded Thomas de
Normanvili as king's escheator beyond the Trent, but in the
next year exchanged the office for that on this side the
Trent.4 In the twenty-sixth year, a day was given him, as
late custos of the archbishoprick of York during its vacancy,
to account for the issues thereof, and of the escheat of the
honour of Tikehill and other lands in his custody.5 In that
year he was employed in the perambulation of the forests of
the northern counties, at a stipend of six shillings a day ; and
was again appointed to the same duty two years afterwards6 ;
being also recorded in the intervening year as a justice
itinerant in the county of Kent.7 He was still alive in
January, 1301, when his name appears in the Statute De
Escaetoribus, then enacted at Lincoln, as one of the king's
council.8

Abbrev. Placit. 170.
Rot. Pari. i. 29. 38.
Madox's Excli. ii. 45.
Dugdale's Chron. Series.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 37.
4 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 89. 93.
6 Pari. Writs, i. 397 398.
8 Statutes at Large, i. 147.

1272—1307. PETER DE MALO LACU. 125

MALET, ROBERT.

Just. K. B. 1289.

How nearly Robert Malet was connected with the noble
family of that name, the elder branch of which failed for
want of male issue in 1224, is not ascertained. He was
amerced in 14 Edward I., for not appearing at the Ex-
chequer with his accounts as sheriff of the counties of Bedford
and Buckingham.1 But the offence was no doubt speedily
removed, for in 18 Edward I., 1289, he was appointed a
judge of the King's Bench in the place of one of those who
were then discharged for corruption in their office, and had
a salary of 26Z. 13s. 4d. assigned to him.2 He is mentioned
in that character as late as 23 Edward I.3, in which year he
died, and Robert, his son and heir, did homage for his lands
in Buckinghamshire.4 Sir Thomas Malet, the eminent
judge of the King's Bench in the reigns of the two Charles's,
whose descendant is the present Sir Alexander Malet of
Wilbury House, Wiltshire, baronet, was in all probability of
the same family.

MALLORE, PETER.

Just. C. P. 1293.

See under the Reign of Edward II.
MALO LACU, or MAULEY, PETER DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

The first of this family, also named Peter, was a Poictevin,
who, being esquire to King John, is said to have owed his

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 237. * Dugdale'a Chron. Series.

J Rot. Pari. i. 83. 85. 138. 4 Abbrcv. Rot. Or'i£. i. 87, 88.

126

PETER DE MALO LACU.

Edw, I.

fortunes to undertaking the murder of Prince Arthur: in
reward for which act Isabel, the daughter of Robert de
Turnham, was given to him in marriage with all her rich
possessions, principally in Yorkshire. Some doubt of this
origin arises from the fact that for a period of two hundred
years, during the whole continuance of the family, every
succeeding lord was called by the same christian name. Had
the founder been really chargeable with a crime, so justly
exciting abhorrence against its perpetrator, it is difficult to
suppose that his successors would have perpetuated its remem-
brance by a continuance of the name.

The subject of this notice was the fourth baron in succes-
sion, and the great-grandson of the first Peter. His father
married Nichola, daughter of Gilbert de Gant, grandson of
the Earl of Lincoln , and died about 7 Edward I., when this
Peter, then only three years of age, succeeded to his inherit-
ance1, paying the usual baronial relief of 100/.

He was engaged in the Welsh and Scottish wars under
Edward I., and was summoned to parliament from the
twenty-third year of that reign till his death. In 29 Ed-
ward I. he signed the barons' letter to the Pope by the title
of Dominus de Musgreve. In 33 Edward L, 1305, he was
placed at the head of the justices of Trailbaston appointed
for Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and eight other counties, and
not improbably had acted previously as a justice itinerant in
some of them. On the re-issuing these commissions in 1307,
he held the same place.2

He married Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Lord Furnival,
and died in 3 Edward II., 1310, leaving his son Peter, who
succeeded him. On the death of the seventh Peter in 1415
without issue, the barony fell into abeyance between his

1 Archaeologia, xxi. 209.

2 N. Fredera, i. 970. ; Rot. Pari. i. 188. 193. 202. 216. 218.

1272—1307. WILLIAM MARTIN. 127

sisters, Constance, who married first William Fairfax and
next Sir John Bigot ; and Elizabeth, the wife of George
Salvaine.1

MARCHIA, WILLIAM DE, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

? Keeper, 1290.

The Great Seal was delivered into the king's wardrobe to
William de Marchia on February 24, 1290, 18 Edward L,
by Bishop Burnel the chancellor, on his going to visit his
diocese2, and Mr. Hardy therefore calls him Keeper, But
he was then merely an officer of the wardrobe, the usual
place for depositing the seal, and was certainly a clerk in that
department five years before. He was promoted to the
office of treasurer at the end of the same year, with an annual
stipend of one hundred marks 3 ; and on the death of Burnel
he was elected his successor in the bishoprick of Bath and
Wells on January 30, 1293, being a canon of the latter
cathedral at the time. After sitting there for nearly ten
years, during several of which he continued treasurer, he
died on June 11, 1302, and was buried at Wells. So great
were his virtues, and so many were the miracles reported to
have been performed at his tomb, that the pope was vehe-
mently urged to canonise him. His merits, however, were
not deemed worthy of that honour.4

MARTIN, WILLIAM.

Just. I tin. T. 1307.

This family commenced with a Norman knight, named
Martin de Tours, who acquired the lordship of Camoys in

1 Dugd&le'fl Baronage, i. 733. ; Nk-olas's Synopsis.

■ Claus. 18 Edw. I., m. 14.

1 Madox's KncIi. ii. 323. 4 Godwin do Prawul. S74.

128

WILLIAM MARTIN.

Edw. I.

the county of Pembroke, and founded there the monastery
of St. Dogmaels. Willam Martin was the sixth baron, suc-
ceeding his grandfather, Nicholas, in 1282 ; his father, also
Nicholas, having previously died. In 22 Edward I., he
obtained licence for a fair at his manor of Merwood in
Devonshire, and for free warren over his various lordships
in that county, and in Somersetshire. He was summoned to
parliament from the next year till his death ; and aided the
king in his expeditions against Scotland. He signed the
barons' letter to the pope, under the title of Dominus de
Camesio. When the justices of Trailbaston were appointed,
on April 6, 1305, 33 Edward I., he was placed at the head
of those sent into Cornwall and nine other counties; and
so again in February 1307. His clemency and kindness to
the poor during these commissions are commemorated in a
Norman song of the age. Both before and after this time
he is mentioned as acting in a judicial capacity, as well in
civil as in criminal pleas.1 In 4 Edward II., a writ of
inquiry was addressed to him ; and in 9 Edward II., he was
justice of South Wales.2

On his death, which occurred in 1325, 18 Edward II., he
left, by his wife Eleanor, daughter of William de Mohun,
three children ; William, who died in the following year ;
Eleanor, the wife of William de Columbers ; and Joane, the
wife of Nicholas de Audley. The son being childless, the
barony is in abeyance among the representatives of the two
daughter?.3

MAULEY, PETER DE See Malo Lacu.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 188. 196.218.; N. Foedera, i. 970. ; Abbrev. Placit. 261.
Wright's Political Songs, 231. See ante, p. 35.

2 Abbrev. Placit. 312.; First Report, Pub. Rec. 101.

3 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 729. ; Nicolas's Synopsis.

1272—1307. WALTER DE MERTON. 129

MERTON, WALTER DE, afterwards Bishop of Rochester.

Chancellor, 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

This eminent benefactor to learning was born at Merton in
Surrey. His father was William de Merton, Archdeacon of
Berks, who died about 1239 ; and his mother, Christina, the
daughter of Walter Fitz-Oliver, of Basingstoke, where the
site of their tomb has lately been discovered in the church of
St. Michael. He was educated in the convent of Merton,
and became one of the clerks in Chancery, with some other
place in the court. As was usual with those officers, he
received various ecclesiastical preferments, among which were
the rectories of Potton in Bedfordshire, and Stratton ; besides
prebends in St. Paul's and Exeter, and, according to some, in
Salisbury also.1

Several records show that the Great Seal was temporarily
placed in his hands, no doubt as one of the clerks in Chancery,
during the illness and occasional absence of Henry de Wing-
ham, the keeper or chancellor; viz., on May 7, 1258, and
on March 14 and July 6, 1259.2

But on July 5, 1261, when the king removed Nicholas,
Archdeacon of Ely, to whom the Great Seal had been en-
trusted by the barons, he, without reference to their assumed
authority, appointed Walter de Merton his chancellor ; and
on October 15 granted 400 marks for the support, not only
of himself, but of the Chancery also.3 In the two following
years there are several letters among the public records ad-
dressed to him in that character, and one from the king,
thanking him and Philip Basset for their attention to his

1 Chalmers's Biog. Diet.

2 Rot. Pat. 42 Hen. III., m. 29., and 43 Hen. III., m. G. & 1.

3 Ibid. 45 Hen. III., m. 8. ; Liberate, 45 Hen. III., m. ::.

VOL. III. K

130

WALTER DE MERTON.

Edw. I.

affairs.1 He was superseded on July 12, 1263, by his pre-
decessor, Nicholas de Ely.

That he was not reinstated in the following year, when
the king triumphed at Evesham, arose, probably, from his
being then actively engaged in the foundation of the college,
which has made his name familiar from that time to the pre-
sent. It would appear, however, that he acted as a justicier,
as there is an entry of a payment made for an assize to be
held before him on December 10, 1271, 56 Henry III.2

On the death of Henry III., in November, 1272, King
Edward being then absent in the Holy Land, the council
selected Merton to fill the office of chancellor. A document
on the Close Roll, dated on the 29th of that month, is at-
tested by him in that character 3, in which also he assisted
at a folk-mote of the citizens of London, held in St. Paul's
Churchyard about the same time relative to the election of
Walter Hervey as lord mayor of London.4 That King
Edward approved of the choice is evidenced by a letter he
addressed " to his beloved clerk and chancellor, Walter de
Merton," on August 9 following, from Mellune-super-
Skeneham, thanking him for his zeal, and exhorting him to
continue to discharge the duties of the office.5

About July 20, 1274, he was elected Bishop of Rochester,
and thereupon resigning the chancellorship, Robert Burnel,
Archdeacon of York, was appointed his successor on Sep-
tember 21 following.6

He presided over his see little more than three years ; and
if Edmund de Hadenham, in his " Annals of Rochester," 7
is to be believed, he did no notable good to the prior and con-

1 4 Report, Pub. Rec, App., ii. 152. 158.

8 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 555.

4 Palgrave's Merchant and Friar, 118.

5 6 Report, Pub. Rec, App., ii. 89.
7 Angl. Sac. 351.

5 Report, App., ii. 61, 62, 63.
3 Foedera, i. 498.

6 Claus. 2 Edw. I., m. 1,

1272—1307. JOHN DE METINGHAM. 131

vent, although he had great authority and power. He was
drowned in crossing the Medway on October 27, 1277, and
was buried in Rochester Cathedral.1 The marble tomb under
which he was placed was taken down in 1598, and an elegant
monument erected in its place, by Sir Henry Savile, the
Warden, and the Fellows of Merton College, with an appro-
priate inscription.

King Edward granted writs, summoning all who were in-
debted to the Bishop speedily to pay the debts they owed
into the Exchequer ; in order that his executors might be
enabled to perform the directions of his will : taking care,
however, that security was first given by them for what was
due from him to the crown.

Previously to his founding the college which bears his
name, he had commenced one at Maldon, near Merton ; but,
altering his intention, he began his erection at Oxford, and
removed to it the warden and priests of the former. Merton
College is the most ancient establishment of that nature ; and
was incorporated by three charters, all of which are preserved
among its archives. The first is dated January 7, 1264,
48 Henry III. ; the second in 1270, when he further endowed
it; and the third in 1274, 2 Edward L, when he brought it
to completion. The regulations by which it was governed
were esteemed so wise, that its charters were consulted as
precedents on the foundation of Peterhouse, the earliest
college in the sister university.

METINGHAM, JOHN DE.

Just. K. 13. 127G. Cii. C. P. 1290.

In the county of Suffolk, in which John de Metingham was
born, is a village so called, from which his family derived

1 Godwin de Pretul,

K 2

132 WILLIAM DE MIDDLETON. Edw. I.

their name. No account remains of his parentage, nor of his
progress in the profession of the law, until he is mentioned
in 3 Edward I. as one of the king's Serjeants. In the follow-
ing year, 1276, he was constituted a judge of the King's
Bench, and his name frequently occurs as acting in the court
and on the circuits.

In the sweeping exposure of the corruption of the bench
made by King Edward in 1289, the only two who were
found pure in the administration of justice were John de
Metingham and Elias de Beckingham. Both the chief
justices were disgraced ; and Metingham, in Hilary Term, 18
Edward I., 1290, was raised to the head of the Common
Pleas, where he presided till his death. The last fine levied
before him in that character was in fifteen days of Michael-
mas, 26 Edward I., 1298 ; and he is mentioned as present in
court in the following Hilary Term. His death, however,
did not occur till 1301, when his place was filled by Ralph
de Hengham.

He wrote a Treatise called "Judicium Essoniorum."1

MIDDLETON, ADAM DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

MIDDLETON, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 12S6.

William de Middleton was an officer of the Exchequer,
holding the place of Keeper of the Rolls and Writs of the
Jews in 2 and 3 Edward I., together with the key of the

1 Dugdale's Orig. 44. 57.; and Chron. Ser. ; Rot. Pari. i. 6. 18. 40. 51. 85.
99. ; Madox's Exch. ii. 25. ; Fuller's Worthies, ii. 336.

1272—1307. HEN11Y DE MONTEFORTI. 133

Jewish Tallage; and for this he had a salary of 10/. per
annum. In the following year, 1276, he was appointed
Gustos Brevium of the Court of Common Pleas ; and in 1 1
Edward I., the lands of Isabella, the widow of Henry de
Gaunt, were committed to his custody. On June 18, 1286,
14 Edward L, lie was associated with the escheat or in the
custody of the bishoprick of Ely on its becoming vacant ;
and in the course of the same year he wras appointed a baron
of the Exchequer in the place of Roger de Northwood, with a
salary of 207. a year ; and there is evidence of his continuance
in that office for the four following years.1 He probably
was some relation to the Bishop of Norwich of the same
name, who died in August, 1288.

MONTEFORTI, HENRY DE.

Just. C. P. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

The name of Henry de Monteforti, with the addition of
" Clericus," appears in 48 Henry III., 1263, as an escheator
south of the Trent 2 ; and in the same year he was one of the
conservators of the peace in the county of Kent. 3

I have not been able to discover whether any relationship
existed between him and Peter de Montfort, the head of the
noble family of that name, or Simon Earl of Leicester ; but
as both of the latter were slain in 1265 at the battle of
Evesham, in arms against their sovereign, it is not likely that
the connection was very close ; since Henry's elevation to
the bench took place about October, 1266, 50 Henry III.,
from which date till the end of that reign the Fine Kolls con-
tain frequent entries of writs for assizes to be held before

* Madox's Exch. i. 234. 243. 313., ii. 322. ; Abbrev. Rot Orig. i.
Dugdale'a Chron. Series.

8 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 411. ■ HftSted's Kent, i. 218.

K 3

134

GEOFFREY DE NEWBALD.

Edw. I.

him.1 In 51 Henry III. the keeper of the wardrobe was
commanded by the king to provide " Johanni le Breton et
Henrico de Monteforti, Justiciariis suis," with the entire robes
other jnsticiers received.2 He went circuits in 52, 55, and
56 Henry III., and was still on the bench at the decease of
that king.

There can be little doubt that he was continued in office
on the accession of Edward I. ; for in the second and fourth
years of that reign he again acted on the circuits, the com-
mission of the former year extending over nineteen counties.
Dugdale also quotes an entry on the Liberate Rolls of 3 Ed-
ward I., in which he is named as a justice of the bench.3
He died at the end of the next or beginning of the folio wing

CD O O

year.1

MORTIMER, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1292.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

MUTFORD, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

NEWBALD, GEOFFREY DE.

Just. Itin. 1276.

Dugdale, by a misreading of the patent he quotes, states
that on November 2, 1276, 4 Edward I., Geoffrey de New-
bald was appointed one of the judges of the Common Pleas5;
the record plainly proving that he was merely constituted a

Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 446 — 586.
Selden's Notes to Hengham Magna, 5.
Dugdale's Chron. Series.
Dugdale's Chron. Series.

Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 27.

1272—1307. THOMAS DE NORMANV1LL. 135

justice to hold pleas in the liberties of the priory of Dunstable.
He was soon removed to a more important station, for on
August 22, 1277, he was raised to the office of Chancellor of
the Exchequer, for which he had a salary of forty marks.1
In 6 Edward I. he complained to the parliament that the
Bishop of Durham had refused to admit him to the church
of Roubery in that diocese, in the king's gift, alleging it
was already full ; and his petition was referred to the Court
Christian.2 He is recorded as attending the Court of Ex-
chequer as late as 9 Edward I.

NORMANVILL, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itiv. ? 1286. 1293.

There was a Yorkshire family of this name ; of whom
Gerard and Margery his wife, who were, perhaps, the parents
of Thomas de Normanvill, paid for an assize in that county
in 53 Henry III., 1269. 3 Thomas is called " senescallus
regis" in the king's grant to him, in 4 Edward I., of the
custody of the Castle of Bamburgh ; and the title is continued
in numerous instances till the tenth year, when he was
appointed to the same duties under the designation of king's
escheator beyond Trent. He retained the latter office till
the twenty-third year, except that he exchanged it for a
short time for the southern escheatorship.4 It was probably
in this official capacity that in 11 Edward I., 1283, lie
received the king's commands to remove the sheriff of Cum-
berland; his commission for which, and his letters to the
barons of the Exchequer communicating his having obeyed
the order, are mentioned in the Year Book of that reign
(fol. 12.). He was one of the justices itinerant for pleas

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 52. 62. 321. - Hot. Pari. i. 6.

' Excerpt e Rot. Fin. ii. 491. 4 Abbrev. Hot. Orig. i. 26—88,

K 4

136

ROGER DE NORTHWOOD.

Edw. I.

of the forest only in Nottingham and Lancashire in 14
Edward I., 1286, but his name appears as a regular justice
itinerant in 20 and 21 Edward I., when he was appointed for
Herefordshire and for Surrey.1 He died in 23 Edward L,
1295.2

NORTHBURG, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1275.

Of William de Northburg no memorial remains except that
he was one of the justices appointed in 3 Edward I., 1275,
to take assizes beyond the Trent ; and that in 6 and 7 Ed-
ward I. he acted as a justice itinerant in the counties of
Hereford, Hertford, Kent, Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts.3
He is mentioned in that character at Lancaster in 23 Ed-
ward L, but apparently in reference to a plea of earlier
date.4

NORTHWOOD, ROGER DE.

B. E. 1274.

Northwood-Chasteners is a manor near Milton in Kent,
and was granted in the reign of King John to Stephen, the son
of Jordan de Shepey, who built a mansion there and assumed
its name. His son, Roger de Northwood, who wras with King
Richard in the Holy Land, was, by Bona his wife, father of
Roger, the subject of the present notice. In 42 Henry III.
he accounted for the proceeds of the sheriffalty of Kent as
one of the executors of Reginald de Cobbeham ; and was
possessed, besides the above manor, of that of Littlebrooke in
Stone, near Dartford, and of Shorne, Thurneham, Harietsham,
and Northwood without Shepey, and other property in the

Dugdale's Chron. Series.
Duijdale's Chron. Series.

Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 124.
Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 92.

1272—1307. WALTER DE ODYHAM. 137

same county. In 41 Henry III. he procured the tenure of
his lands to be changed from gavelkind to knights' service.1

He must have been a baron of the Exchequer in 2 Ed-
ward I., since he is mentioned as being present in that
character on the feast of St. Edmund the Martyr, Novem-
ber 20, 1274, the first day of the third regnal year of that
monarch. On July 25 following, he received a grant of 10/.
for his expenses ; and in November another of 20/. ; and sub-
sequently a regular salary of forty marks per annum. In
5 Edward I. he was excused from his service in the army
against Wales on account of his residence in the Exchequer ;
and there is sufficient proof of his continuing in the office till
his death, which occurred in the thirteenth year.2 His son
John was summoned to parliament ; as were his successors
till 49 Edward III. The male line failing in 1416, the
barony, on the death of John, the grandson of the last who
was summoned, fell into abeyance among the representatives
of his sisters.3

ODYHAM, WALTER DE.

? Keeper, 1284.

When Bishop Burnel, the chancellor, paid one of his occa-
sional visits to his mansion at Acton Burnell on July 25,
1284, he left the Great Seal in the custody of Hugh de
Kendal and Walter de Odyham.4 On this account they
are placed in Mr. Hardy's catalogue among the keepers of
the seal. Both of them, however, probably were simply
clerks in Chancery. Hugh de Kendal certainly bore that
office two years afterwards5; and several letters and writs

1 Hasted's Kent, i. 181. 184., ii. 389., Hi. 444., v. 447. 522., vi. 177. 251.

2 Madox's Exch. i. 726., ii. 20. 62. 112.269. 320.; Abbrev. Plucit. 201.;
(';d. Inquis. p. in., i. 86.

:( Dugdale'fl Baronage, ii. 70. ; NicoW.s Synopsis.

1 Tat. IS Edw. I., m. 7. 5 Madox's Excli. ii. 257.

138 STEPHEN DE PENECESTRE. Edw. I.

are addressed to Walter de Odyham separately, as well as to
them both jointly, on the business of the Chancery. It has
been already remarked under Hugh de Kendall that some of
these bear date in 1283.

ORMESBY, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1292. Just. K. B. 1296.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

OSGODBY, ADAM DE.

M. R. 1295. ? Keeper, 1302.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

PENECESTRE, STEPHEN DE.

Just. C. P. 1284.

Although Dugdale introduces the name of Stephen de
Penecestre (Penshurst) in his list of judges of the Common
Pleas, quoting the "Communia" of Trinity Term, 12 Ed-
ward L, there is considerable doubt whether he ever held
that office or sat at all on the bench at Westminster. He
certainly was often employed in a judicial character, but it
seems to have been in his capacity of warden of the Cinque
Ports.

The manor of Penshurst in Kent belonged to him, and at
the latter part of the reign of Henry III. was held by Sir
John Belemeyns, a c<inon of St. Paul's, as his uncle and
trustee. He also possessed the manor of West Leigh and
the castle of Aliington in the same county. Before 1270,
54 Henry III., he had married Roese de Beseville, and in
that year did homage, with Joanna, her sister, for the lands
which had belonged to their mother, Hawise.1 He was

Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 510.

1272—1307. STEPHEN DE PENECESTRE. 139

sheriff of Kent in 53 Henry III., and the two following
years; and in 55 or 56 Henry III. was appointed constable
of Dover Castle and warden of the Cinque Ports, posts for
which he received 30/. a year to cover the expenses of
chaplains and servants, and which he retained as late as 33
Edward I.1 There are several instances of his being as-
signed to try malefactors and to decide rights within his
jurisdiction2, but none that show him to have been one of
the regular judges.

His second wife was Margaret, one of the three daughters
and coheirs of John de Burgh, the grandson of Hubert de
Burgh. Hasted says that after his death she married Robert
de Orreby, but it is evident that Orreby must have been
her first husband. Stephen de Penecestre was alive in 1305,
33 Edward L, and Margaret on her death in 1309, 2 Ed-
ward II., is described by his name ; and further, John de
Orreby, " son of Margaret, who was the wife of Stephen de
Penecestre deceased," did homage for her lands in Kent
in the same year, when, if there had been a subsequent
marriage, he could not have been more than three years old.
Stephen de Penecestre left two daughters and coheirs ; Joane,
married to Henry de Cobbeham of Rundall ; and Alice,
married to John de Columbers. He largely endowed the
Free Chapel of his manor of Penshurst, and lies buried in
the church there under an altar tomb, on which he is repre-
sented in armour, and not in judicial robes.'3

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 552. ; Madox's Excli. i. G13. ; Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 17.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 3. 18. 98. 120". ; Abbrev. Placit. 203.

3 Hasted's Kent, i. 182., iii. 75. 231. 255. 259. 272., iv. 450., vi. 8 1. , Abbrev.
Rot. Orig. i. 16'2. 164.

140 GILBERT DE PRESTON. Edw. I.

PICHEFORD, GEOFFREY DE.

? Just. Itin. 1278.

Geoffrey de Picheford was probably the son of Ralph
de Picheford, and was under age when his father died, in
1252, 36 Henry III. ; and his wardship and the custody of
his lands in Shropshire were granted to Ralph Fitz- Nicholas
for a fine of 100 marks.1 He was constable of the castle and
forest of Windsor in 1 Edward I.2, and was a justice itinerant
of the forests before the eighth year, 1278, the period named
in Dugdale's List, when he was appointed to act in Wilt-
shire, as he is referred to in that character in Hampshire
two years previously, in a petition to the parliament then
held. He was still engaged in the same employment in
18 Edward I. ; and was afterwards Queen Eleanor's bailiff
at Langley.3 The last time any record of his name appears
is as constable of Windsor Castle, in 26 Edward I.4

PRESTON, GILBERT DE.

Ch. C. P. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Walter de Preston, the father of Gilbert de Preston,
was in the service of King John. He was sheriff of the
county of Northampton in the eighth and ninth years of that
reign, and afterwards held some office in connection with the
Forests. He seems also to have had the custody of the
castle of Fotheringay ; and at the close of the reign to have
deserted his royal master for a short time. On the accession
of Henry III., he not only recovered his lands, but was
retained in the king's employ. On several occasions he had
orders to take a number of bucks in the forests for the king's

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 141. 8 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 21.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 4. 59., ii. 81. 4 Madox's Exch. ii. 224.

1272—1307. GILBERT DE PRESTON. 141

use "ad lardarium faciendum;" and in one case he was
permitted to reserve out of them one for his wife as a gift
from the king. In 10 and 11 Henry III. he was employed
with others to assess the quinzime in Warwick and Leicester,
and to fix the tallage in Northampton, Buckingham, and
Bedford.1 He died at the end of 14 Henry III., his son
Gilbert on the first day of the following year, viz. Octo-
ber 28, 1230, paying 100 shillings for his relief on having
his father's lands in Northamptonshire.2

Although there is no evidence of the manner in which
Gilbert's early life was employed, yet, looking at his father's
connection with the court, and his own extended judicial
career, there can be little doubt that his education was prin-
cipally devoted to the study of the law, and that he practised
as an advocate before he was selected as a judge. The first
time his name is mentioned is at the bottom of the list of the
four justices itinerant who were assigned to take the southern
circuit in 24 Henry III., 1240.3 He was probably not then
one of the justiciers at Westminster, but was added to the
commission in the same manner Serjeants are at the present
day. That he was raised to the bench before the Purification
(February 2), 26 Henry III., there is no doubt, as fines were
levied before him from that time ; and in Easter of the same
year his name appears on the pleas of the bench.4 Till
the end of this long reign, no year occurs in which payments
are not made for writs of assize to be taken before him.*

Of his precise position on the bench these entries afford
no certain evidence ; the writs being principally addressed
to him, as they were to other judges, alone. That he was
eventually, however, raised to the highest place, "capitalis

1 Rot. Claus. i. 79. 100. 108. 122. 140. 297. 360. 407., ii. 137. 146. 208.
8 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin i. 204.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Series. ' [bid, and Orig. 1 >.

' Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. vols. i. & ii. passim.

142 GILBERT DE PRESTON. Edw. I.

justiciarius," of the Court of Common Pleas, there can be no
doubt; and as the transition from the old to the new forms
occurred in this reign, it will be interesting to endeavour to
trace the successive steps of his judicial career.

In 1242 he was at the bottom of the Justiciarii de banco.
From this time, judging from the lists of justices itinerant,
he gradually advanced to a higher station, until in 1252,
36 Henry III., he stood at the head of one of the com-
missions, and retained the same position, with one or two
slight exceptions, till 1257. It is not, however, to be pre-
sumed from this circumstance, that he was then at the head
of either of the courts, but simply that in the division of
the circuits he was the senior in those he was appointed to
take. Accordingly it appears that on October 3, 1258, 42
Henry III., he was the second of three, Roger de Thurkelby
being the first, who were assigned to hold the King's Bench
at Westminster, until the king should arrange more fully.1
In 1263 there are pleas before him and John de Wyvill at
Westminster; and in 1267 pleas "de Banco" before him and
John de la Lynde 2 ; which would seem to imply that he was
no longer in the King's Bench, but that he acted in the
Common Pleas. In the following year also he was called
"justiciarius de banco"3, and was at the head of the justices
itinerant in various counties. His salary in 39 Henry III.,
1255, was forty marks per annum4; but in 53 Henry III.,
1269, he had a grant of one hundred marks annually for his
support " in officio justiciarii." Although the term " capi-
talis " is not used, the amount of this stipend shows that he
was then chief justice ; and it may be concluded that this
was the date of his advance to that rank.

The actual title of chief justice does not seem to have
been applied to him till the following reign, when, on his

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 29. 2 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

3 Madox's Exch. i. 236. 4 Ibid. ii. 202.

1272—1307. JOHN DE REYGATE. 143

re-appointment by Edw. L, he was so called in the Liberate
that grants him livery of his robes ; and Dugdale remarks
that he is the first whom he has observed to have the title of
capitalis justiciarius of the Court of Common Pleas. He
continued to preside there till his death, which occurred
between Midsummer and Michaelmas, 1274, 2 Edward I.;
the former being the date of the last fine acknowledged before
him, and the latter that of the nomination of his successor,
Roger de Seyton.1

RANDOLF, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1302.

See under the Reigns of Edward II. and Edward III.
RETFORD, ROBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1295.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

REYGATE, JOHN DE.

Just. ? K. B. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

In 52 Henry III., 1268, John de Reygate succeeded
Richard de Clifford as king's escheator north of Trent, and
during the time he held that office he performed the duties of
a justicier, from May 1269, to August 1271, 55 Henry III. ;
numerous payments being made for assizes before him in the
northern counties. He held the escheatorship to the end of
that reign.2

Under Edward I. there is no actual entry showing that he

1 Dugdale's Orig. 39. 43. ; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 52.
" Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 467—585.

144 SOLOMON DE ROCHESTER. Edw. I.

was a justicier at Westminster ; but from his frequent em-
ployment as a justice itinerant, and the position he gradually
attained in the commissions, it seems probable that he con-
tinued to hold the office. In 3 Edward I. he was the third
of four justices itinerant into Worcestershire ; and in the
next year the head of four justices of assize. In 6 Edward I.
his name in two commissions of itinera, one into Herefordshire,
and the other into Hertfordshire and Kent, was preceded
only by that of the Bishop of Worcester ; in the following
year he headed the circuit into Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts ;
and in 12 Edward I. a writ was addressed to him and another
to hold an assize in Northumberland.1

ROCHESTER, BISHOP OF. See W. de Merton.
ROCHESTER, SOLOMON DE.

Just. Itin. 1274.

Solomon de Rochester, or, as his name is usually abbre-
viated, Solomon de Roflf, was one of the canons of St. Paul's.
He was first selected as a justice itinerant, to assist the
regular judges, in 2 Edward L, 1274, when he acted in
Middlesex ; and in the following year in Worcestershire. In
4 Edward I. he is called by Dugdale one of the justices of
assize, but there was not at that time any distinction between
the two classes ; and two years afterwards his name again
appears among the justices itinerant, and so continues till
15 Edward I., 1287 ; on the last occasion being placed at the
head of the list.2 In this position he is named in various
documents among the rolls of parliament as acting for the
two following years.3 These rolls contain several complaints

1 Dugdale ; Abbrev. Placit. 276.

2 Dugdale's Orig. 21. ; and Chron. Series. 3 Rot. Pari. i. 42. 48. &c.

1272—1307. SOLOMON DE ROCHESTER. 145

against him by parties in the country, but they probably
were the consequence, not the cause of the disgrace, which
he shared with most of his judicial brethren at the end of the
seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth year of the
reign, 1289. The corruption charged against him must have
been of a far deeper die than those complaints exhibit ; for
he was compelled to pay a fine of no less than 4000 marks,
before he was discharged from his imprisonment.

There is no evidence of his having been allowed to resume
his duties as a judge ; and the only other published record we
have concerning him, is a presentation made to the justices
itinerant in Kent of his being poisoned at his house at Snod-
land in that county by Master Wynand, the parson of the
parish, on August 14, 1293, 21 Edward I.1 Sir Edward
Coke, however, in pronouncing the sentence against Sir
John Hollis and others, tried in the Star Chamber in 1615
for traducing the public justice, refers to this case, and states
that the prayer of the monk (as he calls him) to be delivered
to the censure of the church was denied, " because the same
was a wrong to the state to poison a judge."2 But the
entry by no means supports Sir Edward either in his fact or
his inference. Solomon de Rochester is not mentioned in it
as a judge, nor is any reference made to his having filled that
office ; and though it appears that the king refused at first to
deliver the delinquent to the Bishop of Rochester, it was
because he had shown too great a desire to procure his
liberation and to .purge him from the charge. Wynand was
therefore handed over to the church of Canterbury, the
archbishoprick being then vacant : but eventually was actually
given up to the Bishop of Rochester. The result of the in-
vestigation does not appear.

' Abbrev. Placit. 290. 2 State Trials, ii. 1081.

VOL. III. L

146 WILLIAM DE SAUAM. Edw. L

ROUBURY, GILBERT DE.

Just. K. B. 1295.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

SADINGTON. See Thomas de Sodington.

SAHAM, RICHARD DE.

? B. E. 1295.

Dugdale names Richard de Saham as having been consti-
tuted a baron of the Exchequer in 23 Edward I., 1295, in
the place of Master Elias de Wynton. The absence of both
of these names in Madox's list, and the total silence of the
records with respect to either in connection with the court,
were of themselves sufficient grounds for suspicion that some
error had been committed, to which the want of a place for
them in the regular succession of the barons gave additional
weight. The Year Book, however, accounts for the mistake,
for it there appears that Richard de Saham was sworn in as
baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, in Trinity term, 23 Ed-
ward I., before the chancellor and barons of the Exchequer
in England.1 He was a son of Robert de Saham, of the
manor of Saham-Toney in Norfolk, and brother of the
under-mentioned William.2

SAHAM, WILLIAM DE.

Just. K. B. 1272.

William de Saham was another son of Robert de Saham,
and founded a chantry at Saham-Toney in Norfolk.3 He
was raised to the bench on the accession of Edward I., and
continued for many years to act as a judge of the King's
Bench, and to be employed in various itinera till 18 Edward I.
In that year, although he shared in the disgrace of many of

1 Year Book, Part 1. 35. 2 Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 598.

3 Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 598.; Taylor's Index Monasticus, 68.

1272—1307. WILLIAM DE ST. OMEKO. 147

his brethren, and was not only removed from his seat, but
fined in the sum of 3000 marks ], he is described in a docu-
ment (Bib. Cott. Claud. E. VIII., p. 206.) as entirely igno-
cent, " in quo dolus seu fraus non est inventus," and as
paying the fine to conciliate the king.2 He was alive in
28 Edward I., when he was defendant in an action brought
against him for damage done to property at Huningham in
Norfolk.3

ST. DAVID'S, Bishop of. See T. Bek.
ST. OMERO, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1275.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Very little information has been obtained with regard to
William de St. Omero. He had the custody of the castle of
Hereford in 38 Henry III.4; and in the forty-sixth year, he
and his wife, Petronilla, paid for a writ in Worcestershire.5
The only entry on the rolls of that reign which proves that he
sat on the judicial bench, is a grant to him, in the fifty-third
year, 1269, of an annual salary of 40/., " quamdiu placitis
praedictis intenderit." Although Dugdale thereupon inserts
his name in the column of the justices of the King's Bench,
I doubt whether he was more than a justice itinerant. He
is not mentioned afterwards in the former character ; and
the only instance I have found of his acting in the latter, is
the taking of an inquisition by him and Sir AYarine de
Chaucomb at Lincoln in 3 Edward I., 1275.6 In the pre-
vious year he attended at the general council held at Lyons
under Pope Gregory X.7

1 Dugdale's Chron. Ser. ; Weever, SG7. ; Rot. Pari. i. 52. 63,
■ Pari. Writs, i., Cliron. Abst. 15. note.
" Abbrev. Placit. 242. See also 206. 270, 271.

4 CaL Inquis. p. in., i. 19. 5 Kxcerpt. e Rot Pin. ii. 373.

8 Proceedings Arch. Inst. York, Holy Trin. 132.
7 Devon's Pell Records, Introd. xxxiii.

L 2

148 THOMAS DE ST. VIGORE. Edw. I.

ST. VALERICO, or ST. WALERICO, JOHN DE.
B. E. 1274.

John de St. Valerico, or St. Walerico (a town in
Normandy), was the descendant of a noble family of that
name, Ranulph, the ancestor of which at the time of the
general survey possessed several manors in Lincolnshire.
The elder branch failed for want of male issue in 1219.1
John was probably an officer in the Exchequer ; for in
55 Henry III. and 1 Edward I. he was appointed sheriff of
the counties of Somerset and Dorset, with a special commis-
sion to inquire what debts several sheriffs of those counties
and their bailiffs had received, and not accounted for.2 He
became a baron of the Exchequer about 2 Edward I.,
1274, as he is noticed as such on November 20th, the first
day of the third year. He is not mentioned after the follow-
ing year, during which a sum of 207. was allowed for his
expenses.3

He left one daughter, Maud, who married Sir Brian de
Brampton.4

ST. VIGORE, THOMAS DE.

Just. Ass. 1281.

A Thomas de St. Vigore, with two other persons, was
appealed of the death of a man in Hampshire in 41 Henry III.,
1257, and paid a fine of a mark of gold for a writ " de par-
donacione de sect a pacis ; " h but I have no certain means of
identifying him with the subject of the present notice, who
was appointed in 9 Edward I., 1281, to take assizes in
different counties.6 He was summoned to the parliament
at Shrewsbury in 11 Edward I., and died in the twenty-

1 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 454. - Madox's Exch. ii. 195.

:i Ibid. ii. 112. 269. 320. 4 Brydges' Collins' Peerage, iv. 46.

5 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 249. r' Dugdale's Chron. Series.

1272—1307. GERARD SALVE YN. 149

third year of the reign, leaving property in Wiltshire and
Somersetshire, for which his son Thomas did homage on
October 20 in that year.1

SALVEYN, GERARD.

. Ins. T. 1304.

Gerard Salveyn had large possessions in Yorkshire, and
was appointed one of the four justices of Trailbaston for that
county in the commission dated November 23, 1304. On
the re-arrangement of these commissions in the following
April, when York was united to the other northern counties,
his name was omitted2; but he had been returned knight
of the shire in the interval, and was again elected in
35 Edward I.3

The family was founded by Josceus le Flemangh, who
came in with the Conqueror, and was settled at Cukeney in
Nottinghamshire, from which place Josceus's son Richard
was called ; but his grandson Ralph received the desig-
nation of Le Silvan from his manor of AVoodhouse in that
county ; and this was afterwards corrupted to Salveyne.
Gerard was the son of Ralph Salveyn of Duffield in York-
shire, and Sibilla, daughter and co-heir of Robert Beeston of
Wilberfoss. He was one of the assessors of the fifteenth for
that county, granted in 30 Edward I., and two years after-
wards was sent on an embassy to the court of France. In
1 Edward IT. he was appointed eschcator north of Trent,
and held it till the middle of the third year. lie was then
entrusted with the sheriffalty of York for four years, com-
mencing in 4 Edward II. In the twelfth year he obtained
a pardon as one of the adherents of Thomas, Earl of
Lancaster, and died in the following year. His grandson,
Gerard Salveyn, succeeded him, and the two united names

1 Cal. In<|uis. p. m„ i. 123. ; Pari. Writs, i. 16. 824.

■ Pari. Write, i. 407, 408. ■ Ihi.l. i. 143. 196.

L 3

150

RALPH DE SANDWICH.

Edw. I.

continued to designate every head of the family for more
than four centuries, thirteen in number ; and after a lapse of
about eighty years, i3 still held by its representative, Gerard
Salvin, Esq., of Croxdale in Durham, an estate which came
through a wife into the family in 1402. l

SANDWICH, RALPH DE.

? Just. C. P. 1289.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

^alph de Sandwich was of a knightly family in Kent,
in which county he held the manors of Eynsford and Ham.
In 49 Henry III. he was keeper of the wardrobe, and in
that capacity, during the temporary absence of Thomas de
Cantilupe the chancellor, the Great Seal was placed in his
custody on May 7, 1265, under the seals of Peter de Mont-
ford, Roger de St. John, and Giles de Argentein ; with a
power to seal writs of course whether in their presence or ab-
sence, but precepts in their presence only. He and his wife
were both summoned to attend the coronation of Edward I.2
In the first year of that reign the custody of the vacant
bishoprick of London was committed to him ; and in 5
Edward I. the castle of Arundel. From that year to the
ninth, he acted as escheator south of the Trent under the
title of " Senescallus Regis." 3 In 14 Edward I. he was
appointed constable of the Tower of London ; and having
held the office to the end of that reign, was confirmed in it
on the accession of Edward II.4

Dugdale introduces him as a judge of the Court of King's
Bench in 17 Edward I., 1289, on the authority of a fine
levied before him in Michaelmas term of that year. This,

1 Pari. Writs, i. 106., ii. Part I. 26., Part II. 24. 127.; Fuller's Worthies;
Burke's Landed Gentry; Inquis. p. m., i. 292. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 159.

2 Madox's Exch. i. 71. k. 3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 21. 27 — 39.
4 Ibid. i. 155. ; Madox's Exch. i. 270, b„ ii. 108, 109.

1272—1307. JOHN DE SAUNFORD. 151

however, would rather seem to place him in the Common
Pleas ; but as no subsequent fines appear with his name, and
he is never otherwise mentioned as a judge at Westminster,
great doubt may be entertained whether he ever filled the
office. It does not seem improbable, as this was the precise
period when King Edward cleared the bench of the judges
who had disgraced it, and their successors were not yet
nominated, that, in his character of constable of the Tower,
an office then of great importance, he might have been
commissioned to act ad interim in such formal proceedings as
the levying of fines, &c, to prevent an interruption in the
ordinary business, which would have been most inconvenient
to the suitors and the public. In 30 Edward I., he is called
" Justice de Newgate." 1

He probably died in 1 Edward II., as he is not named
afterwards, and in that year John de Crumbwell was
appointed constable of the Tower.

SAUNFORD, JOHN DE, afterwards Archbishop of
Dublin.

? Just. Itin. 1275.

In the calendar of royal letters, &c, in the Tower, is a
minute addressed to Hugh de Kendall and Walter de Odyham
(who acted in the Chancery, of which they were clerks in 11
and 12 Edward I.), relating to a plea which had been before
John de Saunfurd and his fellows, justices in eyre in the third
year of the king's reign, between Elyas Scendall and Hugh
de Bello-Manso.2 This shows that Saunford was a justice
itinerant at that time ; but whether of England or Ireland
is uncertain. The latter seems the more probable, as at the
beginning of 11 Edward I. there is a plea recorded between
these parties, which is marked "Hibernia; "3 and Saunford

1 Rot. Pari. i. 154. ; Ilasted's Kent, ii. 529., x. 178.
9 Seventh Report, Pub. Rec, App„ ii. 248. 3 Abbrev. Placit

L 4

152

ROGER DE SEYTON.

Edw. I.

was the king's escheator in Ireland from the eighth to the
twelfth year.1

In 1285, 13 Edward L, he was made Archbishop of
Dublin, and there is a letter from him to John de Langton,
apparently before he was chancellor, and which therefore may
have been written either before or after Saunford was elected to
the archbishoprick, requesting new writs relative to the process
in the plea of Pencriz, to bear the same date as the former, as
arranged when he attended at Knaresburgh before Langton
and William de Hamilton.2 As Pencriz is either the
collegiate church in Staffordshire, or the church in Derby-
shire, it would appear that Saunford was then acting in a
judicial capacity in England; but I have found nothing
positively to decide the question.

A contention arose between the archbishop and William
de Luda, Bishop of Ely, in 21 Edward L, in consequence of
a man of the former having been killed by a servant of the
latter ; the particulars of which are recorded in the Par-
liament Roll. I do not know the date of the archbishop's
death ; but that of his successor, William de Hotham, occurred
in 30 Edward I.3

SEYTON, ROGER DE.

Just. C. P. 1272. Ch. C. P. 1274.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Roger de Seyton was of the clerical profession, as is
shown by the title Magister, invariably added to his name.
There is no mention of him till April, 1268, 52 Henry III.,
from which date fines were acknowledged, and payments
made for assizes, before him till the end of the reign.4 He
travelled on various iters during the whole of this period,

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 36. 42. 48.

2 Seventh Report, App., ii. 247.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 111. 152.
* Dugdale's Orig. 44. ; Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 459 — 587.

1272—1307. THOMAS DE SNYTERTON. 153

being at the head of the commissions in the last two years ;
and in 53 Henry III., he had the grant of a salary of
207. per annum.

On the accession of Edward I., he was continued in the
Common Pleas, and was constituted chief justice of that
court in Michaelmas of the second year ; in which he also
stands at the head of the justices itinerant.1 As the last fine
acknowledged before him is dated on the octaves of Trinity,
6 Edward I., 1278, the period of his death or retirement
may be fixed about that time. In the same year he was
succeeded by Thomas de Weyland.

SNYTERTON, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1307.

Snyterton is a village in Norfolk, from which no doubt
Thomas de Snyterton took his name ; but he is not intro-
duced into the account of the family in possession of the
manor there, which about this time was more commonly
called de Bokenham.2 In 29 Edward I. he was engaged in
a suit in which he claimed the manor of Denham in Suffolk.3
He is only mentioned once as employed in a judicial capacity,
being one of the justices of Trailbaston appointed in 35 Ed-
ward I., 1307, for Essex and ten other counties; but not
including Norfolk 4, from which omission it would seem that
he was a lawyer by profession. In the same year he was
returned as knight of the shire for Norfolk5, and in the
following year, 1 Edward II. (being then described as a
knight) he was one of the six sureties for Gilbert de Holm's
faithful performance of the office of sheriff of the counties of
Bedford and Buckingham.0

1 Dugdale's Chron. Ser. 8 Blomefield* Norfolk, i. 168. 1:»!».

Abln-ev. Placit. 243. ' Rot Tail. i. 218.

• Pari. Writs, i. 187. ° Madox'fl Kxcli. ii. 151.

154 THOMAS DE SODINGTON. Edw. I.

SODINGTON or SADINGTON, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itin. 1276.

Weever, in speaking of the death of Robert de Shottinden,
the justice itinerant in the reign of Henry III., calls him
Sotingdon or Sadington.1 If he is correct in this, probably
he was the father or grandfather of this judge, whose name
is written both ways, and in some instances Suddington.2
He was a clergyman, as is proved by his title " Magister ; "
and was probably, therefore, one of the officers of the court
before he became a justice itinerant. His first appointment
to that duty was in 4 Edward I., 1276, when he acted in
the City and Tower of London ; and from that time he was
regularly employed in various parts of the kingdom, till
17 Edward I.3 He was one of the ambassadors to the Earl
of Holland in 12 Edward I., and was a party to the contract
for the marriage of the earl's son John with the king's
daughter Elizabeth.4 Sharing the corruption which pervaded
the whole bench, he did not escape the retribution which
they were all called upon to make ; he was dismissed with
disgrace from his office in 1289, when he was sent a prisoner
to the Tower, from which he was only discharged on the
payment of a fine of 2000 marks. He died in 27 Edward I.,
in possession of the manor of Tidberst in Hertfordshire5,
and considerably in debt to the king, inasmuch as all his
goods were sequestered in the dioceses of York, Lincoln,
Chichester, and Sarum, and in the county of Northampton.6
William de Sadington, who recovered twenty shillings against
Geoffrey le Parcheminer in 22 Edward I., was, perhaps, his
son or his brother.7

Weevev's Fun. Mon. 543. 2 Abbrev. Placit. 229.

Dugdale's Chron. Series. 4 New Foedera, i. 645. 658. 661

Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 153. 6 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 104.
Abbrev. Placit. 291.

1272—1307.

MILO DE STAPEETON,

155

SPIGURNELL, HENRY.

Just. Itin. 1302. Just. Ass. 1305.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

STANES, RICHARD DE.

Just. K. B. 1272. Just. C. P. 1274.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Richard de Stanes affords another example of a clerical
judge, as the designation " Magister," always placed before
his name, sufficiently proves. He seems to have acted as a
justice itinerant before he became a justicier; visiting eleven
counties in the former capacity in 52 Henry III., 1268,
while his appointment as a justice of the King's Bench did
not take place till the following year.1 From July, 1269,
till the end of the reign, there are frequent entries of assizes
to be held before him.2 In 55 Henry III. he is specially
mentioned as a " justiciarius ad placita tenenda coram rege ; "3
and in the last month of the reign, 1272, he had a salary of
407. a year assigned to him.

There is no reason to suppose that he did not retain his
place on the accession of Edward I. ; but if he did so he must
have been removed to the Court of Common Pleas in that or
the following year, inasmuch as from Michaelmas in the
latter till February, 1276, 4 Edward I., fines were levied
before him.4 He was present at the council held at the
following Michaelmas.3

STAPLETON, MILO DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1305.

Milo DE Stapleton was the son and heir of the under-
named Nicholas de Stapleton, and served King Edward I.

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series.
3 Madox's Exch. ii. 203.
5 Pari. Writs, i. 6.

■ I'.Mcrpt. e Rot. Fin. ii. 493
4 Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 44.

586.

156 NICHOLAS DE STAPLETON. Edw. I.

throughout his Scottish wars. When the first commission
of Trailbaston into Lancashire was issued, on March 12, 1305,
33 Edward I., he and John de By run were the two justices
appointed under it ; but in the following month they were
superseded by the more comprehensive commissions which
were then issued.1

He was seneschal of Knaresborough Castle in 33 Ed-
ward I.2; and was summoned to parliament as a baron in
6 & 7 Edward II., in the latter of which years he obtained a
pardon as an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster, for his par-
ticipation in the murder of Gaveston. He died in the fol-
lowing year.3

By his wife Sibilla, one of the daughters and co-heirs of
John de Bella Aqua, he left Nicholas, his son and heir ; but
the barony, by failure of male heirs in 47 Edward III.,
became vested in the representatives of Elizabeth, the wife of
Thomas Metham, the sister of Thomas, the last lord.4

STAPLETON, NICHOLAS DE.

Just. K. B. 1 272.

Nicholas de Stapleton was either son or grandson of a
knight of the same name, who was governor of Middleham
Castle in Yorkshire in the reign of John.5 His residence
was at Hachilsay (Weshacheslay), in that county ; and it
may be presumed, though no record remains of his early
career, that he was a lawyer by profession. The first men-
tion we have of him is in a Liberate Boll of 1 Edward I., as a
judge of the King's Bench : and by another entry in 6 Ed-
ward I., it appears that a salary of fifty marks yearly was
assigned to him in that character. He was the first of four
justices itinerant into the county of Worcester in 3 Edw. I.6 ;

1 Pari. Writs, i. 407, 408., ii. 67. 2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 145.

3 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 256. 4 Dugdale's Baron, ii. 70.

5 Rot. Claus. i. 248. 6 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

1272—1307. ROGER LE STRANGE. 157

and in 8 Edward I., one of three directed to take an inqui-
sition. Various judicial acts are recorded of him until Trinity,
17 Edward I., 1289; and he was summoned to parliament
among the judges up to the previous year.1

He died in 18 Edward I.2, leaving the above-named Milo
de Stapleton his son and heir, and a daughter, Julian, who
married Richard de Windsor.3

STAUNTON, HERVEY DE.

Just. Itin. 1302. Just. C. P. 1306.

See under the Reign of Edward II.
STIRCHELEYE, WALTER DE.

Just. Itin. 1287.

Walter de Stircheleye was appointed sheriff of Glou-
cestershire in 9 Edward 1., and in the next year sheriff of
Lincolnshire ; holding the former office for four, and the latter
for three years.4 He is the last named of six justices itine-
rant sent into Hertfordshire in 15 Edward I., 1287. 5 In
Michaelmas term of that year, there was a suit between
Walter, the son and heir of Walter de Stircheleye, and Walter,
the son of Reginald de Stircheleye, and others, relative to a
considerable property in Stircheleye in Shropshire6 ; but which
of the three Walters was the justice itinerant there is nothing
to show.

STRANGE, ROGER LE.

? Just. Itin. 1292.

Roger le Strange was a grandson of John le Strange,
the brother of Guy le Strange, of whom some account will

1 Rot. Pari. i. 349. ; Pari. Writs, i. 845, ; Abbrev. Placit. 205, 206,
213. 219. 279.

8 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 103. 8 Collins's Peerage, iii. 6 17.

1 Abbrev. Hot. i. 37. 43. ; Fuller's Wortbies.

• Duj-ilalL-'s C 'broil. Series. 6 Abbrev. Placit. 21 6.

158 ROGER LE STRANGE. Edw. I.

be found among the justices itinerant under Henry II. Hi3
father was also named John, who after a life of faithful and
active service to his sovereign, died in 53 Henry III., leaving,
by his wife Amicia, four sons, of whom this Roger was the
youngest.

His brother Hamon granted to him the manor of Ellesmere,
to which King Henry added several others, with the sheriff-
alty of Yorkshire, which he held during the last two years of
that reign and the first two of Edward I. In the latter of
these he was proceeded against for divers extortions he had
committed while he was bailiff of the honor of Pec in Derby-
shire. He does not appear to have been again employed till
8 Edward I., when he was appointed steward of the king's
household with Hugh Fitz-Otho. In 11 Edward I. he be-
came justice of the forests south of the Trent, and it is in that
character that he is introduced into Dugdale's list of justices
itinerant in 20 Edward L, 1292. l He was summoned to
parliament in 1295, 1296, and 1297 ; in the last of which
years, 25 Edward I., he surrendered the office of justice of the
forest, being " adeo impotens " that he could not conveniently
perform its duties.2 In 32 Edward I., 1303-4, he obtained
a licence for a market and fair at his manor of Chesworthine,
in Shropshire; and died in 5 Edward II.3 without leaving
issue by his wife Matilda, widow of Roger de Moubray.

From his brother John sprang the barony of Strange of
Knockyn, which by the marriage of a daughter merged in
1504 in the earldom of Derby till the death of Ferdinand
Stanley, the fifth earl, in 1594, and is now in abeyance
among the descendants of his three daughters.

The barony of Strange of Blackmere sprang from another
brother, Robert, and was united by the marriage of a
daughter in 1384 with that of Talbot; and both in 1442

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 48. 50 ; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 666. ; Abbrev. Placit. 187.

2 Year Book, Part I. 39. 3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 182.

1272—1307. ADAM DE STRATTON. 159

were merged in the earldom of Shrewsbury, until the death
of Gilbert Talbot, the seventh earl, when it fell into abeyance
among his three daughters ; on the death of two of whom
it devolved on Althea, Countess of Arundel, Surrey, and
Xorfolk, and remained with her descendants till the decease of
Edward Howard, the eleventh duke, without issue ; when it
fell again into abeyance between the two daughters of his
brother Duke Philip and their representatives.1

STRATTON, ADAM DE.
? B. E. ? Ch. B. E.

Adam de Stratton was a clerk in the Exchequer at the
close of the reign of Henry III. In the forty-ninth year of
that king, he and Henry de Boreham, on the part of Isabella
Countess of Albemarle, presented Ralph de Stratton to act as
her deputy in the office of chamberlain of the Exchequer
during her pleasure.2 In that year the office of weigher of
the Exchequer (Ponderator de Scaccario) wras vested in him.3
He was still called clerk in 36 Henry III., and in the first
year of the reign of Edward I. he was discharged, in virtue
of his clerkship, from a suit before another jurisdiction. In
the same year he was deputed by the countess to act in her
office in the Exchequer of Receipt ; and in 4 Edward I. that
lady granted to him (he being still called a clerk of the
Exchequer) the manor of Sevenhampton, with the hamlets
of Worth, Stratton, and Crikelade, together with the cham-
berlainship of the Exchequer ; to hold of the king and his
heirs, to him and his heirs, doing the duties of chamberlain
as she and her ancestors had done.4 Two years afterwards
the king committed to Ralph de Besages the place which
Adam de Stratton lately had at the Exchequer, namely, as
well in the Great Exchequer as the Exchequer of Receipt,

1 Nicolas'a Synopsis. - Madox'a Exch. ii. 296.

:< I bill. :508. ' Ibid. 23. 264. -JiH,

1 GO ADAM DE STRATTON. Edw. I.

which had been lately taken into the king's hands " ex certa
causa." l At this time he seems to have been in some dif-
ficulties ; for in the same year he was ejected on a writ of Quo
Warranto from certain manors in Surrey for nonpayment of
his fine on alienation2; and he was charged with destroying
a charter of liberties granted by the Countess of Albemarle
(for whom he appears generally to have acted) to the abbey of
Quarr, in the Isle of Wight, of which he was convicted in the
following year, and was committed to prison.3 He, however,
obtained a second demise of the manors, and was restored to
the offices he held. In 16 Edward I. he lent the Earl of
Surrey 300/. upon mortgage of the manor of Gnoston, with
a condition that if the money was not repaid in four years
the manor should be Adam's for ever.4

When King Edward, in 1289, discovered and punished
several of the judges and others for corruption, Adam de
Stratton was most deeply involved. What was the precise
cause of his disgrace is nowhere clearly stated ; corruption is
charged by one, and felony by another. The latter is ex-
pressly mentioned in several records, but its nature is not
described. It must, however, have been some serious crime,
for not only was he dismissed from the office of chamberlain
on January 17, 1290, 18 Edward I., and from the moiety of
that of usher of the Exchequer, which, it seems, belonged to
him 5, but his person was imprisoned, and the whole of his
property forfeited ; besides the imposition of a fine. The
amount of this fine has been magnified to the sum of 35,000
marks ; but by a record dated June 12, 1290, 19 Edward I.,
it appears that it was only 500 marks ; on the payment of
which he was released from prison, and his transgression
pardoned. The property seized by the king at the time of

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 5. 2 Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 189, 190.

3 Abbrev. Placit. 196. 4 Ibid. 280.

5 Madox's Exch. ii. 299, 300. ; Abbrev. Placit. 223. 283.

1272—1307. ADAM DE STRATTON. 161

his arrest, which all became forfeited, was no doubt considered
as forming part of the fine ; and that, independently of
the manors, may be estimated at the value of 26,000/.,
according to his petition to the parliament held at the fol-
lowing Michaelmas for restitution of some part of it,- — a
petition which appears to have been refused, notwithstanding
the previous pardon.1 The word "felo" is attached to his
name in the escheats of 22 and 33 Edward I.2

In virtue of this pardon, his nephew and heir, Walter de
Stratton, in 4 Edward III., prayed the restoration of the
manor of Sevenhampton and the hamlets he had received from
the Countess of Albemarle ; and his petition was referred to
the chancellor.3

The manor of Shenley, in Hertfordshire, and that of An-
dretesbury, in Surrey, with those of Upton, Bengeho, and
Cowick, were among the estates which he forfeited ; and he
held some ecclesiastical benefices, of which the chapel of
Colney was one.4

Dugdale calls him a baron of the Exchequer at the time of
this disgrace ; and Weever, Chauncy, and other authors, even
style him chief baron. It seems, however, that there is no
sufficient ground for presuming that he held either of these
titles. The office of chief baron, eo nomine, did not then exist ;
and the authority quoted by Dugdale for calling him a baron
is by no means satisfactory. He cites Leland's Collectanea ;
but that work contains two contradictory passages. In the
one quoted he is certainly called " Baro de Scaccario;" 5 but
in the other, he is, in relation to the same event, merely
designated " clericus thesaurarii ; " 6 neither of which was his
actual title, but both sufficiently near to account for the error
of the monastic annalists from whom they are extracted ; as,

1 Rot. Pari. i. 57. 2 Cal. IoquU it Eacaeft. i. 121. 201.

■ Rot. Pari. ii. 42. * Ibid. i. l!>.

5 Leland's Coll. i. 356. 6 Ibid. 443.
VOL. III. M

162 ELI AS DE SUTTON. Edw. I.

being chamberlain, he would sometimes sit with the barons,
and might in a certain degree be called a clerk of the Treasury.
It cannot be supposed, however, that if he had been a regular
baron, his dismissal from the office would not have been
noticed in the same record of the court that announced his
removal from that of chamberlain. In the latter office alone
he is mentioned in the Year Book of the reign1 ; he is
altogether omitted in the list given by Madox, in which the
succession of barons is very distinct ; and not only is no date
of his appointment suggested, but no record exists in which
he is so denominated.

His brother William, who at this period held the office of
Weigher of the Exchequer, claimed restitution of the manor
of Eggeswere (Edgeware), in Middlesex, on the representation
that he and Adam were jointly seised of it by the grant of
Nicholas de Longspeye.2

SUTTON, ELIAS DE.

Just. K. B. 1285.

Elias de Sutton, on the death of his father, of the
same name, in 46 Henry III., was a minor, for it was not
till June 16, 1266, 50 Henry III., that he did homage to the
king for the lands his father held in capite.3 That he was a
judge of the King's Bench in 13 Edward I., 1285, appears
from a Liberate quoted by Dugdale; and he is further
mentioned in the same character in Easter, 15 Edward L,
but not afterwards. In the same year he had a grant from
Robert de Wyleghby of a bovate of land in Askern, York-
shire.4 He died in 17 Edward II., leaving a son, Richard,
who died in the same year.5

1 Year Book, Part I., 13. 8 Abbrev. Placit. 283.

3 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 21. ; Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 438.

4 Abbrev. Placit. 211. 279. s Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 276. 278.

1272—1307. GILBERT DE THORNTON. 163

THORNTON, GILBERT DE.

Ch. K. B. 1289.

Gilbert de Thornton, or de Torenton, as he is called
in the Chronicon Petroburgense, is mentioned as the king's
attorney from 8 to 14 Edward L, 1280-6 ; but it is uncertain
whether this office was similar to that of the attorney-general
of the present day, or anything more than a special appoint-
ment to act on the part of the king in a particular proceeding.
There were evidently at these times two or three so acting in
different counties ; one of whom, William de Giselham, was
called with Gilbert de Thornton, in 9 Edward I., to be a
king's serjeant-at-law : and both appear together in court in
Michaelmas in the next year, under the designation of
"narratores pro rege." l

On the disgrace of Ralph de Hengham he was constituted
chief justice of the King's Bench, 18 Edward L, 1289, with
a salary of 40/. per annum ; and there is evidence of his acting
as late as August, 1295, 23 Edward I.2; soon after which
Roger le Brabazon was raised to the same post. But whether
the vacancy occurred by Gilbert de Thornton's death or
resignation does not appear ; and there is no trace of his private
history, except the fact that a messuage and two carucates
of land at Caburn, in Lincolnshire, were conveyed to him in
17 Edward I. by John Priorell.3

During his presidency of the court, he composed a Com-
pendium of the Law, which was in the nature of an abridg-
ment of Bracton's work, but which has never been printed.
The manuscript which Selden found in Lord Burleigh's
library states that Gilbert de Thornton "tempore illo scicntia,
bonitate et raansuetudine, floriat eleganter."4

1 Dugdale; Abbrev. Placit. 274. ; Cbron. Petroburg. 42. 141.

2 Rot. Purl. i. 134. 3 Abbrer. Placit. 218.
4 Hridginan's Legal Bibliog. 339. ; Dllgdale*8 Orig. 57.

M 2

164 WILLIAM LE VAVASOUR. Ei>w. I.

THORPE, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

THORPE, ROBERT DE.

Just. C P. 1290.

When Edward L, in 1289, punished nearly all the judges
for corrupt practices in their office, he appointed Robert
de Thorpe as one of their successors in the Common Pleas,
and the fines levied before him commence on the octaves of
the Purification, 18 Edward I., 1290, and continue for no
mere than a year.1 He probably died shortly after, as his
name does not again occur. His widow, Aveline, is men-
tioned in a petition to the parliament of 35 Edward I., as
being concerned in a process previously had relative to the
manor of Thorpthewles, in Durham, to a third part of which
she was entitled.

TRIKINGHAM, LAMBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1299. Just. C. P. 1300.
See under the Reigns of Edward II. and Edward III.

VAVASOUR, WILLIAM LE.

Just. Itik. T. 1304.

William le Vavasour was of an ancient knightly family
in Yorkshire, seated at Haselwood ; one of whom has been
already mentioned in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I.
His grandfather was Robert le Vavasour, who flourished
under John and Henry III., and married one of his
daughters to Theobald Walter, and afterwards to Fulk Fitz-

1 Dugdale's Orig.44. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 18. 31. 33. 198.

1272—1307. WILLIAM LE VAVASOUR. 165

Warine ; and another to Thomas de Multon : and whose son
John was the father of this William.

He served his king in the expedition into Gascony, and in
his wars in Scotland ; and his prowess is pithily described by
the poetical historian of the siege of Carlaverock in 1300, in
these lines : — •

" E de celle mesme part
Fu Guillemis li Vavasours
Ki darmes nest muet ne sours." '

On November 23, 1304, 33 Edward I., he was appointed one
of the justices of Trailbaston for York ; and again, on
April 6, 1305, and on February 18, 1307, when the ten
northern counties were assigned to him and four others.2 He
was summoned to parliament from 27 Edward I. to 6 Ed-
ward II. , the year in which he died.3

Dugdale says that his son Mauger ratified a grant he had
made of his mill at Hunsflete to the monks of Sallay, in
Yorkshire : but this is a mistake, since the witnesses to the
confirmation prove that the deed was executed in the reign of
Henry II.4, and, consequently, that it wTas made by Mauger,
the father of William le Vavasour, the justice itinerant
under Richard I. He had no son named Mauger : his three
sons, by his wife Nichola, the daughter of Sir Stephen
Wallis of Newton, being Robert, Henry, and William,
neither of whom, nor their descendants, were summoned to
parliament.

From his son Henry descended Thomas Vavasour, of
Haselwood, created a baronet in 1628. This title expiring
in January, 1828, was revived in the following month in the
person of the Honourable Edward Marmaduke Stourton,

1 Nieolas's Siege of Carlaverock, 8. 113.

- N. Foetlera, i. 970. ; Hot. Pari. i. 18G. 218. ; Pari. Writs, i. 107.

8 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 949. 4 Monast. v. 514.

M 3

166 JOHN DE VAUX, Edw. I.

the cousin and devisee of the last baronet ; who assumed
the surname, and now inhabits the family seat.

Another baronetcy, conferred in 1801, and now held by
Sir Henry Mervyn Vavasour, of Spaldington, Yorkshire, is
derived from the same stock.1

VAUX, JOHN DE.

Just. I tin. 1278.

Among the justices itinerant appointed in 6 Edward I., 1278,
to visit the counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and
Northumberland, is John de Vaux, or de Vallibus. He stands
next after the Abbot of Westminster, with four beneath
him in the commission. In the following years, up to
13 Edward I., the same judges, except the Abbot of Westmin-
ster, acted in various other counties, principally in the north
of England ; and in that and the next year he and William
de Saham went together into Northamptonshire and Hunting-
donshire.2 As he takes precedence on all these occasions
of three who were regular justices, he was no doubt selected
as a principal baron of the district to head the commission.

He was the grandson of Oliver de Vaux, noticed in the
last reign as a justice itinerant. His father, Robert, died
either in the lifetime of Oliver, or soon afterwards, leaving
several sons. William, the eldest, died without children ;
and in 37 Henry III., 1253, this John succeeded. In 49
Henry III., after the battle of Evesham, his fidelity to his
sovereign procured him the sheriffalty of Norfolk and Suffolk,
and a grant of certain houses " prope Garther " in London.3
Under Edward I., besides the duties which he performed as
a justice itinerant, he was, in the eleventh year of that reign,
appointed steward of Aquitaine.

1 Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 110. ; Burke's Peerage and Extinct Baronetage.

2 Dugdale's Chron. Series. ; Rot. Pari. i. 29. 218. ; Madox's Exch. i. 531.

3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 39.

1272—1307. WILLIAM DE VESCY. 167

He died in 16 Edward I., 1288, leaving by Sibilla, bis wife,
who survived him, two daughters : Petronilla, who married
William de Nerford ; and Maud, who married William
de Ross ; between whom his property was divided.1

VESCY, WILLIAM DE.

?Just. Itin. 1286.

Tins noble family commenced with Yvo de Vesci, who came
over with the Conqueror, and was rewarded for his valiant
assistance by receiving in marriage the heiress of the lord-
ships of Alnwicke in Northumberland and Malton in York-
shire. They left an only daughter, Beatrice, who married
Eustace Fitz-John, mentioned under the reign of Henry I.,
and whose children resumed the name of De Vesci. William
de Vesci was second son of William, their great-grandson,
and of Agnes, one of the daughters of William de Ferrers,
Earl of Derby. His father died in 37 Henry III., 1253,
leaving two sons minors, of whom this William was the
younger. John, his elder brother, although twice married,
dying without children in 17 Edward I., 1289, William
succeeded to the barony.2

Having begun his career as a younger son, he had pursued
the profession of the law, and was advanced to the office of
justice of the forests beyond Trent, receiving his appointment
in 13 Edward I., 1285 3; and in the following year he was at
the head of the justices itinerant for pleas of the forest in
Nottinghamshire and Lancashire.4 He retained this place
till 17 Edward I., the year of his brother's death, when he
was appointed governor of Scarborough Castle ; and in the
following year he was constituted chief justice of Ireland.
Three years afterwards, while in the execution of his duties

1 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 526. " Ibid. 90.

'■' Abbrer. Rot. Orig. i. 50. 90. ' Dugdale's Cbroo. Si

M 4

168 WILLIAM DE VESCY. Edw. I.

he was charged by John Fitz-Thomas with confederating
against the king. The rolls of parliament contain a curious
account of the proceedings taken by him against the accuser,
for defamation ; of the duel that was awarded ; of the sum-
mons to appear before the king at Westminster, when De
Yesci came fully armed, but Fitz-Thomas kept away ; and
of the ultimate annulling of the process in 23 Edward I., on
account of some irregularity.1 It does not appear that any
further proceeding took place : but it is evident that the charge
was not believed, as he was in the same year summoned to
parliament ; was employed in the wars of Gascony in that
and the following year ; and had grants showing the favour
of his sovereign.

On the death of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, in 1290,
he became one of the competitors for that crown, in right of
Margaret, daughter of William the Lion, and sister of Alex-
ander, King of Scotland, whom his ancestor Eustace de Vesci
had married. From the immediate dismissal of this claim,
and those of other daughters of William the Lion, a doubt
has arisen as to their legitimacy ; the pretensions of Baliol
and Bruce being founded on a title which, but on that pre-
sumption, would have been posterior.2

He died on July 19, 1297, 25 Edward I., at his manor of
Malton. His wife was Isabel, daughter of Adam de Periton,
and widow of Robert de Welles. By her he had a son John,
who died before him, leaving Clementia his widow ; but he
had by Dergaville, daughter of Dunwald, a petty prince in
Ireland, an illegitimate son, called William de Vesci of
Kildare, who was summoned to parliament, and was killed at
the battle of Bannockburn, in 8 Edward II.3

1 Rot. Pari. i. 127. 132. ; Abbrev. Placit. 234.

2 Tyler's Scotland, i. 90. 3 Hasted's Kent, i. 460.

1272—1307. RICHARD DE WARE. 169

WALEDENE, HUMFREY DE.

B. E. 1306.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

WALKINGHAM, ALAN DE.

Just. Itix. 1280.

The family of Walkingham had considerable possessions
in Yorkshire, where there was a John de Walkingham,
whose widow, Agnes, paid for an assize in that county in
51 Henry III., 1267. l These were probably the father and
mother of Alan de Walkingham. He pursued the legal
profession, and was appointed in 8 Edward I., 1280, one of
the justices to take assizes in different counties. In the
next year he acted as the king's advocate, or local attorney-
general, in the pleas before the justices itinerant in York-
shire ; and in 10 Edward I. was added to the commission of
justices itinerant in Cornwall.2 He died in 12 Edward I.3,
leaving two sons ; John, the elder, who had a commission of
array directed to him in 16 Edward II. for the wapentake of
Brudeford in Yorkshire ; and Adam, the younger.4

WALSINGHAM, RICHARD DE.

Just. Itin. T. 1307.

See under the Reign of Edward II.

WARE, RICHARD DE, Abbot of Westminster.

Just. Itin. 1278.

Richard de Ware, who was elected Abbot of West-
minster, December 15, 1258, was placed at the head of the

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 454. 2 Dugdale's Chron. Scries.

3 Cal. Iiiquis. p. m., i. 84. 128. ; Madox's Exch. ii. 112.

4 Abbrev. Rut. Orig. i. 47. 55. 59.

170 THOMAS DE WEYLAND. Edw. I.

commission of justices itinerant into the three northern
counties in 6 Edward I., 1278 l; but probably never joined
his companions, as in that year he was sent on an embassy
to John, Duke of Brabant, to negotiate a marriage between
that prince's eldest son and Margaret, the king's daughter.
His name does not appear on any future iter.

He presided nearly twenty-five years, during which he
procured many immunities for the abbey, and adorned it with
the mosaic pavement before the high altar, the rich materials
of which he brought from Rome. Besides the employments
above mentioned, he was engaged in 1261 in an embassy to
France, and in 1281 wras treasurer of the Exchequer, in
which office he died two years afterwards, in December,
12 Edward I. ; this epitaph being placed over his tomb2:

u Abbas Richardus de Ware, qui requiescat
Hie, portat lapides, quos hue portavit ab Urbe."

WELLS, Treasurer of. See J. de Langton.
WESTMINSTER, Abbot of. See R. de Ware.

WEYLAND, THOMAS DE.

Just. C. P. 1274. Ch. C. P. 1278.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

Thomas de Weyland was a younger son of William de
Weyland, who possessed large estates in the county of Nor-
folk. His mother was Marsilia, who afterwards married
John Brandon.3 He was brought up to the study of the law ;
and had attained sufficient eminence in 56 Henry III., 1272,
to be associated, by a special mandate, with Roger de Seyton
as a justice itinerant into the counties of Essex and Hertford.

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

2 Dugdale's Monast. Anglic, i. 273. : Madox's Exch. ii. 37.
* Spelman's Icena ; Reliq. 140.

1272—1307. THOMAS DE WEYLAND. 171

Dugclale refers to a Liberate to him in 3 Edward I., 1276, as
one of the king's Serjeants ; and in the next year to another,
as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas ; but it is evident
that he filled the latter office as early as Michaelmas, 2 Ed-
ward I., as, according to that author's list of fines, some
were levied before him at that date.

He succeeded Roger de Seyton as chief justice of the
Common Pleas in 6 Edward I., 1278 ; and had a salary of
sixty marks a year.1 In 11 Edward I. he had a grant of
40/., in discharge of his expenses in going through divers
counties, as well for taking assizes and inquisitions, as for
taxing amercements in that and the preceding year.2

Fines continued to be levied before him till fifteen days of
St. Martin, 17 Edward I., 1289, at the close of which year
charges were made against him and the rest of the judges of
bribery and corruption in their office. All of them were
convicted, except two, and were subjected to large fines.
Against Thomas de Weyland, however, a more heinous
crime was imputed ; that of instigating his servants to
commit murder, and then screening them from punishment.
After his apprehension he escaped from custody, and dis-
guising himself, obtained admission as a novice among the
friars minors at St. Edmondsbury. On the discovery of his
retreat, the sanctuary was respected for the forty days allowed
by the law ; after which the introduction of provisions into
the convent was prohibited. The friars, not inclined to sub-
mit to starvation, soon retired, and the fallen judge, finding
himself deserted, was compelled to deliver himself up to the
ministers of justice, and was conveyed to the Tower. The
King's Council gave him the option to stand his trial, to be
imprisoned for life, or to abjure the realm. To the latter he
was entitled by virtue of his sanctuary, and he chose it.

1 Dugdale's Orig. 44. ; and Chron. Ser. 2 Madox's Exch. ii. 66.

172

WILLIAM DE WETLAND.

Edw. I.

The ceremony consisted of his walking barefoot and bare-
headed, with a crucifix in his hand, from his prison to the
sea-side, and being placed in the vessel provided for his trans-
portation. All his property, both real and personal, stated
to have been of the value of 100,000 marks, was forfeited to
the crown.1 On May 2, 1290, 18 Edward I., his wife, Mar-
gery de Morse, by the hands of her valet, Thomas de Grey,
delivered into the Exchequer a forulum with rolls of extracts
of the amercements in Banco of several years in different
counties.2 She died in 18 Edward II., being then in posses-
sion of lands and tenements in Essex.3

From entries on the parliament rolls, it may be inferred that
he transferred to the abbot of St. Edmundsbury two of his
manors as a consideration for the asylum he sought there ;
and that several others of his manors were saved from the
general wreck, by means of his wife and children being co-
feoffees of them with him.4

No account of his future career is given, nor is the date
of his death mentioned. He left three children, Thomas,
Richard, and Alienor ; and the family is now represented by
John Weyland, Esq., of Woodrising in Norfolk.5

WEYLAND, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1272.
See under the Reign of Henry III.

William de Wetland was the son of Herbert de Wey-
land, and Beatrix his wife. From September, 1261, 45
Henry III., he was escheator south of Trent ; in which office
he was succeeded in January, 1264, by William de Wendling,
although there is one instance of a mandate addressed to him

1 Lingard, iii. 270. ; Law and Lawyers, ii. 133. ; Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 61. 63, 64.

2 Madox's Exch. ii. 256. 3 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 317.

4 Rot. Pari. i. 48. 51. 66.

Burke's Landed Gentry.

1272—1307. rillLIP DE WILUGHBY. 173

in that character on April 24, 1265. In 56 Henry III.,
1272, his name is inserted in the commission directed to the
justices itinerant to the county of Leicester ; and inasmuch
as the roll of that year contains an entry of a payment made
in September for an assize to be held before him for another
county (Suffolk), there is very little doubt that he was then
appointed a justicier at Westminster; the more especially as he
was certainly a judge of the Common Pleas in the first year
of Edward I., his name then appearing on the acknowledg-
ment of a fine. There is no subsequent mention of him as a
judge. By his wife, Marsilia, who afterwards married John
Brandon, he left three sons, Richard, Nicholas, and the
above-mentioned Thomas. l

WILUGHBY, PHILIP DE, Dean of Lincoln.

B. E. 1275.

This name is variously spelled, as Wileby, Wyleby, Wiluby,
Wilughby, &c, but is the same as that now usually denomi-
nated Willoughby.

It does not distinctly appear whether Philip de Wilughby
belonged to the noble family in Lincolnshire, or to the
knightly family in Nottinghamshire: but at his death he
was possessed of the manor of Byflete in Surrey, and of
other lands in Nottinghamshire, Kent, and Middlesex.2 He
was appointed a baron of the Exchequer before Michaelmas
3 and 4 Edward L, 1275, when he is mentioned as being
present with that title. In the latter of these years he
received the custody of one of the four keys of the royal
treasury ; his annual fee in the former capacity being forty
marks, and in the latter 10/.3 He was raised to the office of

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. 360—485. 580. ; Dugdale's Orig. 44. ; Burke's Landed
Gentry.
• Cal. faqnit, p. m., i. l!»<;. n Madox'a Exch. ii. 60. 62.320.

174 JOHN WOGAN. Edw. I.

chancellor of the Exchequer about 11 Edward I., 1283,
and filled it till his death in 1305, 33 Edward I., a period
of twenty-two years. During this time he frequently acted
as locum tenens of the treasurer ; and seems to have been so
indefatigable in his attention to the duties of his office, that
in 30 Edward I. the king, taking into consideration the
length of his service, gave him a license to attend at the
Exchequer when it suited his leisure and convenience.1

Like most of the officers of the court, he was of the
clerical profession ; and first obtained as his reward a canonry
of St. Paul's, from which he was advanced, in June, 1288,
1 6 Edward I., to the deanery of Lincoln.2

WOGAN, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1292.

To John Wogan, in conjunction with Hugo de Cressingham,
the dispute between the Queen and William de Valence and
his wife was submitted, the result of which was stated to the
parliament of 18 Edward I. At the same parliament, Hugo
de Cressingham complained against him that he entered the
Queen's court at Haverford, and impeded the proceedings ; to
which Wogan answered, that he did so only to prevent one
of the tenants from doing fealty to the Queen for a tenement
he held of William de Valence : and the case was referred
for enquiry, but the decision does not appear.3 In 20 Ed-
ward I., 1292, he was one of the justices itinerant assigned
for the four northern counties.4 He did not long fill this
office, as he was appointed chief justice of Ireland on Oc-
tober 18, 1295, 23 Edward I.5, and continued to hold that
important post for the remainder of that, and for the first

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 54. 96. 107. 188. 219. 320—325. ; Abbrev. Placit. 201.

2 Le Neve, 145. 3 Rot. Pari. i. 31. 33.
4 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 5 Cal. Rot. Pat. 57.

1272—1307. WALTER DE WYMBURN. 175

twelve years of the next reign, when Roger de Mortimer
was put in his place.

During the whole of this period he is occasionally men-
tioned in parliament, but does not appear to have acted
judicially in England in the reign of Edward II. ; for though
he was named as a justice itinerant into Kent on May 13,
1313, 6 Edward II., he was removed from the commission
ten days afterwards, on account of other business requiring
his attention, and another was substituted for him.1

WORCESTER, Bishop of. See G. Giffard.
WYMBURN, WALTER DE.

Just. K. B. 1276.

In 46 Henry III., 1261, Walter de Wymburn is called the
king's clerk, but whether civil or ecclesiastic is uncertain.
He had then a grant of the king's year and a day on some
land which had been escheated.2 In 4 Edward I., 1276, he
was appointed a judge of the King's Bench, with a salary
assigned to him of forty marks a year 3 ; and we find him
acting in the same character in Easter, 15 Edward I., 1287 4 ;
and summoned to the council as late as October, 1288.5
Spelman states, that during the tenth and thirteenth years
of the reign he was chief justice6 ; but no authority is given,
and I find no evidence of the fact, or that there was any
interruption to Ralph de Hengham's presidency till the
eighteenth year.

1 Pari. Writs, i. 910., ii. 1631. 2 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 363.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Scries. ' Abbrev. Placit. 212.

5 Pari. Writs, i. 18. c Spelman's Gloss., ed. 1687, 342.

176 WILLIAM WYTHER. Edw. I.

WYNTON, ELIAS DE.

? B. E. 1295.

The error which Dugdale has committed in introducing
Master Elias de Wynton as a baron of the English, instead
of the Irish, Exchequer, has been already explained under
the name of Richard de Saham, in this reign.

WYTHER, WILLIAM.

? Just. Itin. 1287.

William Wyther seems to have been merely a justice
itinerant for pleas of the forest in Lancashire in 15 Edward L,
1287.1 The only legal or judicial character in which he
afterwards appears is as the last named of four commissioners
appointed by the parliament, in 35 Edward I., to hear and
determine a cause in North Wrales between the Earl of
Arundel and others.2 His descendants removed from Lan-
cashire, and are now represented by the Rev. Lovelace
Bigg- Wither, of Manydown in Hampshire, where the family
settled in the reign of Edward III.3

YORK, Archbishop of. See W. de Greenfield.

YORK, Archdeacons of. See R. Burnel; J. de Crau-

combe ; W. de Hamilton.
YORK, Dean of. See W. de Hamilton.

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 206.

3 Burke's Landed Gentry, 1620.

177

EDWARD II.

Reigned 19 years, 6 months, and 12 days ; from July 8, 1!307,
to January 20, 1327.

SUEVEY OF THE REIGN.

Westminster Hall is mentioned for the first time in this
reign as the place where the chancellor held his sittings : and
the particular part of it is described as the u Magnum Ban-
cum." The passage occurs in the record of the appointment
of Walter Reginald, Bishop of Worcester, as chancellor, in
July, 1310 l ; but, as it is followed by the words, "ubi Can-
cellarii Regis sedere consueverunt" we are left to imagine
when the practice first commenced. Another record, in the
nineteenth year of the reign 2, makes the earliest mention of
the marble table, " Tabulam Marmoriam," at which he sat in
the Hall. That it was the custom to seal the writs there
appears from the entry, in 1 1 Edward II., of the delivery of
the Great Seal, on the retirement of Chancellor Sandale, to
the master of the Rolls and two clerks of the Chancery, who,
it is said, " dictum magnum sigillum in magna aula Westm.
hora tercia aperuerunt, et inde brevia consignarunt." 3 It
may be presumed, therefore, that the matters which were
referred to him, or to his temporary substitutes, were heard
in this place.

The Rolls of Parliament, besides innumerable instances of
petitioners being referred to the Chancery for writs to meet

1 Rot. Claus. 4 Edw. II., m. 36. 2 Dugdale's Orig. Jur'ul. 37.

3 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. II., in. 3.

VOL. III. N

178 CHANCERY. Edw. II.

their complaints, contain various entries showing that parties
were permitted to sue there ; and that it had the power
of granting remedies which could not be obtained in the other
courts. Writs are frequently directed to be issued to other
judges to see that justice be done ; and in some instances the
answer to the petition is " sequatur per legem communem."1
But as early as the second year of the reign a distinction
appears to be taken ; by the complainant being refused any
redress to one point of his petition, because the king's right
was clear, but as to another he is told " sequatur in Can-
cellaria."2 This form frequently occurs; and sometimes it is
followed by the still stronger terms, " et fiat ei justitia
secundum consuetudinem Cancellariaa," and " fiat ulterius
justitia in Cancellaria,"3 or words to the same effect. On one
occasion a party is referred to the Chancery, because she
"non potest juvari per communem legem;"4 and on another
the direction is " veniat in Cancellaria et ostendat jussuum."5

All these seem to evidence the commencement of that
peculiar and separate jurisdiction which now distinguishes
the court. The references almost invariably arise upon
complaints made to "the king and his council" in parliament;
but there is one instance, in 9 Edward II., of a petition to
the chancellor himself, who directs a writ of supersedeas, as
prayed.6

"The clerks of the Chancery and other judges" were
sometimes united with the chancellor in the hearing.7

Many other examples are given in the note at the end
of the reign of Edward II. in the " Lives of the Chancellors,"
by Lord Campbell (vol. i. p. 206.), who is, however, mistaken
in supposing that he presents them to the public for the first
time, or that they are the result of the recent searches of
Mr. Duffus Hardy ; that able and intelligent antiquary

1 Rot. Pari. i. 331. 399. 2 Ibid. 277. 3 Ibid. 317, 322. 331. 425.

4 Ibid. 340. 5 Ibid. 389. 6 Ibid. 339. 7 Ibid. 325.

1307—1327. CHANCELLORS. 179

having, in the passages themselves, carefully noted the pages
in the well-known work called " The Kolls of Parliament,"
from which he has industriously extracted them.

The chancellor still continued to be called " Cancellarius
Regis," invariably, in the record of his appointment, and in
almost every other document in which he is mentioned.
But on two occasions the title " Chancellor of England,"
u Angliae Cancellarius," is used ; one in the first *, and the
other in the fourteenth 2, year of the reign. The title of
Lord Chancellor seems also to have been introduced
about this period ; at least, I have found one instance of
its use.3 That he remained the head of the king's chapel
appears from a document cited by Madox, in which he is
expressly styled " Chef de la Chapele nostre Seignour le
Roy.""

The precedent under which the chancellor for the time
being now claims, as his perquisite, the fragments of the broken
Seal, when a new one is substituted for it, occurs in the
thirteenth year of this reign. On June 4, 1320, the king,
" in the green chamber in his palace of Westminster, " caused
two small seals to be brought before him, viz., one of the time
of his father, of blessed memory, which was used in England
when his father was in Flanders, and the other which was
used in England when the present king was in France ; and
there caused the small Seal of his father's time to be broken,
and delivered the pieces, " pecias argenti, " to the chancellor
" tanquam feodum ipsius cancellarii."5

Very few intervals occur during this reign in which the
regular succession of chancellors was interrupted. The only
one of any length was between December 9, 1311, when
Walter Reginald, Bishop of Worcester, surrendered the Seal

1 Rot. Claus. 1 Edw. II., m. 3. '-' Rot. Pari. i. 365.

3 Ibid. 302. ' Madox'a Exoh. i. 61.

5 Rot. Claus. 1:5 Edw. II., ni. 4.

180 CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. Edw. II.

as chancellor, and September 16, 1314, when John de San-
dale received the appointment. During the earlier part of
that interval, viz., till October 6, 1312, the master of the
Rolls and two clerks of the Chancery acted as keepers of the
Seal, which afterwards was restored to the Bishop of Wor-
cester, not as chancellor, but as keeper ; being the only in-
stance of the same individual holding the inferior, after he
had enjoyed the higher title.

On the death of King Edward I., oil July 7, 1307, Ralph
de Baldock, Bishop of London, was chancellor ; but as that
event happened at Burgh-on-the- Sands, and the Bishop was1
in London, he remained in ignorance of it till July 25, and
still continued to seal writs in the name of the deceased
monarch up to that day. By the new king's commands the
Seal was sent to him at Carlisle, where he received it on
August 2.1

The chancellor then appointed, or soon after, for the precise
date does not appear, was John de Langton, Bishop of
Chichester, who had held the office for nine years in the
previous reign. He retained possession of the Seal till the
lords ordainers assumed the government, when he resigned,
on May 11, 1310.2

Mr. Hardy introduces William de Melton as keeper
during Langton's chancellorship. His reason for this is, that
on the occasion of the king's going to France to be married,
on January 21, 1308, the Great Seal, which was then
delivered up to the king by the chancellor, was placed in
the hands of William de Melton, to be carried abroad with him
in his wardrobe, of which department Melton was the comp-
troller. But the chancellor still remained in the full exercise
of his office, for the king at the same time delivered to him,
" in a certain red purse, another Seal lately made in London,

1 Rot. Fin. 35 Edw. I., m. 1. - Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. II., m. 6.

1307—1327. CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. 181

for the government of the kingdom while the king was in
foreign parts : " with which, on the next day, the chancellor
sealed writs under the teste of Peter de Gavcston, Earl of
Cornwall, who had been left custos of the kingdom.1 The
king returned on February 7 ; but, because the keeper of the
wardrobe, in whose custody the Great Seal is expressly stated
to have been, did not arrive till two days afterwards, no writs
were sealed in the interim. On his landing the Great Seal
was immediately restored to the chancellor, who delivered up
the new Seal to the king2, which, on the 15th of March
following, sealed up in a purse of white leather, was deposited
in the Exchequer by William de Melton, the comptroller of
the wardrobe.'3

Two other instances occur of the Seal being temporarily
taken out of Langton's hands; when it was sent to the king, by
his command, through Adam de Osgodby, the keeper of the
Rolls. It was kept on the first occasion, June 9, 1308, only
one day, and then returned to him. On the second, it
remained with the king from the 15th to the 20th of June,
when he received it back by the same messenger. No
explanation is given of the first demand ; but the cause of the
second is apparent in the fact that, on June 16, the Seal was
affixed to the patent constituting Peter de Gavcston lieutenant
of Ireland ' ; a document to which the chancellor probably
did not deem it expedient that his name should be attached.

On the resignation of John de Langton the Great Seal
was, on May 11, 1310, delivered to Ingelard de WABLEE to
be kept in the wardrobe ; and on the next day was again placed
in the hands of William de Melton, together with Hoi
de Bardelby and John Fraunceis, to do those things
which pertained to the office until the king should otherwise

1 Rot. Clans. 1 Edw. II., m. 11. ■ Rot. Fin. 1 Edw. II., m. 9.

1 Ibid. Com. 1 Edw. II., rot. 40. b. t. Clans. 1 Edw. II., m. 3.

M 3

182 CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. Edw. II.

order.1 Mr. Hardy inserts all these four as keepers ; but
the two latter were only clerks of the Chancery, and Wil-
liam de Melton held his former place of comptroller of the
wardrobe, of which department Ingelard de Warlee was the
keeper.

There is no other entry with regard to the Great Seal till
the 6th of the following July ; but it is clear that some
change must have occurred in the interim, because the Seal
is then stated to be in the custody of Adam de Osgodby,
the keeper of the Rolls, under the seals of the above-
mentioned Robert de Bardelby and John Fraunceis ; the
name of William de Melton being altogether omitted.

On that day Walter Reginald or Raynald, Bishop
of Worcester, received the Seal from the king; and it is
somewhat curious that the Roll does not, as in other cases,
state that he was constituted chancellor ; but simply adds,
" et sacramentum praistitit de officio Sigilli illius fideliter
exequendo," — words which would seem to imply that he was
appointed keeper only. The record, however, proceeds to
mention that on the next day the bishop opened the Seal at
the great bench in Westminster Hall, where the chancellors
usually sat 2, and subsequent documents designate him by the
superior title.

During the remainder of the reign, and particularly in the
next four years, the entries as to the possession of the Great
Seal are extremely minute, exhibiting great jealousy as to its
slightest movement. The whole realm was in a troubled
state ; ordainers had been forced upon the king ; their ordi-
nances had been promulgated; the king's resistance to them
had resulted in the execution of his favourite, Gaveston, and
his arms had been disgraced by his defeat at Bannockburn.
As the bishop was notoriously one of the king's friends,

1 Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. II., m. 6. 2 Ibid. 4 Edw. II., m. 26.

1307—1327. CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. 183

the ordainers would naturally be watchful that he did not
put the Seal to any use detrimental to their power, or in
opposition to their directions ; and the caution of the chancellor
himself would point out to him the expediency of recording
every removal of the Seal, in order that he might not be
made answerable for any act done under its fiat, while out of
his possession. These reasons will sufficiently account for
the various entries on the llolls, of which an abstract will
not be uninteresting.

The minutiae of the details in these entries are somewhat
ludicrous. The precise hour is often specially noted ; but
sometimes only referred to by the expressions " in crepusculo
noctis," " hora matutinali," and " post prandium" ; to the
latter of which is added, on one occasion, " amota mensa ad
quam tunc comedebat." We have also the very room in the
palace of Westminster in which the scene is laid : viz. " the
little chapel near the painted chamber," " the green chamber,"
and the " white chamber ; " and the colour of the purse,
whether red or white, in which the Seal is deposited, is some-
times carefully distinguished.

On December 12, 1310, when Bishop Reginald went from
Newcastle to the king at Berwick, he committed the Great
Seal to Adam de Osgodby, the keeper of the Rolls, to be
kept by him under the seals of Robert de Bardclby and
Geoffrey de Welleford, to do what appertained to
the office till his return ; and he was absent a week.1

In this case the committal of the Seal was by the chan-
cellor; but in the next it was by the king. The bishop,
being about to proceed to the General Council at Vienne in
Dauphiny, delivered the Seal, on August 27, 1311, to the king,
who gave it to Adam de Osgodby, to keep under the seals of
Robert de Bardclby and William de Ayrem ynne, all three
of whom were to do the duties of the Seal till further order;
1 Rot. Clan,. 1 Edir. II., in. 17.

N 4

184 CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. Edw. II.

and it is added, that Adam, on the same day, sealed writs with
it at his " hospitium" in the " Domus Conversorum" (now the
Rolls House) in the presence of the other two. The Seal
was delivered back on September 28, to the bishop ; who on
the 9th of December following again (and without any reason
assigned) gave it up to the king, who placed it in his ward-
robe ; and on the next day ordered it to be delivered to the
above three individuals, enjoining them to do what pertained
to the office, and after the sealing to replace it in the ward-
robe.1

By the last injunction it would seem that this was not a
mere temporary movement of the chancellor ; but that it was
an absolute discharge from the office. Yet it appears that
on the 19th of the same month the Seal was a^ain in the
bishop's possession, although there is no entry how it came
there. He is therein described as delivering it with his own
hand to the same parties.2 The entry may be an accidental
repetition of the same act with a different date, or more pro-
bably, as in the former instances the new custodes received
the Seal from the officers of the wardrobe only, it was deemed
necessary that it should be delivered with more formality by
the chancellor himself.

These three custodes kept the Seal till December 30, when
they took it to the king at Windsor, who, for anything that
appears, retained it till January 20, 1312 ; when, by his com-
mand, they attended him at York, and sealed writs there.3
This was the time when he made a new grant to Gaveston
of his former estates and honours, and the Seal was no doubt
required for that purpose. On this last occasion they pro-
bably, although it is not recorded, kept possession of the Seal ;
as it appears that on May 4 following, after the sealing of
writs in the morning, Edmund de Mauley, the steward of

1 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. II., m. 21. 26. 27. 2 Ibid. m. 18.

3 Ibid. m. 1 6.

1307—1327. CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. 185

the household, took away the Great Seal from Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, under their seals, just three hours before the
Earl of Lancaster entered the town. It was carried to
Tynemouth to the king, who sailed from thence (with Ga-
veston) to Scarborough; but on the 17th he was again at
York, when the Seal was given back by Edmund de Mauley
to the three keepers, to execute the duties as before.1

The fate of Gaveston quickly followed, and the king was
raising an army to punish Lancaster and his adherents.
This may account for a different course being adopted with
regard to the Great Seal ; for on October 6 it was delivered
to the Bishop of Worcester, the former chancellor, before the
barons and justices of the Exchequer, with injunctions from
the Earl of Pembroke and Hugh le Despencer, (who were
the king's friends,) that, after sealing, it should remain in his
custody, under the seals of the same three who had previously
acted as keepers. In a subsequent record of the following
April he is distinctly designated " Custos Magni Sigilli."2

The Seal continued in the custody of the bishop, (called in
the entry of December 13, 1313, elect of Canterbury, and in
that of April 1, 1314, Archbishop of Canterbury,) under the
seals, generally of all the three, but sometimes of William
Ayremynne only, who seems to have been more regularly in
attendance, until April 5, 1314.

In 1313 very few movements are recorded, and the Seal is
expressly stated to have remained in the bishop's possession
when the king went into France, both in May3 and December.4
But in January, 1314, there are no less than eleven entries
notifying where the Seal was used or deposited on as many
days.5

Such extreme caution with regard to the custody of the
Seal was soon after deemed necessary that on April 1, 1314,

1 Rot. Clai II., m. S. ■ Ibid. 6 Edw. II., m. .;.

3 Ibid. in. 4. 4 Tbid. 7 Edw. II., no, 13. 5 [bid.

186 CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. Edw. II.

the king being then at St. Alban's, on his expedition to Scot-
land, commanded that the archbishop should place the Great
Seal in a certain chamber in the Tower of London, under
the seals of Adam de Osgodby and Robert de Bardelby, and
that William de Ayremynne should reside there until the
king should otherwise order. It would appear, however,
that these directions were not immediately carried into effect,
as after sealing writs both on that day and on April the 4th,
the Seal remained in the custody of the archbishop, who on
the 5th is stated to have gone to his manor of Otteford.1

As there is no further entry of his retirement from the
office, though he is never afterwards mentioned in con-
nection with it, and as he was solemnly enthroned as arch-
bishop on the 19th, the above arrangement was probably
made in contemplation of that event; leaving Adam de
Osgodby and his two associates custodes of the Seal; by
which title they are distinctly called in the next entry, which
does not occur till September 16.

On that day John de Sandale, then acting as locum
tenens for the treasurer, was appointed chancellor2; and so
continued for nearly four years, resigning on June 9, 1318,
11 Edward II.3

During this time he was occasionally absent from the
court, either on the king's affairs or his own, when he was
elected Bishop of Winchester, and when he made a pilgrimage
to St. Thomas at Canterbury. When this happened, the
Great Seal was left in the custody of Adam de Osgodby, or
William de Ayremynne, successively keepers of the Rolls, or
of Henry de Cliff, a clerk in the Chancery, under the
seals of two or three of the other clerks ; all of whom appear
sometimes to have done the duties pertaining to the Chancery.
The clerks of the Chancery, so employed, were Robert de

1 Rot. Claus. 7 Edw. II., m. 7. 2 Ibid. 8 Edw. II., m. 32.

Ibid. 11 Edw. IT., m. 3.

1307—1327. CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. 187

Bardelby, Kobert de Askery, and, on one occasion, Hugh
de Burgh.1

John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely, received the Great
Seal, with the title of chancellor, on June 11, 1318, 11 Ed-
ward II.2, and held it till January 23, 1320. The only
occurrence of importance in connection with the office during
the nineteen months of his ministry, was that, on October 26,

1319, the king gave him positive commands not to affix the
Seal to any mandate from the communication of any other
person, of what degree soever he might be, but solely by his
own personal directions, or by the authority of his privy
seal.3

Whenever he went away from the court on the king's
affairs, which he did on several occasions, to negociate with
the Earl of Lancaster and the discontented barons, the same
course was adopted with regard to the Great Seal, as had
been pursued under his predecessor. It was generally
entrusted to William de Ayremynne, who was then master of
the Bolls, sealed up with the seals of Bardelby, Askeby,
Henry de Cliff, and Welleford, as before ; to whom was now
added William de Cliff.4

John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, was the next chan-
cellor, the Seal being placed in his hands on January 27,

1320, 13 Edward II.8 Though he continued in office for
more than three years and a half, the Seal, from one cause or
other, was out of his possession for more than half of the time.

On his accompanying the king to the court of France, in
June, 1320, to do homage for the duchy of Aquitaine, the
Great Seal was deposited in a secure place, and the little
Seal, used on occasions of the king's absence abroad, was left

1 Rot. Claus. 8 Edw. II., m. 4. ; 10 Edw. II., m. 8. '20. 27.; 11 Edw. II.
m. 8. 11. 18.

; Ibid. 11 Edw. II., ni. :;. Ibid. 13 Edw. II.,m. 1 G.

1 Ibid. m. IS. 5 Ibid, m 9.

188. CHANCELLORS — KEEPERS. Edw. IL

in the hands of the keeper of the Rolls, under the seals of the
clerks in Chancery, to be used for the government of the
kingdom, under Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who
had been left custos.1 The king and the chancellor returned
on July 22.2

During the chancellor's visits to his bishoprick, his long
illnesses, and his other occasional absences on the king's
affairs, the disposition of the Great Seal is minutely recorded,
and the names of the various clerks of the Chancery, under
whose seals it was secured from time to time, are regularly
entered on the Rolls. Besides those already noticed in former
chancellorships, that of William de Herlaston is added
in this.3 The keeper of the Rolls was the usual person who
had the actual custody, but sometimes it was deposited for
security in the wardrobe, and accordingly Roger de
JSTorthburgh, the keeper of that department, has been in-
troduced into the list of keepers of the Seal. Queen Isabella,
also, for some time, had the care of it, and delivered it daily
to the master of the Rolls for the purposes of business,
receiving it back, sealed up as before, after each day's sealing.'1
The last time that the chancellor delivered the Seal to William
de Ayremynne, the keeper of the Rolls, to be kept under the
seals of William de Cliff and William de Herlaston, was on
June 2, 1323, when he was confined to bed by sickness.5
There is nothing, however, in the record to show that he
was then removed from his office, any more than on former
similar occasions ; and it is not improbable that he bore the
title for ten weeks longer, when

Robert de Baldock, Archdeacon of Middlesex, received
the Great Seal from the king's hands as chancellor, on
August 20, 1323, 17 Edward II.6, and retained it during

1 Rot. Claus. 13 Edw. II., m. 4. 2 Ibid. 14 Edw. II., m. 26.

3 Ibid. 15 Edw. IL, m. 35. 4 Ibid.

* Ibid. 16 Edw. II., ra. 6. 8 Ibid. 17 Edw. II., m. 39.

1307—1327. MASTERS OF THE ROLLS. 189

the short and stormy remainder of the reign. The same
three persons as before supplied his place in his only two
short absences, before the king, on October 26, 1326, retired
from the government on the execution of the elder Despencer.
The Great Seal was sent to the Queen and Prince Edward,
who placed it, on November 30, in the hands of William de
Ayremynne, then Bishop of Norwich, to whom, on Decem-
ber 17, they added Henry de Cliff, who had become master
of the Rolls.1 The king's actual deposition was not com-
pleted till January 20, 1327, the day of his resigning the
crown.

In the various movements of the chancellor in the king's
company it was of course necessary to carry some of the
Chancery Rolls with him ; and we accordingly find a mandate
directing the Abbot of Beaulieu Regis to provide a good and
strong horse for that purpose.2

It will have been seen that on almost all occasions when
the chancellor was absent from court, the keeper or master
of the Rolls had the care of the Great Seal, under the seals
of two of the other clerks of the Chancery, and transacted
the business connected with it.

The succession of those who filled this office under Ed-
ward II. can be distinctly traced.

Adam de Osgodby held it at the death of Edward I.,
and remained in possession till his own death in July or
August, 1316.

William de Ayremynne, a clerk of the Chancery,
was appointed on August 19, 1316 3 ; the grant in this case
being by the king, with the assent of the chancellor. lie
held it nearly eight years, and resigned on May 26, 1324,
when his brother,

Richard de Ayremynne, also a clerk of the Chancery,

1 Rot. Claus. -20 Edw. II., m. 3. [bid S Edw. II.. m, 8.

8 Ibid. 10 Edw. II., in. 28.

190 MASTERS IN CHANCERY. Edw. II.

by a grant from the king, with the like assent of the chan-
cellor, received the appointment.1 He was removed in little
more than thirteen months ; and

Henry de Cliff, another clerk of the Chancery, suc-
ceeded him on July 4, 1325, the grant being by the king,
and without any notice appearing of the chancellor's consent,
as on the two former occasions. He is described as receiving
the keys of the chests in which the Rolls were deposited, and
as taking the oath of office " ad lapidem marmorium" in the
great hall at Westminster.2

Adam de Osgodby and William de Ayremynne were
also keepers of the House of Converts, Domus Conversorum,
in Chancery Lane ; but as the two offices were not per-
manently united till the reign of Edward III., I shall reserve
till then the account of that institution.

The names of many of the principal clerks, or masters, in
Chancery, appear in the preceding account of the various
appropriations of the Great Seal. Those of others occur in
similar records as being present on different occasions. There
is, however, greater difficulty in this reign than in the last, in
compiling a correct list ; as in the summonses to parliament,
the names of the judicial and legal persons who are required
to attend are placed in no order or regularity.

Of the clerks who held office under Edward I., the fol-
lowing twelve acted in this reign also : —

Adam de Osgodby, M. R. - - - - 1 to 10 Edw. IT.

Robert de Radeswell - - - - 1, 2 —

Peter de Dene - - - - - 1 to 15 —

Thomas de Logore - - - - - 1 to 7 —

John de Cadomo - - - - -lto3 —

Robert de Pykering - - - - 1 to 19 —

William de Pykering 1 —

Richard de Plumstok - - - - 1 to 11 —

Robert de Bardelby - - - - -ltol8 —

1 Rot. Claus. 17 Edw. II., m. 10. * Ibid. 18 Edw. II., m. I.

? 1 to 12

6 to 20

8

8 to 20

9 to 16

10

10

10 to 15

10 to 18

10 to 20

12 to 14

12 to 18

13 to 16

18

1307—1327. MASTERS IN CHANCERY. 191

John Bussh - - - - - - 1 to 16 Edw. II.

John Fraunceis - - - - - 1 to 7 —

Geoffrey de Welleford - - - - 1 to 14 —

The other names I have met with are

William de Ayremynne (M. R. 10 Edw. II.) 1 to 17

Robert de Askeby - - - -

Adam de Brome -

John Bray -

William de Herlaston -

Edmund de London -

Hugh de Burgh -

John Terlyng -

John de Merton -

John de Crosseby -

Henry de Cliff (M. R. 17 Edw. II.)

Roger de Sutton -

William de Leycester -

William de Cliff ... -

Henry de Edenestowe - -

I have already referred to a record showing that these
clerks were sometimes joined with the chancellor in hearing
petitions. They also accompanied that functionary in his
movements about the country while attending on the king.
In some places particular residences were assigned to them
and the chancellor. Thus, in 1 Edward II., John de
Langton is described as sealing after dinner at his " hospi-
cium " in the Domus Dei or Maison Dieu at Dover ] ; and
in 19 Edward II., when Prince Edward, on sailing to France
from that port, was lodged there, he executed a deed under
his privy seal, acknowledging that the chancellor and his
clerks, of ancient custom, had the right to be received there,
and that his being suddenly quartered in the house, which
was permitted by the chancellor's curtesy and forbearance,
should not prejudice the then chancellor or his successors.2

Several records show that it was clearly the duty of the

1 Hot. Fin. 1 Edw. II., ni. [). ■ Rot. Claus. 1!) Edw. 1 1., m. 29.

192 MASTERS IN CHANCERY. Edw. II.

chancellor or the keeper of the seal to provide a table, if not
a lodging, for the clerks. In 5 Edward II., when Bishop
Reginald resigned the chancellorship, and the Great Seal
was placed in the custody of William de Ayremynne, master
of the Rolls, the king enjoined him " quod hospicium pro
clericis teneret," as he had done before, when the Seal was in
his keeping.1 In 10 Edward II. also, the king's letters of
safe conduct and intendance for one year were granted to the
chancellor's poulterers, whom he had employed to provide
poultry €t pro sustentatione " of him and the king's clerks of
the Chancery.2

The title (( Magister " was almost invariably prefixed to
the names of the clerks of the Chancery as members of the
ecclesiastical order. It is no doubt from this circumstance
that by degrees the term M masters " was universally assigned
to them. We have the first instance of it in the petition of
Robert de Haliwell, one of the subordinate clerks, praying
for some benefice in reward for his services, in 18 Ed-
ward II.3; wherein he enumerates his claims, adding, "sicome
Mestres et le compaignouns de la chauncelerie bien le
sevent." Another instance will be found in the next reign,
where they are called " Mistres de la Chauncellerie."

The Court of King's Bench sat at various places besides
Westminster during this reign. In the third year the king,
by a mandate directed to Roger le Brabazon and his fellows,
stating that he was desirous they should follow him, com-
manded them to be at York on the octave of St. Hilary, 1310
to hold his pleas there.4 And in the fifth year they weir
enjoined by another mandate to be at York in three weeks oi

1 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. II., m. 21.

8 Madox's Exch. i. 76. Lord Campbell draws attention to this patent by a
prominent marginal note, " Epicurism of lord chancellor John de Sandale. *
This is scarcely fair ; would his lordship deem himself or any of the masters
in Chancery liable to this accusation for eating a pullet ?

3 Rot. Pari. i. 418. 4 Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. II., m. 19.

1307—1327. KING'S BENCH. 193

Easter, with the rolls, writs, and other things touching the
proceedings.1 But, according to the Abbreviatio Placitorum,
no term was held at York till Michaelmas, 1318, 12 VA-
ward II. ; after which it would appear that the court sat
there till Easter term, 1320, when another writ directs it to be
transferred to Westminster.2 We find it again seated there
in part of the fifteenth and sixteenth years; and occasionally
ulso, at different intervals, the judges kept a term at each
of the following places, viz., Newcastle- on-Tyne, Lincoln,
Shrewsbury, Worcester, Warwick, Guildford, and Norwich.
The appearance of the chief justice before the council in
6 Edward II., when he stated that on September 30, 1-312,
he had accidentally lost the Seal of his court, and prayed
that no faith should be given to writs sealed with it after
that date, is formally noted on the Close Roll.3

Chief Justices of the King's Bench.

Roger le Brabazon, who was chief justice of the
King's Bench on the death of Edward I., retained the office
till February 23, 1316, 9 Edward IL, when, in consequence
of age and infirmity, he resigned.4

William Inge was his successor. The date of Inge's
patent does not appear ; but that by which Gilbert de
Roubury was put in his place as a judge of the Common
Pleas is March 10, 1316.5 He held the office for about
fifteen months, when it was given to

Henry le Scrope, then a judge of the Common Pleas,
who was appointed on June 15, 131 7.G He retired about
September, 1323, in the seventeenth year, when

Hervey de Staunton, chancellor of the Exchequer,

1 Rot Claus. 5 Edw. II., m. 7. - Ibid. 13 Edw. IT., in. 9.

:t I hid. r> Edw. II., m. 26. 1 Rot. Pat, <> Edw. II., p. •_>. m. 31.

'' Ibid. in. 22. ■ Rot. Clans. 10 Edw. II., in. 2,

vol. nr. o

194 king's BENCH. Edw. II.

succeeded him in the presidency1; but on the 21st of the
following March, he resumed his place as chancellor of the
Exchequer, and

Geoffrey le Scrope was promoted from a judgeship
in the Common Pleas to the chief place in this court2, where
he remained till the end of the reign.

Judges of the King's Bench.

I. 1307-8. Of the three judges of this court at the death of

Edward I.,

r were the only two who were
Gilbert de Roubury, J called upon by writ to take
Henry Spigurnell, 1 the oath : but it is not ira-

v. probable that the third
? William de Orraesby, though not named in the
writ, may have been continued in the office, as
he acted as a justice itinerant for several sub-
sequent years.
X. 1316. Aug. 6. Lambert de Trikingham, removed from the Common
Pleas to this court, loco G. de Roubury, made
just. C. P.
XIV. 1320 Aug. Robert de Malberthorp, loco ? L. de Trikingham,
made B. E.3

The judges of the King's Bench at the end of the reign were,

Geoffrey le Scrope, chief justice,

Henry Spigurnell, Robert de Malberthorpe.

The number of judges of the Court of Common Picas
throughout this reign was in general six ; but for about three
years, from 6 to 9 Edward II., a seventh was added. In
the third year the business had so much increased, that a

1 Rot. Pat. 17 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 9. 2 Rot. Claus. 17 Edw. II., m. 20.

3 Under date 1322, Dugdale introduces Geoffrey de Say and William de
Dyve as judges of the King's Bench ; but I have felt bound to omit them,
because the only authority he quotes, or which is to be found, is a passage from
Leland's Collectanea, where they are merely called Justiciarii Regis, on
account of their having been sent into Kent to try the adherents of Thomas de
Badlesmere.

1307—1327. COMMON PLEAS. 195

mandate was issued directing the judges to divide and sit in
two places.1 How long they continued this practice does not
appear.

Chief Justices of the Common Pleas.

Ralph de HENGHAM, the chief justice of this court at the
end of the last reign, was re-sworn at the commencement of
this, and kept his seat till his death in March, 1309 : when

William de Bereford, then one of the judges of the
Common Pleas, succeeded him ; his patent being dated
March 15, 1309, 2 Edward II.2 He died in July, 1326,
and was succeeded by

Hervey de Staunton, who had been chief justice of
the King's Bench, and was then chancellor of the Exchequer,
on July 18, 1326, 20 Edward II.3 He sat for the short re-
mainder of the rciffn.

Judges of the Common Pleas.

I. 1307-8. William de Bereford, Hervey de Staunton,

William Howard, Lambert de Trikingham,

Peter Mallore,
all judges of this court at the end of the last reign, were
re-appointed.
II. 1308-9. Nov. 27. Henry le Scrope, ? loco W. Howard, deceased.
III. 1309. Sept. 29. A new commission was issued by the king and
ih.' council assigning as justi*

William de Bereford, " who is chief by the

king's command,"
Lambert de Trikingham, Hervey de Staunton,
Henry le Scrope ; and two new ones, viz.,
John de Benstede, William de Bourne ;

with a command that they should sit in two places on
account of " the multitude of pleas."4
VI. 1313. Feb. 19. John Bacon.

1 Rot Claus. ?, E<lw. II., m. 21. * Rot. Pat. 2 Edw. II., p. l. m. 9.
:| [bid, 20 Edw. II., m. 29. * Rot. Claus. 3 Edwr, 1 1., m. 21.

o 2

196

EXCHEQUER.

Edw. II.

VIII. 1314. Sept. 28. William Inge, loco H. de Staunton, made B. E.
IX. 1316. Mar. 10. Gilbert de Roubury, loco W. Inge, made

April 20,
XII. 1319. June 5.

XIV. 1320. Oct. 16.

1321. May 21.
XVII. 1323. July 9.

Ch. K. B.

John de Mutford, loco ? W. de Bourne.

John de Doncaster, loco ? II. le Scrope, made

Ch. K. B.
William de Ilerle, loco J. de Benstede.
John de Stonore, loco J. Bacon.
John de Bousser, loco G. de Roubury.
Walter de Friskeney, loco ? J. de Doncaster.

Sept. 27. Geoffrey le Scrope.

The judges of this court at the end of the reign were,

Ilervey de Staunton, chief justice,
John de Mutford, William de Herle,
John de Stonore, John de Bousser,

Walter de Friskeney.

The Exchequer was transferred from Westminster to
York in Michaelmas, 12 Edward II. ! ; but in the next year
of his reign, the king ordered it to be restored to West-
minster, where it was accordingly held in Easter Term,
1320.2

The court was still disinclined to give up the trial of
common pleas ; and several writs of prohibition are referred
to by Madox. One of the ordinances of the parliament of
5 Edward II. is to the same purport.'3

The number of barons was generally six, but it does not
seem to have been a fixed one ; for in some years it was only
five.

Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

The title of chief baron was first used in this reign ; but
not at the commencement of it.

The senior baron at the end of the last reign was, as we

' Madox's Exch. ii. 9.
3 Rot. Pari. i. 284.

Rot. Claus. IS Edw. II., m. 9.

1307—1327. EXCHEQUER. 197

have seen, William de Carleton ; and he was re-ap-
pointed at the commencement of this. That the title of Chief
Baron did not then exist is apparent, not only from the terms
of the patent to Carleton, in which no distinction is made
between him and the two others who are named in it ',
but also from the simple title " Baro de Scaccario " being-
used in two grants dated October 24, 2 Edward II., one re-
lieving him from attendance in consequence of ill-health and
long service, and the other giving Thomas de Cantebrig
authority to take his place in his absence, and to sit next to
him when present.2 Carleton soon after died.

This is the first instance of a baron being put out of his
precedency ; as at that time there were two barons, besides
William de Carleton, who wrere senior to Thomas de Can-
tebrig. We may, therefore, conclude, that though the title
of chief baron was not yet actually adopted, yet that a
superiority was given to one over the rest ; and this is proved
by what followed.

Thomas de Cantebrig, thus holding the first place, was
removed on July 17, 1310, 4 Edward II, when Roger de
Scotre was appointed in his room.3 During the short re-
mainder of the life of the latter, not extending over two years,
there is nothing to distinguish the precise place that he held
in the court, except his appointment as Cantebrig's successor.
But his position as the head of the barons may be interpreted
from the course taken at his decease.

Walter de Norwich had been constituted a baron on
August 29, 1311, on the death of Walter de Gloucester ; but
another patent was granted to him on March 3, 1312, to be
a baron in the place of Roger de Scotre 4 ; and five days
afterwards, Walter de Norwich was called " Capitalis Baro "

1 Rot. Pat. 1 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 18. - Madox's Exch. ii. 57, 58.

s Dugdale's Chron. Ser. * Rot. Pat. 5 Edw. II., p. 8. m. 19.

o 3

198 EXCHEQUER. Edw. II.

in the patent granting the office of baron to John Abel, who
is specially commanded to have the place in the court which
Walter de Norwich first held.1

Although in several patents and writs issued to him in
that and the two next years he is not distinguished by the
superior title, there can be little doubt that he in effect en-
joyed it.

When he was raised to the treasurership in 8 Edward II.,
he retired from the office of baron, and his place was
supplied by Hervey de Staunton 2 ; but there is nothing to
show that either he or Ingelard de Warlee, who succeeded
him two years afterwards, held the first place in the court at
that time. Indeed, it seems more probable they did not,
inasmuch as the latter certainly sat in an inferior place in
the court after Walter de Norwich's re- appointment, which
removed all difficulty upon the subject. On the latter
resigning the office of treasurer on May 30, 1317, 10
Edward II., he was then, with a complimentary testimonial,
specially and distinctly appointed " Capitalem Baronem," 3
and held that office during the remainder of the reicfn.

BxVRONS OF THE EXCHEQUER.

I. 1307. Sept. 16. Two only of the four barons who were in office at
the end of the last reign were in the first instance re-
appointed in this, viz.,

William de Carleton, ? Ch. B. E.
Roger de Hegham.
Their patent, however, included another, viz.,
Thomas de Cantebrig.
Nov. 10. John de Bankwell.
28. John de Everdon.

1 Rot. Pat. 5 Edw. II., p. 2. m. 17. It is curious that in the brevia of that
term, quoted by Madox (Exch. ii. 59.), the recital of the patent omits the
word " capitalis."

- Rot. Pat. 8 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 20. 3 Ibid. 10 Edw. II., p. 2. m. 11.

1307—1327.

EXCHEQUER.

199

1308. Jan. 20. Richard de Abyndon, was restored to the place
he held at the end of the last reign. Ilum-
frey de Waledene, the remaining baron, was
not re-appointed till the seventeenth year of
this reign.

II. 1309. Feb. 28. John de Foxle, loco R. de Hegham, deceased.

IV. 1310. July 17. Roger de Scotre, ? Ch. B. E., loco T. de Can-
tebrig, removed.

1311. July 5. Walter de Gloucester, ? loco J. de Banquel,

deceased.
V. Aug. 29. Walter de Norwich, loco W. de Gloucester,

deceased.

1312. March 8. John Abel, loco W. de Norwich, ? made

Ch. B. E.
VI. 1313. Jan. 30. John de Insula, ?loco J. Abel, made escheator.
VIII. 1314. Sept. 28. Hervey de Staunton, ? Ch. B. E., loco W. de
Norwich, promoted to the treasurership.
1315. May 4. John Abel, re-appointed.
X. 1316. Dec. 29. Ingelard de Warlee, loco Hervey de Staunton,
made chancellor of the Exchequer.
1317. June 18. John de Okham, loco R. de Abyndon, retired.
XII. 1318. July 24. Robert de Wodehouse, loco I. de Warlee,
deceased.
Lambert de Trikingham, loco J. de Insula,

deceased.
Walter de Friskeney, loco ? John Abel, retired.
Roger Beler, loco I. de Foxle, retired.
William de Fulburn, loco ? R. de Wodehouse.
Edmund de Passele, loco W. de Friskeney.
Robert de Ayleston, loco ? J. de Everdon.
William de Everdon loco, ? J. de Okham.
Ilumfrey de Waledene, loco ? L. de Trik-
ingham.
1326. Sept. 1. John de Radeswell, loco ? Roger Beler.

The barons at the end of the reign were,

Walter de Norwich, chief baron,
William de Fulburn, William de Everdon,
Edmund de Passele, Ilumfrey de Waledene,
John de Radeswell.

In November, 1317, a royal writ was issued to the judges
of the King's Bench, commanding them that " by reason of

o 4

XIV. 1320. Aug. 6.

XVI. 1322. July 20.

1323. June 1.
XVII. Sept. 20.

1324. May 21.
June 18.

200

CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS.

Edw. II.

any mandate under the Great or Privy Seal to them directed
or thenceforward to be directed, they would in nowise omit
to do justice for the king and others suing before them,
neither denying nor delaying it to any one."1

A summons was issued by the king in his fifth year,
addressed to seventeen judges and Serjeants, who are designated
" assistants," complaining of their having departed from the
parliament without his licence, and requiring them to return
to their places.2

Table of the Chancellors and Keepers of the Seal, and
of Masters of the Rolls.

A. R.

A.D.

Chancellors or Keepers.

Masters of the Rolls.

1.

1307, July 8

Ralph de Baldock, Bishop of
London, Cha?ic.

Adam de Osgodby.

?

John de Langton, Bishop of
Chichester, Chanc.

—

3.

1310, May 11

Adam de Osgodby, M. R.,
Keeper

—

July 0'

Walter Reginald, Bishop of
Worcester, Chanc.

—

5.

1311, Dec. 10

Adam de Osgodby, Keeper

6.

1312, Oct. 6

Walter Reginald, again,
Keeper, afterwards Arch-
bishop of Canterbury

— —

8.

1314, Sep'.. 26

John de Sandale, afterwards
Bishop of Winchester, Chanc.

—

10.

1316, Aug. 19

—

William de Ayremynne.

11.

1318, June 11

John de Hotharn, Bishop of
Ely, Chanc.

—

13.

1320, Jan. 26

John Salmon, Bishop of Nor-
wich, Chanc.

—

17.

1323, Aug. 20

Robert de Baldock, Arch-
deacon of Middlesex, Chanc.

—

1324, May 26

—

Richard de Ayremynne.

18.

1325, July 4

—

Henry de Cliff.

20.

1326, Nov. 30

William de Ayremynne,
Bishop of Norwich, Keeper

—

Dec. 17

Henry de Cliff, M. R., added,
Keeper

—

The kin

g resigned his crown on January 20, 1 327.

Abbrev. Placit. 329.

Prynne on 4 Inst. 40.

1307—1327.

KINGS BENCH.

201

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COMMON PLEAS.

Edw. II.

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1307—1327.

EXCHEQUER.

203

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204

JUSTICES ITINERANT.

Edw. II.

Justices itinerant and justices of assize were still ap-
pointed to perambulate the country, in addition to the
regular judges of the courts at Westminster. Besides these,
separate commissions of gaol delivery or oyer and terminer
to different towns and counties were frequently issued ; the
judges in which appear to have been selected from those
having local authority and influence. The latter, as they
evidently stood more in the relation of justices of the peace,
it of course has not been thought necessary to introduce,
confining the account, as far as possible, to those who appear
to have been regularly acting, and who were summoned in
that character as assistants to the parliament.

Although the word Trailbaston does not occur in any
record of the reign that I have seen, similar commissions
were still granted; and one particularly, in 14 Edward II.1,
contains many of the expressions used in those issued in
the preceding reign.

Justices Itinerant.

Hugh de Louther,
Adam dc Middlcton,
William de Mortimer,
John de Mutford,
John Randolph,
Robert de Retford,
John le Thorpe,
Richard de Walsimrham.

I. 1307-8. John de Batesford,
John de Berewyk,
Edmund D'Eyncourt,
John de Doncaster,
Thomas de Fisheburn,
Henry de Guldeford,
Geoffrey de Hertelpole,
William Inge,
John de Insula,

All these having acted in this character during the
last reign are placed in the first year of this, although
some of them do not occur till a later date.
IV. 1310-1. Richard de Bereford, William de Goldington,

Nicholas de Bolinbroke, Walter de Gloucester,
Robert de Clyderhon, Milo de Rodborough,

William de Colneye, John de Westcote.2

1 Rot. Pari. i. 371.

2 Dugdale introduces William de Concsby at the head of one of the commis-

1307—1327. DELAYS. — VENALITY OF OFFICERS. 205

VII. 1313-4. Richard de Berningham.
VIIL 1314-5. Robert de Maddingley.

XI. 1317-8. Gilbert de Toutlieby.

The delay of justice seems to have been as common in
those days as in ours; and the murmurs were so loud in
this reign, that the king felt it necessary in November, 1315,
to issue a mandate to all the judges of the courts of West-
minster to attend more regularly to the dispatch of business,
and not to be absent without his special command.1

Although the judges were to swear " not to take any gift
from any one for a plea or other matter before them, unless
it were meat and drink for the day,"2 it is to be feared that
some of them, especially those who had jurisdiction in the
provinces, were not wholly free from discreditable conduct.
I do not, however, find that any of them were called to a
strict account; but several commissions of enquiry into the
conduct of taxors and collectors, sheriffs and their clerks,
bailiffs, constables, keepers of prisons, and sub-escheators,
evidence continued complaints of the oppressions they imposed
upon the people, under colour of their offices, by " false im-
prisonments, indictments, heavy redemptions, intolerable
distresses for unjust causes, and other extortions in money
and goods."3

The impressions of the people are often best exhibited in
the songs of the day. Mr. Wright, in his " Political Songs,"
has printed one of this reign, that so fully illustrates the
popular feeling against the magistrates and the ministers

sions to justices of assize in this year ; but I find no trace of such a name. It
is no doubt a blunder of the copyist for WiUuxm de Ormetby, a regular justice,
one of whom was at the head of all the other commissions; the leading counties
also being Norfolk and Suffolk, in which he usually acted.

1 Rot. Claus. 9 Edw. II., m. 22. » Ibid. 1 Edw. II., m. 19-

a Rot. Pat. 12 Edw. II , p. 1. in. 12. ; H Edw. II., p. I. in. 3. ; Hot. Fin.
1 1 Edw. 1 1., m. [>.

206 VENALITY OF OFFICEKS. Edw. II.

of the law, that a free translation of it may not be un-
welcome.1

How happy they, though lacking much, who are to all men just,
In whom iniquity excites abhorrence and disgust ;
Whom gold or jewels cannot tempt their purity to stain,
Nor grant for favour to the rich what poor men ask in vain.

But many now pursue a path 'twere better they should shun,
Drawn on by love of worldly things, and hope of honours won ;
Money's the great inducement now, and scarcely in the land
Is any court it does not bind as with a nuptial band.

Judges there are whom gifts seduce and favorites control,
Content to serve the devil alone and take from him a toll ;
If nature's law forbids the judge from selling his decree,
How dread to those who finger bribes the punishment shall be !

Such judges have accomplices, whom frequently they send
To get at those who claim some land, and whisper as a friend,
"'Tis I can help you with the judge, if you should wish to plead,
Give me but half, I'll undertake before him you'll succeed."

The clerks who sit beneath the judge are open-mouth'd as he,
As if they were half famish'd and gaping for a fee ;
Of those who give no money they soon pronounce the state ;
However early they attend, they shall have long to wait.

If comes some noble lady, in beauty and in pride,
With golden horns upon her head, her suit he'll soon decide :
But she who has no charms, nor friends, and is for gifts too poor,
Her business all neglected, she's weeping shewn the door.

But worse than all, within the court we some relators meet,
Who take from either side at once, and both their clients cheat :
The ushers, too, to poor men say, " you labour here in vain,
Unless you tip us all around, you may go back again."

The sheriffs hard upon the poor who cannot pay for rest,
Drag them about to ev'ry town, on all assizes press'd,
Compell'd to take the oath prescrib'd without objection made,
For if they murmur and can't pay, upon their back they're laid.

1 Wright's Political Songs, Camden Soc. p. 224. He inserts it under the
reign of Edward I. ; but in his note (p. 382.) he says that another MS. places
it in the next reign.

1307—1327. THE KING'S ATTORNEYS. 207

They enter any private house or abbey that they choose,
Where meat and drink and all things else are given as their dues ;
And after dinner jewels too, or this were all in vain,
Bedels and garcons must receive and all that form the train.

And next must gallant robes be sent as presents to their wives,
Or from the manor of the host some one his cattle drives ;
While he, poor man, is sent to gaol upon some false pretence,
And pays at last at double cost, ere he gets freed from thence.

I can't but laugh to see their clerks, whom once I knew in need,
When to obtain a bailiwick they may at last succeed ;
With pride in gait and countenance and with their necks erect,
They lands and houses quickly buy and pleasant rents collect.

Grown rich, they soon the poor despise, and new-made laws display,
Oppress their neighbours and become the wise men of their day ;
Unsparing of the least offence, when they can have their will,
The hapless country all around with discontent they fill.

Attornati Regis.

I. 1307-8. John de Chester, who held the office at the end of the
reign of Edward I., we find acting in the third and
fifth of this. In 10 Edward II. he was made marshal
of the court. *
III. 1309-10. Mathew de Scaccario.2

VI. 1312-3. John de Norton.2 By the patent he is appointed " At-
tornatum nostrum" in the Court of King's Bench, to
hold as our other attorneys in times past.3
IX. 1315-6. William de Langley.2
Gilbert de Toutheby,
William de Ilerle, and
Geoffrey le Scrope.4

These three " sequuntur pro rege," and in the same
year are mentioned as king's Serjeants. Toutheby
became justice itinerant in 11 Edward II.; Herle
justice of the Common Pleas in 14 Edward IT., and
chief justice of that court in the next reign ; and
Scrope justice of the Common Pleas in 17 Edward
II., and chief justice of the King's Bench in the same
year.

1 Abbrev. Placit. 311. 314. 325. " Dugdale'a Chron. Ser.

1 Rot. Pat. 6 Edtr, II., ]>. 1. m. 20. * Rot. Pari. i. 352, 353. :

208

SERJEANTS. — COUNSEL.

Edw. II.

XL 1318-9. Adam <le Fyncham.1 Also in 13,16,
where he " sequitur pro rege."2
XIV. 1320-1. Geoffrey le Scrope is mentioned again.1
XVI. 1322-3. Geoffrey le Fyngale, constituted November 6.1

and 18 Edward II.:

Serjeants.

III. 1309-10. Roger le Scotre, Edmund Passele.1

These are called " Serjeants assigned for the king's
pleas " in the margin, but not in the body of the writ.3
IX. 1315-6. William de Herle, Geoffrey le Scrope,

Gilbert de Toutheby, John de Stonore. l

Dugdale inserts them in his column of Serjeants as
having a grant of 20/. per annum for prosecuting and
defending in the king's business, and Toutheby and
Geoffrey le Scrope were certainly king's Serjeants.4
XIV. 1320-1. John de Denum. !

Most of these were summoned to parliament before
they were raised to the bench ; and John de Denum,
though summoned, was never a regular judge. Pro-
bably, therefore, they attended as serjeants-at-law.

Counsel.

The following occur in the Year Book. The initials show
the courts in which they first became judges : —

Cressingham,

I. Devom,

W. Devom,

Everwyk,

Famecham,

Fast, pro Fastolf,

Friskeney, B. E.,

Godefrey,

Godele,

Goldington, J. Itin.,

Hales,

Hampt',

He don,

Herin,

Herle, C. P.,

Aldeburgh, C. P.,

Ass. pro Asseby,

J. Bacon, C. P.,

T. Bacon, C. P.,

W. Basset, C. P.,

Berewyk,

B. Bever,

B. Beyner,

Bingham,

Brinkel,

Bullyng,

Burgh,

Burton,

Cantebrig, C. P.,

Clav. pro Claver,

Hertelpole, J. Itin.,

Hervy,

Hilary, C. P.,

Howard,

Hunt,

Inge, C. P.,

Ingham,

King,

Knight,

Lamb, Lambert,

Lass',

Laund', Lound,

Launfr',

Lit',

Lofwick,

1 Dugdale's Chron. Scr.

3 Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. II., m. 21,

2 Abbrev. Placit. 336. 341. 353.
* Rot. Pari. i. 370.

1307—1327.

REPORTERS.

209

Loveday,

Marleburg,

Marm',

Migg\ Migham,

Mutford, C. P.,

Passele, B. E.,

Prffly,

Kadenhale, J. Itin.,

Raston, Roiston, "1

Rost, Rouston, J

Ruston,

Reppis,

Ring,
Roteland,

Rothele,
Rouk,
Rumby,
Russel, Rustel,
Scorburgh, B. E.,
Scot, pro Scotre, B.E.,
G. Scrope, K. B.,
H. Scrope, C. P.,
Shard', pro Shardelow,

C.P.,
Shareshull, K. B.,
Stingult,
Stonore, C. P.,
Storb,
Sutton,

Swylg,

Tekele,

Tilton,

Toutheby, J. Itin.,

Trevaignon, C. P.,

Trevor,

Trokie,

Walyng,

Warlee, B. E.,

Wast, Weston,

Waver,

Westbery,

Westcote, J. Itin.,

Willeby, C. P.

The cases reported in the Year Book extend throughout
the reign to Trinity Term, 19 Edward II., 1326, with
the exception of Michaelmas and Hilary Terms in the six-
teenth year. They were compiled, according to Sir John
Maynard's preface to the edition of 1678, by Richard de
Winchedon, who lived at the period. Some few of the
cases are in the King's Bench ; but most of them are in the
Common Pleas.

The Abbreviatio Placitorum supplies many valuable cases
in the King's Bench, during the whole of the reign ; and in
David Jenkins's " Eight Centuries of Eeports " are some
others in the fifth, fifteenth, and eighteenth years. The
proceedings in the " State Trials " are mere extracts from
the histories of the period.

VOL. III.

210

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF

THE JUDGES UNDER THE REIGN OF EDWARD II.

ABEL, JOHN.
B. E. 1312.

A goldsmith named Richard Abel, who, in 27 Henry III.,
was appointed maker and cutter of the dies for the king's
mint ', was not improbably the father or grandfather of this
John Abel ; as the whole of the large property of the latter
was situated in the neighbourhood of London, John Abel
was eno-ajred in the king's service in 28 Edward I.2, and two
years afterwards we find him seneschal of the Queen and
custos of her lands.3 Both he and his wife were summoned
to the coronation of Edward II. among those selected from
the county of Kent.

On March 8, 1312, 5 Edward II., he was constituted one
of the barons of the Exchequer, and in the next year he
received the office of king's escheator, the duties of which he
performed, principally on the south of Trent, till the eighth
year.4 During that time he was employed to fix the tallage
on the city of London and on the king's burghs, &c, in the
home counties ; and was also directed to attend the council,
with instructions to be in readiness to proceed on the king's
service beyond the seas.

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 88. 2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 112.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 146—205. 4 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 195—216.

1307—1327. RICHARD DE ABYXDON. 211

It would appear that when he entered on the functions of
escheator, he resigned his seat in the Exchequer, for he was
re-appointed a baron on May 4, 1315, 8 Edward II. Though
his services were continued till near his death, which took
place in 16 Edward II., he was probably removed from the
Exchequer in 14 Edward II., because he was not summoned
to parliament beyond that year, and because a new baron
was then nominated. He died possessed, among others, of
large estates at Footscray and Lewisham in Kent, at Iloch-
ford in Essex, and at Camberwell in Surrey, besides the
manor of Daclyngton in Oxfordshire, about which there was
afterwards a suit in parliament between his three daughters
by his wife Margery, and their husbands, and the Earl of
Norfolk, who claimed it by a subsequent grant from Ed-
ward III.1

ABYNDON, RICHARD DE.

B. E. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Eichard de Abyndon held the important office of cham-
berlain of North Wales from the twelfth to the eighteenth year
of the reign of Edward I. ; his duty being the collection and
disbursement of the royal revenues in that newly subjugated
country.2 He had no doubt been previously connected with
the Exchequer in England, where, rising hy degrees, he was
on October 17, 1299, 27 Edward I., constituted one of the
barons of that court, in the room of John dc Cobbeham, and
kept his place there during the rest of that king's life. In
37 Edward I. he and another were appointed custodes of the
vacant bishoprick of Ely. It would appear that at the
commencement of the next reign, he was not immediately

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 421. ; Cal. Inquis. p. in., i. 303. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 391,
' Archa^ol. Journ. vii. 239.

P 2

212 ROBERT DE ASKEBY. Edw. II.

re-sworn a baron, as he was omitted in the patent of Sep-
tember 16, 1307 : but on January 30, 1308, he had a special
patent constituting him a baron, " ita quod in eodem Scaccario
habuit eundem locum quern habuit tempore Domini Edwardi
quondam regis Angliae, patris regis nunc." A salary of forty
marks was attached to his office, in which he continued to act
for the next ten years.1 There is a complaint against William
Randolf, in the parliament of 9 Edward II., for insulting and
imprisoning him and three others, justices who were assigned
to hear and determine certain matters in the city of Bristol.2
The next year his powers failed him ; and John de Okham
was appointed his successor by a patent of 10 Edward II.,
dated June 18, 1317, in which his infirmity is thus described :
" quia dilectus clericus noster Eicardus de Abyndon, unus
baronum nostrorum de Scaccario, adeo impotens sui existit,
quod ea qua3 ad officium illud pertinent non potest commode
exercere." He certified in 9 Edward II. as lord of the
township of Horton in Gloucestershire.3

ASKEBY, ROBERT DE.

? Keeper, 1316.

As early as 25 Edward I., 1297, Robert de Askeby held
some office in the Chancery ; all the writs of Privy Seal
directed to the chancellor after the king's embarkation to
Flanders being then delivered into his custody.4 Like his
fellows he was an ecclesiastic ; and in the thirtieth year we
find him, as parson of the church of Dokelington in Oxford-
shire, engaged in a suit with the abbot of Osney about
tithes.5 Again, in 35 Edward I., he is described as rector of
Hale in Lincolnshire, and in the parliament then held at Car-

1 Dugdale; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 120. ; Madox's Exch. ii. 57. 59. 325.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 360. 3 Pari. Writs, ii., Div. ii. 114. 361.
4 Pari. Writs, i. 56. s Abbrev. Placit. 246.

1307—1327. ROBERT DE ASKEBY 213

lisle, he was one of the proctors for the Bishop of Lincoln.1
It would appear that in 8 Edward II. it was his business to
make up the Parliament Roll, as a reason is then assigned why
a certain ordinance had been omitted by him ; and it is not till
the parliament held at Lincoln in the following year, when he
appointed one of the receivers of the petitions for
England, that he is styled a clerk in the Chancery.2

On August 16, 1316, 10 Edward II., the chancellor, John
de Sandale, being about to proceed from York to London on
the business of his election to the bishoprick of Winchester,
was desired to leave the Great Seal in the custody of William
de Ayremynne, the keeper of the Rolls, under the seals of
Robert de Bardelby and Hugh de Burgh, clerks of the
Chancery, until the coming of Robert de Askeby, who was
then to be substituted for the latter.3 He arrived there on
September 16, and the Seal so remained till December 6,
when the chancellor returned. It is evident, therefore, that
he then held a high place among the clerks. The same
course was adopted on November 9, 1317, when the same
chancellor went to his bishoprick on business ; and again,
(with another name added,) from February 13 to 19, 1318,
on the bishop's taking a pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canter-
bury; and on March 29, when he went to Leicester.4

On the following June 11, John de Hotham, Bishop of
Ely, was appointed chancellor, and two days afterwards, being
sent away on the king's affairs, the Seal was left with the
keeper of the Rolls, Robert de Bardelby, Henry de Cliff,
and Robert de Askeby ; and all four, or two of them, were
directed to do the business of the Chancery till he returned.
The Seal was held in this manner till August 4, with certain
short intervals, during which the chancellor was temporarily

1 Rot. Pari. i. 189. 460. 2 Ibid. 290. 350.

8 Rot. Claus. 10 Edw. II., m. 27. 4 Ibid. 11 Edw, II., m. 8. 11. 18.

P 3

214 RICHARD DE AYREMYNNE. Eirw. II.

present ; but Robert de Askeby obtained leave to return
home from Northampton on July 20. l His name does not
appear later than the following year.2

A Robert de Askby was appointed chancellor of Ireland
in 15 Edward ILL, 1341.3

AYLESTON, ROBERT DE, Archdeacon of Berks.

B. E. 1323.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

AYREMYNNE, RICHARD DE, Chancellor of Norwich
and Salisbury.

M. R. 1324. ? Keeper, 1324.

Richard de Ayremynne was a younger brother of William,
Bishop of Norwich, the subject of the next notice. It does
not distinctly appear that he was one of the clerks of the
Chancery previously to his elevation to the office of keeper
or master of the Rolls ; but he probably was so on Dec. 2,
1319, 13 Edward II., when he is recorded as being present
at a delivery of the Great Seal.4 On May 26, 1324, he
was constituted keeper of the Rolls in the place of his
brother William5; and on November 16 following, the
Great Seal was placed in his custody, under the seals of two
other clerks, till December 12, the chancellor, Robert de
Baldock, being then engaged on a mission to the Scots.6

He held the keepership of the Rolls for little more than a
year, Henry de Cliff being substituted for him on July 4,
1325.7 No explanation is given of his removal, but it seems
not improbable that it was connected with some suspicions
then arising as to his brother's fidelity, as it occurred two

1 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. II., m. 3. 2 Pari. Writs, ii. P. i. 200.

3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 140. 4 Rot. Claus. 13 Edw. II., m. 13.

« Ibid. 17 Edw. II., in. 10. 6 Ibid. 18 Edw. II., m. 26.

7 Ibid. m. 1.

1307—1327. WILLIAM DE AYREMYNXE. 215

days after the death of John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich,
whose see was then the subject of contention. On his
brother's consecration to that bishoprick in the following
September, Richard, who was then rector of Elvelay, was
made chancellor or vicar-general of the diocese. l

It seems probable that both he and his youngest brother
Adam joined William de Ayremynne in France, inasmuch
as the king, in a writ dated March, 1326, complains of their
refusal to appear before him, and commands the Archbishop
of York to enforce their attendance.2

On March 1, 1327, soon after the accession of Edward III.,
he is mentioned as clerk of the Privy Seal3; and on the 8th
of that month he was appointed custos of the House of
Converts for life4, an office which had been filled by his
brother William. Richard resigned it on June 7, 1339.5

The chancellorship of the church of Salisbury was added
to his ecclesiastical preferments on July 16, 1329 ; and as
his successor in this dignity was collated on April 19, 1340,
the vacancy was probably occasioned by his death.6

AYREMYNNE, WILLIAM DE, Bishop of Norwich.

? Keeper, 1311. M. R. 1316.

PRESUMING that a patent of 2 Edward III. applies to this
bishop, we have his pedigree for three generations. By it
divers lands, tenements, and rents in the town of Aynnyn
and elsewhere are confirmed to "William the son and heir
of John the son of Adam the son of Sewall de Aynnyn" in
fee.7 Another authority leaves out John, and makes him
the son of Adam, and states that his mother's name was
Matilda. The family was an ancient one, and was then

1 Bloomfield'l Norwich, i. 501. 2 Rot. Claus. 19 Edw. II., in. 9.

■ Rot. Pari. ii. 440. * Rot. Pat. 1 Edw. III., p. 1. m. ID.

6 Ibid. 1:5 Edw. III., p. l. m. 10. ■ Le Neve, 215. 268.

7 Cal. Hot. Pat 102.

p 4

216 WILLIAM DE AYREMYNNE. Edw. II.

settled at Osgodby, in Lincolnshire.1 William was the
eldest of three sons, his brothers being the last mentioned
Richard, and Adam, Archdeacon of Norfolk.

In January, 1307, 35 Edward I., William de Ayremynne
first appears, with the title of clericus, as proxy for the Abbot
of St. Augustin's, Canterbury, in the parliament then held at
Carlisle.2 He is not then called, though probably he was,
one of the clerks in the Chancery, but he is so described in
5 Edward II., when, from August 27 to September 28, 1311,
the Great Seal was placed in the hands of the keeper of the
Rolls during the absence of Bishop Reginald, the chancellor,
under the seals of him and Robert de Bardelby.3 It was no
doubt while he was a junior in the office that he was sent by the
chancellor to summon to parliament the Abbot of Oseney,
who had used every evasion to avoid obeying the writs.
William de Ayremynne "cunningly gained access to the
abbot in the disguise of a penitent. So far he was successful,
but as soon as his errand was disclosed, he received such a
salutary discipline from the knotted scourges provided by the
monks for the benefit of the visitors to the shrine of St. Brith-
wold, as induced him to decamp most speedily, adopting with
entire sincerity the character which he had assumed." 4

When Bishop Reginald resigned the chancellorship on
December 9, 131 15, three keepers of the Seal were named,
Adam de Osgodby, keeper of the Rolls, Robert de Bardelby,
and William de Ayremynne. They exercised all the func-
tions of the office till it was restored to the bishop, on
October 6, 13126, with the diminished title of keeper of the
Seal. That important deposit, however, still continued to be
secured under the seals of the above three till the nomina-

1 Angl. Sac. i. 802.; Fuller. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 190.

3 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. II., m. 27.

4 Sir F. Palgrave's Merchant and Friar, 70.

5 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. II., ra. 21. 6 Ibid. 6 Edw. II., m. 26.

1307—1327. WILLIAM DE AYREMYNNE. 217

tion of John de Sandale as chancellor, in September 1314;
and once also in the following year. Ayremynne was
specially appointed to act as the clerk of the parliament
which met at Lincoln in January, 1316, 9 Edward II.1, and
on the 19th of the following August was raised to the office
of keeper or master of the Rolls, vacant by the death of
Adam de Osgodby.2 In this character the Great Seal * as
frequently placed in his custody, under the seals of three
clerks, to perform the duties of the Chancery, when the chan-
cellors John de Sandale, John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely,
and John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, were absent from
court. During this period, about the year 1319, havingjoined
the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Ely, and others at the
head of an irregular army of 8,000 men raised for suppressing
the incursions of the Scots, they proceeded with so little
caution that on being attacked they were quickly thrown into
confusion and were entirely routed, more than half being
slain or drowned in the river Swale. The two prelates
escaped, but William de Ayremynne was taken prisoner3,
and probably remained in durance till the completion of the
truce at the end of the year. From the number of priests
and monks in the English ranks, the name of the White
Battle was given to this encounter.4

William de Ayremynne retained the office of keeper of the
Rolls for d ight years, resigning it on May 26, 1324,

when, no doubt by hie influence, his brother, Richard de
luyiiiR. ! the appointment.0 He then became

keeper of the king's Privy Seal, and in the following August
had the Great Seal again committed to his custody during
the temporary absence of Robert de Baldock, then chan-
cellor.*

1 Rot. Pari. i. 350. 2 Rot. Claus. 10 Edw. II., m. 28.

Hotinshed, it. 359. 4 Weever, 792.

5 Rot. C'hius. 17 Edw. II., in. 10. a Ibid. 18 Edw. II., m. 38.

218 WILLIAM DE AYREMYNNE. Emv. II.

His preferment in the church proceeded no less rapidly
than his civil advancement. He held the valuable rectory of
the parish of Wearmouth ; in addition to which he succes-
sively received canonries in the cathedrals of St. Paul's,
Lincoln, York, Salisbury, and Dublin. Not content with
these rich benefices, he aimed at a seat on the episcopal
bench ; and it is related that, happening to be at Rome as an
ambassador from King Edward, in July, 1325, when Bishop
Salmon died, he used the opportunity so adroitly as to obtain
the pope's nomination to the see of Norwich, utterly re-
gardless of the wishes of his sovereign, who had selected the
chancellor, Baldock, as the new bishop. l This story seems,
however, to be contradicted by the fact that on March 6,
1326, the king addressed a letter to him, calling him " Epi-
scopus ut dicitur, " summoning him to appear before the
council on the 7th of April following, to answer certain
charges alleging that he had, contrary to his instructions as
the king's ambassador, agreed with the King of France that
he should retain possession of certain lands in the duchy of
Aquitaine, after homage had been done for them by Prince
Edward.2 It is evident, therefore, that he was in France,
and not in Rome, at the time ; and there is little doubt that
it was through Queen Isabella's influence that Ayremynne
obtained the papal nomination, her interference being pur-
chased by his devotion to her cause. He was consecrated in
France, on September 15, 1325, and offered to do the cus-
tomary homage to the king in the following December,
praying, at the same time, the restitution of the temporalities,
which, he says in his petition, were refused by his sovereign
at the instigation of Hugh le Despencer, the younger, and
Robert de Baldock.3 He still remained in France till he
accompanied Queen Isabella on her landing in England, in
September, 1326.

1 Angl. Sac. i. 413. 2 Rot. Claus. 19 Edw. II., m. 12.

8 Rot. Pat. ii. 20.

1307—1327. JOnN BACON. 219

On November 30, the Great Seal, which the king had
in the meantime sent to the queen and prince, was placed in
Ayremynne's hands, to do what business was necessary with
it; and on December 17, Henry de Cliff, the keeper of the
Rolls, was joined with him in its custody, which they jointly
retained till the king's resignation of his crown, on January
20, 1327. »

Under Edward III. he held no official position till April 1,
1331, when he was appointed treasurer2, and filled that office
about a year, He presided over the bishoprick of Norwich
nearly eleven years, making his brother Richard chancellor
of the diocese, and collating his brother Adam to the arch-
deaconry of Norfolk. He died at his house at Charing,
near London, on March 27, 1336, and was buried in his
cathedral. 3

Throughout the thirty years of his official career, there is
nothing to moderate the unfavourable impressions which his
conduct tends to create. With cunning and craft in the
outset, with covetousness in the progress, and with ingrati-
tude and treason at the end, he seems far more deserving
of popular aversion than his contemporary Robert de Baldock,
the chancellor, who, though perhaps answerable for not
more wisely directing a weak monarch, was faithful and true
to the last.

BACON, JOHN.

.J 1st. C. P. 1313.

The title of Clericus Regis was almost always affixed to the
name of John Bacon before he was raised to the bench. He
held the office of i( Custos rotulorum et brevium de Banco,"
certainly from, if not before, May, 1288, 16 Edward I. ; for
among the indentures in the treasury of the Exchequer is

1 Rot. Chins. 20 Edw. II., m. 3. ■ Rot. Pat. 5 Edw, III., p. 1. m. 18.

odwin de PrawuL 433.; Angl Sac. i. 802. ; Blomefield'a Norwich, i. 501.

220 RALPH DE BALDOCK. Edw. II.

one of that date, the earliest existing instrument of the sort,
acknowledging the delivery by him of certain "pedes
finium" to the treasurer and chamberlains. These are re-
newed at various intervals throughout the remainder of the
reign, and in the first year of that of Edward II.1 In the
third year he was directed to have a counter-roll of all pleas.
The custody of Ledes castle in Kent was committed to him
in 19 Edward I. 2; and two years before he is mentioned as
one of the executors of Queen Eleanor, the record calling
him "attorney." 3 His name appears among the advocates in
the Year Book, in the earlier years of Edward II. ; and in the
sixth year, on February 19, 1313, he was advanced to the
bench of that court, in which he had so long been an officer ;
and he continued a judge there till the fourteenth year,
during which, viz., on October 16, 1320, John de Stonore
was appointed in his place.4 He is, however, noticed in
the following March as one of the justices assigned for the
punishment of sheriffs, &c, in Norfolk and the neighbouring
counties.

In 2 1 Edward I. he received permission to inclose a certain
way in Reston in Suffolk5; and in 9 Edward II. he certified
as having possessions in the townships of Shouldham in
Norfolk, and of Hemingston, Cleydon, and Akenham, in
Suffolk.6

BALDOCK, RALPH DE, Archdeacon or Middlesex, Dean,
and Bishop of London.

Chancellor, 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Ealph de Baldock is stated by Godwin7 to have been
educated at Merton College, Oxford ; but this could scarcely

1 Cal. Exch. iii. 99-112. 2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 66.
3 Devon's Issue Roll, 98. 4 Cal. Rot. Pat. 79. 88.

5 Ibid. 56. 6 Pari. Writs, ii , P. ii. 464.

2 Godwin de Prassul. 185.

1307—1327. RALPH DE BALDOCK. 221

have been the case, as he was Archdeacon of Middlesex within
two years after that college was completed. The place of his
instruction was more probably the convent of Merton in
Surrey. How his early years were employed does not ap-
pear ; but it is not unlikely that he filled some office in the
courts. The first mention of him is in 1276, 4 Edward I.,
when he was collated Archdeacon of Middlesex, from which
he was raised, on October 18, 1294, to the Deanery of St.
Paul's, by which title he was summoned to parliament on
October 13, 1300, 28 Edward I.1 On the death of Richard
de Gravesend he was elected Bishop of London, February 24,
1304 ; but owing to some dispute his consecration was de-
layed till January 30, 1306.2

His nomination to the chancellorship took place on April
21, 1307, 35 Edward L, the day after the death of William
de Hamilton, his predecessor in the office.3 King Edward
died on the 7th of the following July, at Burgh-on-the-Sands ;
and there is a curious entry on the Fine Roll, showing that
Ralph de Baldock, being then in London and ignorant of that
event having occurred, continued to seal writs of course till
July 25. On the following Saturday he received the new
king's commands to send him the Great Seal, which was ac-
cordingly delivered to the king at Carlisle on August 2.4

In 3 Edward II., he was appointed one of the ordainers
for the management of the affairs of government, and the
king's household.

During the remainder of his life, he commenced the erec-
tion of the chapel of St. Mary in his cathedral, and at his
death bequeathed a sum sufficient for its completion. He
died at Stepney, on July 24, 1313, and was buried in that
chapel. He left some works which proved his devotion to

1 Cole's Documents, 333. ■ Le Neve, 177. 183. 192.

8 Cal. Rot. Tat. 67. 4 Rot. Fin. 35 Edw. I , tn. 1 .

222

ROBERT DE BALDOCK.

Emv. II.

literature ; among which was one entitled " Historia Anglia,
or a History of British Affairs down to his own time." He
also made " A Collection of the Statutes and Constitutions
of the Church of St. Paul's." x

BALDOCK, ROBERT DE, Archdeacon of Middlesex.

Chancellor, 1323.

Whether Robert de Baldock was in any way related to
Ralph de Baldock. Bishop of London, the chancellor at the
beginning of this reign, does not appear. The earliest
notice I have found of his history is a grant to him, in
15 Edward I., of all the king's right in the knight's fees,
which Roger de Clifford held conjointly with John de
Crombwell and Idonea his wife, and also of the manor
of Shalford in Surrey, lately belonging to Roger, who was
attainted.2 The next entry, however, is of a different
character, being a fine of twenty marks imposed upon him
in Durham, in 34 Edward I., 1306, for some unadvised
obedience to a papal precept without notice given to the
king and his council ; the Archdeacon of Cleveland being at
the same time fined 100/. for the same offence.3 We may
presume, therefore, that Master Robert de Baldock (as he is
always called) then held some ecclesiastical benefice in the
north.

In 1314, 8 Edward II., he became Archdeacon of Middle-
sex 4, a dignity which Ralph de Baldock had also held twenty
years before. Probably at that time, and certainly two
years afterwards, he filled some office about the court, as
from February, 1317, 10 Edward II., he was regularly
summoned to the council and parliaments among the judges
and other legal personages. In June, 1320, he was keeper

1 Encyc. Brit.

3 Abbrev. Placit. 258.

2 Cal. Rot. Pat. 91.
4 Le Neve, 192.

1307-1327. ROBERT DE BALDOCK. 223

of the king's Privy Seal, and in the following year was sent
by the king and council, with other solemn envoys, to treat
for a peace with the Scots at Bamborough ; for his expenses
in which mission, during the months of January, February,
March, and April, he was allowed the sum of 60/. in
the wardrobe accounts.1 During the next two years he
advanced rapidly in the royal favour, being continually
about the king's person, and numerous commissions appear
with the authentication of his name. The Despencers,
father and son, were then in the height of their ascendancy ;
and by his connection with their councils, he shared in the
aversion with which they were regarded by the nobles
and the people, and which was increased rather than
diminished by their triumph over the Duke of Lancaster.

He was at last raised to the chancellorship on August 20,
1323, 17 Edward II.2, but had little cause to rejoice in his
advancement. Though the defeat at Boroughbridge and the
execution of the duke had produced a temporary quiet,
within a few months after he had received the Seal a
conspiracy by Roger Mortimer and others was discovered, or
invented, the object of which was the murder of Baldock
and the royal favourite. Though he escaped from this
danger, he could not but experience many misgivings as
to the results that were likely to follow from the arrogant
indiscretions of Despencer. He seems to have been only
twice absent from court during his tenure of office, the
first time in August, 1324, for the purpose of recreation;
and the last in the following November, when he was sent
on a mission to the Scots.3

A vacancy having occurred in the see of Norwich in July,
1325, by the death of Bishop Salmon, Baldock was elected
his successor. The king's assent was given on the 28th of

1 Archasologia, xxvi. 334. ■ Hot. Claus. 17 Edw. II., m. 39.

3 Ibid. 18 Edw. II., m. 26. 38.

224

ROBERT DE BALDOCK.

Edw, II.

that month, and the archbishop's confirmation on August 11,
followed on the next day by the restoration of the tem-
poralities. A rumour, however, reaching him that the pope
had reserved the presentation for himself, he renounced the
election on September 3, an act which speaks well for his
moderation, and his anxiety to prevent a collision between
his sovereign and the papal court. As his successful rival
was no other than William de Ayremynne, who had been
keeper of the Rolls, and was then keeper of the Privy Seal l,
and engaged on an embassy to France, it is not surprising
that Edward should have felt indignant, and should have re-
fused to restore the temporalities to him.

Baldock's concurrence in the advice which prompted Ed-
ward to fall into the trap laid by the French king, by which
Queen Isabella was permitted to proceed to France, and the
weak king was induced to give up Guienne and Ponthieu to
his son, and to send the latter to do homage for them, is
conclusive evidence that he cannot be considered a wise
counsellor ; for though perhaps the plan had not yet been
formed that led to results so fatal to his sovereign and him-
self, there were sufficient indications of danger at home, and
of treachery in the conduct of Charles le Bel, to have induced
more cautious proceedings.

The invasion of Queen Isabella quickly followed. She
landed on September 24, 1326 ; and the king, deserted by
almost all parties, fled to Wales with the chancellor and the
two Despencers. The elder of these was taken and executed
at Bristol, and on November 10, the king and his two
remaining companions fell into the hands of the queen's
friends. The fate of the favorite was soon sealed, and that
of the king was delayed till a resignation of his crown had
been forced from him. Baldock had been specially de-

Angl. Sac. i. 413.; Le Neve, 210.

1307—1327. JOHN DE BANKWELL. 225

nounced in the queen's first proclamation 1 ; but, being an
ecclesiastic, was committed to the custody of Adam de
Orleton, Bishop of Hereford. He remained at Hereford till
February following, when he was removed to the bishop's
house in London. His prison there was soon invaded by an
outrageous mob, who treated him with violence, and thrust
him into Newgate, where, after languishing about three
months, he died on May 28, 1327. All his possessions had
been previously seized, and among them were the manors of
Heibrigge and Tylingham in Essex.2

As he was never brought to trial, the precise charges
against him do not appear ; but in the mandates from the
queen and prince, both before and after his capture and
death, his name is always united with those of the Des-
pencers, ascribing to them the guilt of estranging the king
from his wife and real friends by false suggestions and evil
procurement, and designating them as " enemies of God, of
the church, and the whole kingdom." Remembering, how-
ever, how great was the inveteracy between the contending
parties, and how little there is to approve in the conduct of
that which was successful, we must hesitate before we join in
the popular cry against the chancellor without more sub-
stantial proof of his demerits.3

BANKWELL, or BAUKWELL, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1307.

See under the Reign of Edward I.

The name of this family is variously written, Bakwell,
Bacwell, Bauquel, Bankwell, or Banquelle. It was so called
from a place formerly written Bankwell, but now Bankers,
at Lee in Kent. John de Bankwell besides this had other

1 State Trials, i. 35. - Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 304.

3 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 472. ; Abbrev. Hot. Orig. i. 303.

VOL. HI. Q

226 ROBERT DE BARDELBY. Edw. II.

property in the county, and in 31 Edward I. obtained for
himself and his wife Cicily a grant of free warren over all
their lands in Lee, Lewisham, Bromley, and Brokisham.1

In 26 Edward I., 1297, he was appointed to perambulate
the forests of five counties, and was paid at the rate of six
shillings a day2 ; and in the next year he acted as one of the
justices itinerant into Kent.3

Shortly after the accession of Edward II., on Novem-
ber 10, 1307, he was nominated a baron of the Exchequer,
but must have died within a few months, as he was not sum-
moned to parliament beyond the following January4; and his
wife Cicily was assessed at four marks in the city of London
for the quinzime imposed in that year, from which, by the
king's favour, she was afterwards discharged.5

He left two sons, named Thomas and William, and
perhaps others, to whom the property descended in gavel-
kind.6 Roger, the judge of the King's Bench in the next
reign, may also have been a son of his.

BARDELBY, ROBERT DE.

Keeper, ? 1310.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

There is no doubt that Robert de Bardelby was a clerk of
the Chancery, as he is so designated in various records.
This explains the character in which he is so frequently
introduced with reference to the Great Seal, extending
from 30 Edward I., 1302, to 15 Edward II., 1321, and
acting under no less than eight chancellors. The first time
at which his name occurs is on August 23, 1302, when,
on the resignation of John de Langton, the Seal was

1 Hasted's Kent, i. 460. 493. 2 Pari. Writs, i. 396, 397.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 4 Pari. Writs, ii. 477.

5 Madox's Exch. ii. 230.

6 Hasted; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 265.

1307—1327. ROBERT DE BARDELBY. 227

delivered to Adam de Osgodby, the keeper of the Rolls, to
be kept by him under the seals of John de Caen, William
de Byrlay, and Robert de Bardelby, until the king should
provide himself with a chancellor : and this was repeated on
October 30, after the appointment of William de Grenefield.
The Seal was again placed under the seal of him and two
others on December 29, 1304, 33 Edward L, until William
de Hamilton, the chancellor then appointed, should come to
the court, which he did on the 16th of January following.
The next occasion was on the second resignation of John de
Langton, in 3 Edward II., when the Seal was, on May 12,

1310, delivered to William de Melton, Robert de Bardelby,
and John Fraunceis, to do what pertained to the office till
the king should otherwise order. On the 6th of the follow-
ing July, it was still under his seal, when Walter Reginald,
Bishop of Worcester, was constituted chancellor. So again,
for a few days, on December 12 following, and on August 26,

1311. Again, after the bishop surrendered the Seal on
December 9, 1311, the same course was adopted on many
occasions, until September 26, 1314, 8 Edward II., when
John de Sandale became chancellor. On this last date
Adam de Osgodby, Robert de Bardelby, and William de
Ayremynne, are called " tunc custodes Magni Sigilii."
W7hile John de Sandale held the Seal, Robert de Bardelby
was frequently employed in the same manner; so also
between Sandale's resignation, on March 29, 1318, 11 Ed-
ward II., and the appointment of John de Hotham, Bishop
of Ely, on June 11 following, and under that chancellor
likewise. Up to August 1, 1318, William de Ayremynne,
the keeper of the Rolls, was generally either the person to
whom the Seal was entrusted, or the first of the three clerks of
Chancery under whose seals it was secured, Robert de Bar-
delby's name being always placed after his ; but on Decem-
ber 2, 1319, 13 Edward II., when the chancellor went to

Q 2

228 ROBERT DE BARDELBY. Ei>w. II.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the king's business, the Seal was
put into the custody of Robert de Bardelby, to be kept
under the seals of three other clerks till his return. This,
however, is the only instance in which he is first named.
Under John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, the succeeding
chancellor, the Seal was frequently deposited in the manner
before mentioned, under the seal of Robert de Bardelby,
until November 5, 1321, 15 Edward II. The Great Seal
was at that time in the custody of the king, under the seals
of William de Ayremynne, Robert de Bardelby, and Henry
de Cliff; but on the 14th of that month Robert had leave
to depart from court on account of his illness.1 He never
after acted as a keeper of the Seal, but he is mentioned as a
clerk of the Chancery as late as July 5, 1325, 18 Edward II.,
when he was present at Westminster, on Henry de Cliff
taking his oaths as keeper of the Rolls.

To the last he is called a clerk of the Chancery, but is
often styled one of the " Gardiens du Seal." He was se-
lected as an assessor of the fifteenth in the city of London in
9 Edward II., and was nominated a trier of petitions at the
parliament of Lincoln in the same year, and that of West-
minster in the fourteenth year. In 8 Edward II. he was
appointed keeper of the Hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr
of Aeon in London, until his brother, Richard of Southamp-
ton, returned to England ; and he held the ecclesiastical rank
of canon of Chichester.2

1 The several Rolls from which these dates are taken are referred to in the
introductory chapters to the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 287. 350. 365. ; Ahbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 227. ; Pari. Writs, ii.,
P. ii. 478.

1307—1327. ROGER BELER. 229

BATESFORD, JOHN DE.

Just. I tin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

John de Batesford was one of the eight justices ap-
pointed by Edward I., in the twenty-first year of his reign,
1293, to take assizes, jurats, and certificates, throughout the
kingdom in aid of the judges of each bench and the itinerant
judges, who were often prevented from attending at the
regular times and places. A certain number of counties
were appropriated to each two, and they were to perform
that duty throughout the year, in such manner as would
most conduce to the service of the people. To John de
Batesford and William Howard the counties of York,
Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lancaster,
Nottingham, and Derby, were assigned.1 In the last year
of that king's reign, on February 18, 1307, he was the
fourth of the justices of Trailbaston then nominated for ten
of the midland counties2; and as in 4 Edward II., 1310, he
was sent as a justice of assize into Hampshire, Wiltshire,
Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Cornwall, and Devonshire3, he
may be presumed to have continued to act in the interim ;
the more especially as he was regularly summoned among
the judges to parliament from the beginning to the eleventh
year of that reign. He died soon after, his executors being
commanded, in 13 Edward II., to bring all proceedings
before him into the Exchequer.4

BELER, ROGER.

B. E. 1322.

The family of Roger Beler was fixed at Kirkby on the
Wrethek in Leicestershire, in which, and in the neigh-

1 Rot. Pari. i. 99. ■ Ibid. i. 218.

3 Dugdale'i Chron. Series. ' Pari, Writs, n. 499.

Q 3

230 ROGER BELER. Edw. II.

bouring counties, they held large possessions. He was the
son of William Beler and Avicia his wife, and the grandson
of another Roger Beler1, who was sheriff of Lincolnshire in
40 Henry III.2

In 9 Edward II. he obtained a licence to found a chantry
in the chapel of St. Peter at Kirkby3, which he subsequently
extended to a house with a warden and twelve priests. The
king in the twelfth year of his reign granted him the hundred
of Framelond, and certain farms in Leicestershire for his
laudable services.4 It is not stated in what capacity they
were rendered ; but in the same year he received a general
pardon as an adherent of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and
was confirmed in his office of bailiff and steward of Stapel-
ford in Leicestershire.5

He was afterwards occasionally employed in judicial com-
missions, till July 20, 1322, 16 Edward II., when he was
raised to the Exchequer bench in the place of John de Foxle.
For the rest of his life he was actively engaged not only as a
baron, but as a justice in various counties.

He came to a violent end, being murdered on January
29, 1326, on his journey from Kirkby to Leicester. We
have no other particulars, except that on the 28th of the
following February, a commission was issued to try the
offenders ; and that the goods of Roger la Zousch, Lord of
Lubesthorp, and Robert de Helewell, charged as accessories
and flying from justice, were thereupon ordered to be seized
into the king's hands. Eudo la Zousch (unless there is a
mistake in one of the christian names) was also implicated,
and fled; as his son William petitioned the parliament of
1 Edward III. against an outlawry which had been unlaw-
fully adjudicated after Eudo's death in Paris. The appeal

1 Monasticon (1846), vi. 511. s Madox's Exch. ii. 142.

3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 230. 4 Ibid. i. 246.

8 Cal. Rot. Pat. 86.

1307—1327. JOHN DE BENSTEDE. 231

of murder was prosecuted by Alicia, the widow of Roger

Beler, who was alive in 18 Edward III. They had a son,
Roger, quite an infant at the father's death.1

BENSTEDE, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1309.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

John de Benstede was in frequent employment under
Edward I. and Edward II. He was clerk, or secretary, to
the former, whom he accompanied to Flanders on August 22,
1297, 25 Edward I., on which occasion the Great Seal, which
the king took with him, was placed in his hands ; and another
Seal left in England with the chancellor.2 On the king's
return in the following March, John de Benstede was the
messenger employed by him to carry this latter Seal to
the Exchequer ; the Great Seal being then given back to the
chancellor.3

It would seem that, he held soon afterwards a place in the
king's wardrobe ; for on February 14, 1299, 27 Edward L,
the chancellor delivered the Seal to him there, and six days
later it was conveyed to William de Hamilton, who imme-
diately sealed writs with it.4 Again, on December 29, 1304,
33 Edward I., when William de Hamilton was appointed
chancellor, the Seal was placed with John de Benstede in
the wardrobe, under the seals of the master of the Rolls and
others, to be kept there till the new chancellor's arrival.5

In 30 Edward I. he received a grant of twenty acres of
the waste of the forest of Wolmere, near la Wonsand, with

1 Madox, ii. 60. ; Pari. Writs, ii. 522. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 432. ; Abbrev. Rot.
Orig. ii. 6—171.

" Claus. 25 Edw. I., m. 7. 3 Madox'a Excb. i. 72.

4 Claus. 27 Edw. I., m. 18. 5 Claus. 33 Edw. I., m. 22.

Q 4

232 JOHN DE BENSTEDE. Emv. II.

permission to cultivate them1, and in the following year he
was in the expedition to Scotland.

His closeness to the king's person in 33 Edward I. is
shown by a letter addressed to him by Edward, Prince of
Wales, requesting him to present to the king a petition which
he enclosed from the Earl of Ulster and others, and to pray,
on his part, that such justices should be assigned as would
redress the grievances they complained of.2 He was advanced
to the post of chancellor of the Exchequer in the same
year3 ; but he resigned it to John de Drokenesford in 1 Ed-
ward II., when he became keeper of the wardrobe.4

In 2 Edward II. he was again in the Scottish wars ; and
about that time was sent with Roger Savage to the King of
France to arrange a meeting between him and the King of
England.5

On October 6, 1309, in the third year, he was constituted
one of the justices of the Common Pleas, and appears to
have been present at the Exchequer in that character, acting
with the barons there, in Hilary and Trinity, 1312, 5 Ed-
ward II. Fines were levied before him from the next year
till the fourteenth, 1320 ; in which, on October 16, William
de Herle was appointed a judge in his place.6 He probably
resigned then, as, according to the Inquisition, his death did
not occur till 1323 or 1324.7 His name is not found in
the Year Book as taking any part in the proceedings there
reported, which may be accounted for from the other employ-
ments in which he was engaged.

In 8 Edward II. he was sent on the king's service to
Scotland, and in the tenth year had been selected as an envoy
to Rome on the Scottish affairs ; but the mission being

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 62.

2 Ninth Report Pub. Rec, App. a. 2-i7. 3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 65.

4 Madox's Exch. ii. 29. s Dugdale's Baron, ii. 91.

6 Dugdale's Orig. 44. ; and Chron. Ser. ; Madox's Exch. ii. 7. 31.
Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 319.

1307—1327. JOHN I)E BENSTEDE. 233

stopped, lie had a payment of 1Z. per diem for the eleven days
he was employed, together with an allowance of 12s. 5d. for a
loss he had in the purchase and sale of 159 florins provided
for his journey.1 In the following year he was one of the
commissioners to treat for peace with Robert de Brus : and
in 12 Edward II. he was sent with the Bishop of Hereford
and others to Rome to solicit the pope for the canonisation
of Thomas de Cantilupe, Chancellor and Bishop of Hereford
in the reign of Henry III.

He had large possessions in various counties: Ermington
in Devonshire, and Benington in Hertfordshire, for both of
which he obtained fairs and markets ; Benstede in Hunton
in Kent ; Kertlyng in Cambridgeshire ; Cowling in Suffolk ;
Charlewoode in Surrey ; Little Parndon and Higham
Bensted in Essex ; over several of which he had grants of
free warren and other privileges. He had a manor-house
also called Rosemont, at Eye, near Westminster, which he
had licence to fortify with walls of lime and stone.

Dugdale includes him in his Baronage on account of his
having been summoned to parliament in 8 Edward II., as he
says, "among the barons of the realm:" but he adds that
"he was never farther summoned." The fact, on the con-
trary, is that from the date of his elevation to the bench till
his retirement, and therefore both before and after the year
in question, he was regularly summoned among the justices
to parliament ; and that on the occasion referred to he was
probably only summoned in that character, although his
name and those of several other judges are carelessly inter-
mingled with the barons. In 15 Edward II. he was returned
by the sheriff of Hertford as a knight banneret.2

He was married twice ; his first wife was named Isabella,
who died before 7 Edward II.3; and his second, Petronilla,

1 Archaeol. xxvi. 322. - Pari. Writs, ii„ P. ii. 524.

3 Year Book, Edw. II., 212.

234

WILLIAM DE BEREFORD.

Edw. II.

who survived him and died in 1342. His son Edward suc-
ceeded him, whose descendants were living in the county of
Essex till the reign of Henry VII.1

BEREFORD, RICHARD DE.

Just. Itin. 1310.

I know not whether Richard de Bereford was a relative of
the under-mentioned chief justice, William de Bereford ; but
from his flourishing at the same period it is not improbable
that he was his brother. The only trace I find of the place
of his residence while in England is in his being appointed
assessor and collector in the county of Worcester for the
thirtieth granted in 10 Edward L, 1283,.

He was treasurer of the Exchequer of Dublin from the
twenty-eighth to the last year of that reign, and probably
at the beginning of that of Edward II. But in the fourth
year of the latter he was evidently in England, being then,
1310, the last named of the three justices of assize assigned
for the counties of Essex, Hertford, Buckingham, Bedford,
Oxford, and Berks.

In 7 Edward II., 1314, he was raised to the chancellor-
ship of Ireland ; and retained that office till August, 1317 ;
after which date I have not met with any mention of his
name.2

BEREFORD, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1307. Ch. C. P. 1309.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Mr. Nicholls in his History of Leicestershire commences
the pedigree of William de Bereford, or Bar ford, with his

1 Morant's Essex, i. 34., ii. 495. ; Chauney's Herts, 335.; Hasted's Kent,
v. 149.

2 Pari. Writs, i. 464., ii., P. ii. 526. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 112. ; Abbrev.
Placit. 255.; Dugdale's Chron. Series; Cal. Rot. Pat. 61. 77.

1307—1327. WILLIAM DE BEREFORD. 235

father, Osbert de Barford, whom, on the authority of a
descent taken from Air. II. Ferren's MSS. of Antiquities, lie
calls chief gentleman of Ralph de Hengham, the chief
justice.1 It seems, however, more probable, from two entries
on the Plea Rolls, that this Osbert was his brother, and that
both were the sons of Walter de Bereford. -

Although Dugdale does not introduce "William de Bereford
into his Chronica Series till Michaelmas Term, 22 Edward I.,
1294, when he calls him a justice of the Common Pleas, it
clearly appears that he had been previously employed as a
justice itinerant, if not as a regular justicier; for Prynne
gives two commissions to him, in conjunction with Robert
de Hertford and Robert Malet, to enquire as to a murder in
20 Edward I.3 ; and in the parliament that met after Easter
in the following year Eustace de Paries and John his brother
were convicted of insulting " William de Bereford, a justice
of our lord the king," in the Aula Regis, by imputing to him
corrupt and improper conduct during his iter into Stafford-
shire. His companions in that iter proving the charge to be
false, and the parties having their action against him if he
had done them wrong, they were imprisoned in the Tower
for their contempt.4

The designation of " Justiciarius Domini Regis," by which
he is described in the record, would seem to imply that he
was then one of the regular judges at Westminster ; especially
as the offence is stated to have been committed in the " Aula
Regis ; " and although the fines that were levied before him
do not commence till November, 1294, 23 Edward L, it is
evident that he had sat in the Common Pleas for a short time
between February, 1291, 19 Edward I., when Robert de
Thorpe either died or ceased to act, and some part of the

1 Nieholls's Leicester. 31 3. ■ Abbrev. Flacit. 215. 280.

8 Prynne on Fonrtb Inst. 20. ' Hot. Pari, i. 95.

236 WILLIAM DE BEREFORD. Edw. II.

following year. A writ of the latter date, by which Peter
Mallore was appointed in the place of William de Bereford,
" who had been lately associated with John de Metingham and
his companion, justices of the bench," 1 clearly shows that
there was a temporary removal ; and the proof of his having
previously acted is found not only in the writs quoted by
Prynne, and the proceeding against Eustace de Paries, but
also in the fact that he and two other known judges were
assigned to enquire into the truth of certain articles in
Trinity Term, 19 Edward L, 1291 ; and again in Michaelmas
of the next year.2 What wras the cause of this removal there
is nothing to explain ; but it must have occurred between
Michaelmas day and November 20, 1292, because the writ
to Peter Mallore is dated in 20 Edward I. I conceive that
William de Bereford's re-appointment took place after the
death of William de Giselham in January, 1293, 21 Edward I.
Both he and Peter Mallore were summoned among the justices
to the parliament of August, 1295, 23 Edward I., the prece-
dence being given to the former.3

He continued to act during the remainder of the reign,
and was one of those selected to treat with the Scots in
33 Edward I., and was placed in the commission of Trailbaston
for the northern counties in the last year of the reign.4 On
the accession of Edward II. his patent in the Common
Pleas was renewed, he holding the second place.

He was raised to the office of chief justice of that court,
as the successor of Ralph de Hengham, on March 15, 1309,
2 Edward II. 5 ; and the last fine that was acknowledged
before him in that character is dated in the first week of the

1 Manning's Serviens ad legem, 282. He is called here W. de i/ereford ;
and the same mistake occurs in one of the writs before cited of this date, while
the other properly spells the name Bereford.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 29. 100. 3 Pari. Writs, i. 29.

4 Hot. Pari. i. 218. 267. 5 Rot. Pat. 2 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 9.

1307—1327. JOHN DE BEREWYK. 237

twentieth year of that reign, July, 1326.1 In the same
month he died, leaving large possessions in eight counties,
the principal of which were in Warwickshire and Oxford-
shire.2 He was succeeded in his office, on July 23, by
Hervey de Staunton.

By his wife Margaret he left a son named Simon, who,
according to Mr. Ferren's pedigree, was seated in Warwick-
shire. There was another son, named William, to whom the
king granted four acres of wraste in Bereford, Northampton-
shire.3

BEREWYK, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

That John de Berewyk was an officer of the court appears
from the nature of his various employments. In 7 Edward I.
he was appointed custos of the vacant Abbey of St. Edmund,
and in the next year had a similar grant over the bishoprick
of Lincoln.4 In 11 Edward I. he was assessor in Dorset-
shire of the thirtieth granted by the counties south of
Trent.5 In the thirteenth year he was keeper of the queen's
gold 6 ; and in the eighteenth he delivered into the ward-
robe the Roll of Peace and Concord between the Chan-
cellor and Scholars of the University of Oxford and the
Mayor and Burgesses of that city.7 His high character is
evidenced by his being one of the executors of Queen
Eleanor.8

Although it does not appear that he was a judge at West-
minster, it is manifest that he held a high place among the
justices itinerant; inasmuch as, in all the circuits in which

1 Dugdale's Orig. 44. - Cal. Inqnis. p. m., i.

! Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 50. 4 Ibid. i. S3.

P;.rl. Writs, i. IS. - Madox's Exch. i. 861.

7 Rot. Pari, i. 38. 8 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 80.

238 RICHARD DE BERNINGHAM. Edw. II.

he was named over various counties, extending from 20
Edward I„ 1292, to nearly the end of the reign, he was
invariably at their head.1 He was summoned also among the
judges to parliament during the same interval, and on one
occasion was appointed to receive and answer all petitions
from Ireland and Guernsey which could be answered without
reference to the king.2

I have not found any positive proof that he acted as a
justice itinerant under Edward II. ; but that he did so there
can be little doubt, as he is summoned among them to the
parliaments of the first two years of that reign.3

He died in 6 Edward II., 1312, and was possessed of
several manors and other lands in the counties of Essex,
Hants, Wilts, Norfolk, and Suffolk.4 His heir in one entry
is called " Roger, his son," and in another, " Roger Huse,

» 5

BERKS, Archdeacon of. See R. de Ayleston.
BERNINGHAM, RICHARD DE.

Just. Itin. 1313

There were two families of this surname, and two indivi-
duals of both names flourishing in this reign ; one connected
with the county of York, and the other with that of Norfolk.
The former was son of John de Berningham, or Barningham ;
and the latter not improbably was the son of Walter, who,
in 1316, was lord of the manor of Hauteyn's, in Barnham,
Norfolk.

Sir Francis Palgrave considers that the presumption is
somewhat in favour of Richard de Berningham of Yorkshire
being the person who was so often summoned to council

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series. - Pari. Writs, i. 468.

3 Ibid. ii. 536. * Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 250.

5 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 194, 195.

1307—1327. WILLIAM DE BOURNE. 239

among the justices and others ; and the first entry among the
Parliamentary Writs in which his name appears seems amply
to justify this opinion. He is therein required to lay aside
the caption of certain assizes in the northern counties, which
had been fixed during the meeting of parliament, and to
repair to Westminster instead. This was on September 6,
1313, 7 Edward II., and his summonses continue till the
fourteenth year ; during which period he is included in
several commissions in the county of York, to which, perhaps,
his judicial functions were confined. He is mentioned as a
knight in that county in 17 Edward II. ; and his death is re-
corded in 3 Edward III., possessing property therein.1

BOLIXGBROKE, NICHOLAS DE.

Just. Itin. 1310.

Nicholas de Bolingbroke, judging from his name, be-
longed to the county of Lincoln. In 4 Edward II. he was
the last of three judges of assize sent into that county and
five others ; and in the tentli year was named in a special
commission to try some rioters in Lincoln. In 12 & 13
Edward II. he was commanded to cause all proceedings
before him as a judge of assize to be estreated into the Ex-
chequer.

He certified as one of the lords of the township of Gar-
grave in Yorkshire.2

BOURNE, or BURNE, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1309.

William de Bourne, or Burne, for it is written both
ways, was appointed to superintend the collection of the

1 Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 636.; Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 5:54.; Cal. Inquis.
p. m., ii. 19.

Dugdale's Chr n. Series; Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 561

240 WILLIAM DE BOURNE. Edw. II.

fifteenth granted in 29 Edward L, in the county of Wilts.1
In the new commission assigning justices of the Common
Pleas, issued on September 29, 1309, 3 Edward II., he was
one of the twTo who were added to that bench. No fines are
recorded as having been acknowledged before him, which
may perhaps be accounted for by the judges having been
ordered in that commission to sit in two places, to one of
which, probably, the taking of fines was restricted. He seems
to have been frequently engaged in assizes in the country,
principally in the western counties. One of these occasions,
in 10 Edward II., was for the trial of persons accused of con-
spiring to bring a false appeal of robbery against John de
Treiagu ; with whom it is somewhat curious to find that he
was in the same year united in a commission to enquire into
the transgressions alleged against the taxors in Devonshire.2
He continued to be summoned among the judges to parlia-
ment till 11 Edward II. ; and in the next year was appointed
to perambulate the forests of Devon, and was commanded
to cause all proceedings before him, as a justice of assize or
otherwise, to be brought into the Exchequer to be estreated.3
The last notice of his name occurs in 14 Edward II., when a
commission into Guernsey, Jersey, &c., for the trial of certain
offences, which had been directed to him and another, but
which had been superseded, was, on the petition of the in-
habitants, renewed.4

BOUSSER, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1321.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

1 Pari. Writs, i. 110. 2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 239.

Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 578. 4 Rot. Pari. i. 378.

1307—1327. ROGER LE BRABAZON. 241

BRABAZON, ROGER LE.

Ch. K. B. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Jaques le Brabazon, the first of this family who was esta-
blished in England, was so called from the castle of Brabazon
in Normandy. He came over with the Conqueror, and his
name is inserted on the Roll of Battle Abbey. His great-
grandson Thomas became possessed of Moseley in Leicester-
shire, by his marriage with Amicia, the heiress of John de
Moseley. Their son, Sir Roger, also described of Eastwell
in the same county, married Beatrix, eldest of the three
sisters and co-heirs of Mansel de Bisset ; and by her had
two sons, the elder of whom was Roger le Brabazon, the
judge.

He is first mentioned in that character in 15 Edward I.,
1287, when he acted as a justice itinerant for pleas of the
forest in Lancashire ; and two years afterwards, on the re-
moval of the judges convicted of extortion and other corrupt
practices, he was constituted a justice of the King's Bench in
the place of one of them. The salary then assigned to him
was 33/. 65. 8c/., being higher than that of his fellows by
6/. 135. 4c/., and lower than that of the chief justice by the
same sum only.1 That he held a high rank in the estimation
of the king, appears from his being employed to attend the
meeting of the Scottish nobility and clergy at Norham on
May 10, 1291, when Edward I. took upon himself the arbi-
tration between the competitors for their crown. There, in
a studied address in the French language, he required from
the assembly an absolute recognition of King Edward's title
as Lord Paramount of the kingdom of Scotland ; which they
were not in a condition to refuse.2 The prominent part

1 Ddgdale'l ChrOD. .Series. ■ Tytler's Scotland, i. 80.

VOL. III. K

242 ROGER LE BRABAZON, Edw. II.

which Brabazon took in this transaction has led writers to
speak of him as if he were then the chief justiciary. That
office, however, no longer existed, and it was not till four
years afterwards that he became chief justice of the King's
Bench ; to which he was advanced on the death or retirement
of Gilbert de Thornton, about 24 Edward L, 1295. He
presided in the court till the end of the reign, when he was
immediately re-appointed by the new king, and continued to
perform the functions of this honourable post till February 23,
1316, 9 Edward II., when, pressed by age and infirmities,
he applied for and obtained his discharge. The patent of
that date is expressed in the most eulogistic terms, and records
the king's commands that he should be retained " de secreto
consilio " during his life, and should be admitted to all the
king's courts, councils, and parliaments as often as he might
choose to be present.1 William Inge was then named as his
successor.

He did not survive his resignation longer than the fol-
lowing year. Leaving no issue by his wife, Beatrix, the
daughter of Sir John de Sproxton, his property devolved on
his brother Matthew, whose descendant was created Lord
Brabazon of Ardee in Ireland in 1616, to which, in 1627,
was added the earldom of Meath, a title which is still borne
by his lineal representative, whose father received an English
peerage in 1831 with the title of Baron Chaworth of Eaton
Hall, Herefordshire.

A branch of the family descending from the brother of the
first lord, seated at Brabazon Park, in the county of Mayo,
obtained the dignity of baronet in 1797, which lately became
extinct by the death of Sir William John Brabazon.2

1 Rot. Pat. 9 Edw. II., p. 2. m. SI.

2 Thoroton's Notts, i. 294. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 238. ; Biog. Peerage, iv.
30.; Geneal. Hist, of the Family of Brabazon, Paris, 1825.

1307—1327. THOMAS DE CANTEBRIG. 243

BURGH, HUGH DE.

? Keeper, 1316.

When John de Sandale, the chancellor, went from York to
London on August 26, 1316, 10 Edward II., upon the busi-
ness of his election to the bishoprick of Winchester, which had
just previously taken place, he, by the king's directions, left
the Great Seal in the custody of William de Ayremynne, the
keeper of the Rolls, under the seals of Robert de Bardelby
and Hugh de Burgh, clerks of the Chancery. It may be
inferred, however, that the latter was a junior clerk, because
the Roll further directs that the Seal shall be so kept only till
the arrival of Thomas de Asheby, another clerk of the Chan-
cery (which occurred on September 17), when it was to be
placed under the seals of him and of Robert de Bardelby.1
Hugh de Burgh, Clericus, was paymaster of the forces raised
in the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland in 27 and
31 Edward I. ; and was one of the procurators of the Bishop
of Carlisle in the parliament of 16 Edward II., and for the
Abbot of St. Mary's, York, in that of the following year.2
lie held the living of Patrick Brompton in Yorkshire ; and
died in 2 Edward III.3

CANTEBRIG, THOMAS DE.

B. E. 1307.

Thomas de Cantebkig (Cambridge) was an officer in the
Exchequer in the reign of Edward I. ? in the twenty-ninth
year of which, we find him and John de Sandale attest ing
the debts due from the crown in the duchy of Aquitaine.
His appointment as a baron of the Exchequer took place on
September 16, 1307, two months after the accession of
Edward II., when he was added to two other barons, who

1 Hot. Clans. 10 Edw. II., m. 27. ■ Pari. Writs, i. 006., ii. P, &

J (;il. Iiujuis. ]>. in. , ii. 21.

B 2

244 WILLIAM DE CARLETON. Edw. II.

had acted in the previous reign. In the following year, on
October 24, he had a patent authorising him to take the
place of William de Carleton, the senior baron, when he was
absent, and to sit next to him when he was present, — a clear
proof of the royal favour, as there were then two barons in the
court senior to him in standing. He remained in this place
till July 17, 1310, when Roger de Scotre was substituted
for him. His removal doubtless arose from his services being
more valuable in another character ; as, during the time he
held the office, and for several years afterwards, he was em-
ployed in foreign negotiations. In November, 1307, the
constable of Dover is directed to provide him a safe passage ;
in 1312, 1315, and 1316, he was engaged in composing
the dissensions between the steward of Gascony and Ama-
nenus de Lebreto ; and in 1317 he was sent to Bordeaux to
procure a grant of wine from that city in aid of the Scottish
war. After the latter date his name does not again occur.

Masters, in his History of Corpus Christi College, Cam-
bridge (p. 8.), says that Sir John Cantebrig, a judge in the
next reign, was probably his son : but this seems to be con-
tradicted by the fact that Thomas is almost invariably
described as of the clerical profession. ■

CANTERBURY, Archbishop of. See W. Reginald.
CANTERBURY, Archdeacon of. See J. de Langton.

CARLETON, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

William de Carleton was associated with Henry de
Bray in the custody of the vacant abbey of Ramsay in

1 N. Fcedera, i. 934., ii. 15. 175. 273. 333.; Madox's Excli. ii. 58. ; Pari.
Writs, ii. P. ii. 4. 630. 1 408.

1307—1327. WILLIAM DE CABLET ON". 245

14 Edward I.1 Although he is inserted by Dugdale in his
list of barons of the Exchequer in the same year, on the
authority of a liberate granting him '201. a year, it is evident
that he was only at that time one of the justices of the Jews.
He is introduced in that character in Madox's list of barons
in the next and three following years; and in June, 1291,
19 Edward I., there is an order, in which he is called late
justice of the Jews, for the payment of twenty marks for his
fee from the preceding Michaelmas; till which time the Jews,
it says, were in the kingdom.2 The justices of the Jews
seem always to have sat with the barons of the Exchequer ;
but their duties, of course, terminated after the expulsion of
that people. William de Carleton and Peter de Leicester,
who then held the office, were thereupon appointed regular
barons ; and the former continued to act from that time till
the end of the reign. In 25 Edward I. he was employed by
the king with two others to collect a sum of ten thousand
pounds from the merchants at Antwerp.3

Dugdale says that he was constituted chief baron on
July 26, 1303, 31 Edward I. ; but the liberate, on the
authority of which this statement is made, contains no such
designation4 ; being a grant to " Philip de Wylgheby, chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, William de Carleton and Peter de
Leicester, barons of the said Exchequer," of 180 marks, their
salary of the last three half-years in those offices. The title
of chief baron indeed was not adopted till some years after-
wards ; but William de Carleton was at that time the senior
baron, and was at the head of those re-appointed on the
accession of Edward II., 1307.5 On October 24, 1308,
2 Edward II., he had special licence from the king, on
account of his long service, to retire to his own house aa

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 51. - Madox's Excb. i. 236. I.

:( Rot. Rail. i. 169, 104. ' Madox's Bleb, it

Pari. Writs, ii. R. ii. I

246 ROBERT DE CLIDERIIOU. Edw. II.

often and as long as his health or private affairs should
require, and to attend at the Exchequer in his place when
he should think fit.1 He does not appear among the justices
who were summoned to parliament beyond the following
March.

H. Philipps says that Sir William Carleton, of Carleton in
Cumberland, knight, was his descendant in 1684.2

CHAYNEL, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1314.

In 5 Edward II., 1312, John de Chaynel was summoned
among the legal assistants to parliament, in what precise cha-
racter is not stated ; and his attendance continued to be
required in most of the parliaments till 17 Edward II., 1324.
The first time I find him mentioned as a justice of assize is
on September 12, 1314, in the eighth year, when he and Lam-
bert de Trikingham were acting in the county of Lincoln ;
and the last commission in which his name occurs, is in that
directing an investigation into the conduct of sheriffs, &c. in
the counties of Warwick and Leicester, in 17 Edward II.3

CHICHESTER, Bishop of. See J. de Langton.

CLIDERHOU, ROBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1310,.

Robert de Cliderhou (Clitherow) held the manor of
Bailey, a township in the neighbourhood of Clitherow in
Lancashire. In 35 Edward I. he recovered 200/. from three
brothers who attacked him at that place, and beat him till
they left him for dead.

He was a clerk in the Chancery under Edward I. and Ed-
ward II., and in the fourth year of the reign of the latter was

1 Madox's Excb. ii. 57. 2 Grandeur of the Law (1684).

3 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 654. ; Rot. Pari. i. 450.

1307—1327. WILLIAM DE CLIFF. 247

appointed one of the three justices of assize for Kent, Sussex,
and Surrey, standing last on the list. During the eight and
ninth years of that reign he was the king's escheator beyond
Trent, and afterwards became parson of the church of Wigan.
He took so strong a part in behalf of the Earl of Lancaster,
that he not only sent his son Adam, and another man-at-arms,
with four foot soldiers, to his assistance, but preached at
Wigan in his favour, and promised absolution to those who
aided him. The punishment he suffered for these offences
was a fine of 200Z.

He lived some years after this, and in 4 Edward III. ob-
tained the royal permission to assign his manor of Bailey to
the monks of Cokersand. In the seventh year of that reign,
he recovered possession of some land in Cliderhou and Dyn-
kedeleye, in Lancashire.

As he is called " clericus," and wras clearly a priest, it must
be presumed that his son Adam was born before he took
orders.1

CLIFF, HENRY DE.

? Keeper, 1317. M. It. 1325.

See under the Reign of Edward III.
CLIFF, WILLIAM DE.

? Keeper, 1319.

The first mention of William de Cliff, or Clyff, is in 3 Ed-
ward II., when he was commissioned to prepare certain ships
in Yorkshire against the Scots.2 Two years afterwards he
was appointed the king's steward in the forest of Galtres,
in the neighbourhood of York.3 He subsequently became
one of the clerks of the Chancery ; but what relation he was

1 Abbrev. Placit. 300. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 217— 22G., ii. 47. 82. ; Tail.
Writs, ii. P. ii. 686". ; Dugdale.

2 New Fcedera, ii. 109. ■ Abbrev. Hot. Orig. i. 189.

it I

248 WILLIAM DE CLIFF. Edw. II.

to Henry de Cliff, who also held the latter office, and was
then keeper of the Rolls, is not stated.

In 12 Edward II., the king presented him with the pre-
bend of Kylbryde, in the church of Glasgow.1 When the
chancellor, John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely, went from
York to Newcastle on December 2, 1319, 13 Edward II.,
the Great Seal wTas placed in the custody of Robert de Bar-
delby, to be kept under the seals of Henry de Cliff, Geoffrey
de Welleford, and William de Cliff until his return ; and they
accordingly sealed the writs, &c. at York.2 Under the next
chancellor, John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, his name also
appears frequently under the same circumstances at the
following dates: — from June 9 to July 22, 1320, during
the absence of the chancellor, who accompanied the king
abroad ; from August 8 to September 27, on the chancel-
lor's visit to his bishoprick ; on December 15, 1321; from
January 24 to March 3, 1322; from September 12 till
November 17, 1322; from January 10 to May 2, 1323;
and on June 53: after which date he is no more mentioned in
connection with the Great Seal. It seems not improbable
that he shared in the disgrace of the Despencers, inasmuch
as a complaint was made, in the first parliament of the follow-
ing reign, by Elizabeth de Burgh, that she had been arrested,
in 16 Edward II., by the conspiracy and crafty plotting of
Hugh le Despencer the younger, Robert de Baldock (after-
wards chancellor), and William de Cliff: and in the parliament
of the second year another complaint was made that Hugh le
Despencer and he had disseized John de Larcheley of his
manor.4 If this were so, however, his offence appears to have
been overlooked, as he was one of the commissioners appointed

1 New Foedera, ii. 401. - Rot. Claus. 13 Edw. II., m. IS.

3 Rot. Claus. 13 Edw. II , m. 4. ; 14 Edw. II., m. 24. ; 15 Edw. II., m.
35.; 16 Edw. II., m. 6. 19. 27.

4 Rot. Pari. ii. 23. 4 40.

1307—1327. EDMUND D'EYNCOURT, 249

in 3 Edward III. to inquire into the chattels belonging to
Hugh le Deepencer in certain of his manors in the county of
Lincoln.1

COLNEYE, WILLIAM DE.

Jl-st. Itin. 1310.

William de Colneye's connection with the law is first
shown in 18 Edward L, when he represented Robert de
Tateshal in a suit then the subject of a petition to the
parliament. On the accession of Edward II. he was sum-
moned to the coronation, and to the next two parliaments,
his place in the lists being low among those of the legal
profession. In the first parliament, which was directed to
meet at Northampton on October 13, 1307, he was returned
as knight of the shire for Norfolk ; and when the justices of
assize were appointed for that and the four neighbouring
counties in the fourth year of the reign, 1310-1 1, he was the
last of the three who were then nominated. His name does
not appear after the next year; but that of his son Ralph is
mentioned in 8 Edward II. in reference to property in the
county, in which he certified that he was one of the lords of
Scottow and Lammas with Little Hautboys.2

D'EYNCOURT, EDMUND.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Edmund D'Eyncouht was the son and heir of John, who
was lineally descended from Walter D'Eyncourt, who came
over with the Conqueror, and was royally rewarded with
many lordships in the counties of York, Northampton, Not-
tingham, Derby, and Lincoln ; in the latter of which Blankney

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 24.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 37.; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 708.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. SIS,

240. ; Dugdale.

250

EDMUND D'EYNCOURT.

Edw. II.

was his principal seat. On his father's death, in 1257, Edmund
was a minor, and his lands were placed under the custody of
Queen Eleanor.1 After he attained his majority he served
the king in his wars in Wales, in Gascony, and in Scotland ;
and was summoned to parliament in 27 Edward I.2 He
subscribed the letter to the Pope by the title of " Dominus de
Thurgerton." In 33 Edward L, 1305, he was appointed
one of the justices of Trailbaston for Lincoln and nine other
counties, and being re-appointed in 1307, was excused from
his attendance at the parliament of Carlisle, probably on that
account. Throughout the following reign he still continued
to act as a judge ; there are not only several references to him
in parliament evidently in that character, but he is occasionally
commanded to cause the proceedings before him to be
estreated into the Exchequer.3

He died in 1327, 1 Edward III. On the death of his only
son, Edmund, in his lifetime, leaving a daughter named Isabel,
he obtained a license in 7 Edward II. to alter the entail of
his lands ; in pursuance of which, for the purpose of perpe-
tuating his name and arms, he settled them on his nephew
William, the son of his brother John ; in whose descendants
the title continued till the death of William, the thirteenth
baron, in 1422, without issue, but leaving two sisters. One of
these died childless ; and Francis, Baron and Viscount Lovel,
the grandson of the other, having been attainted in 1487, this
barony became forfeited.4

The Right Honourable Charles Tennyson D'Eyncourt, the
present member for Lambeth, traces his descent through
females from this family.5

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 2G4. 8 Dugilale's Baron, i. 388.

3 N. Fcedera, i. 970.; Rot. Pari. i. 188. 218. 314. 325. 333.; Pari. Writs,
ii. 759.

4 Nicolas's Synopsis; Cal. Rot. Pat. 77. See also Coke's 4th Inst. 126.,
corrected by Prynne on that work, 65,

5 Burke's Landed Gentry.

1307—1327. JOHN DE DONCASTER. 251

DONCASTER, JOHN DE.
Just. Itin. 1310. Just. C. P. 1319.

The name of John de Doncaster occurs in 28 Edward I. as
a commissioner of array in Yorkshire ' ; and in the thirty-
second year the castle and honor of Tickhill, with the manors
of Gryngele and Whetele, were committed to his charge.2

He was summoned to attend the ceremony of the coronation
of Edward II., and also was included in the list of judges and
others called upon to assist at the parliaments from the first
year of that reign. I do not, however, find that he held any
judicial position, otherwise than entirely local, till 4 Ed-
ward II., 1310, when he was appointed a judge of assize for
the northern counties. In the sixth year he was assessor of
the tallage on Newcastle-upon-Tyne, &c. ; and in the following
year, on the North Riding of Yorkshire. He is named also
in various other judicial commissions during the next five
years.

On June 5, 1319, 12 Edward II., he was raised to the
bench of the Common Pleas ; but the fines levied before him
in that court do not extend beyond the next year ; and he
was not summoned to parliament after the early part of the
fourteenth year. He was probably at that time removed
from the court, although he was named in a special commis-
sion for trying some forest offences in his own county two
years afterwards.3

He was alive in 5 Edward III., when the king confirmed
certain grants which had been made to him and his wife
Alicia, and their heirs, by the Earl of Surrey.4

1 Tarl. Writs, i. 345. ■ Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 135.

■ Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 781. * Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 52. 55.

252

JOHN DE EVERDOX.

Edw. II.

DYVE, WILLIAM DE.

? Just. K. B. 1322.

Although there is no question that William de Dyve, or,
as it is sometimes called, Dyne, was not a justice of the
King's Bench, we do not think it right to omit noticing any
name which is inserted in Dugdale's list. The authority on
which this is introduced, is a passage from L eland's Col-
lectanea, on referring to which we find that Geoffrey de Say
and William de Dyne, " Justiciarii Regis," are stated by
Gervas of Canterbury to have been sent into Kent to inquire
" de fautoribus Badelesmer." * Now the term Justiciarius
Regis was at that time applied, not only to the judges of the
two benches and the justices of assize, but also to any others
who were appointed on a special judicial commission; and it
is not improbable that such a commission, although no record
of it has yet appeared, may Lave been issued to those two gen-
tlemen to try the adherents of Bartholomew de Badlesmere,
who was executed for treason in that year. But there is no-
thing whatever to show that William de Dyve, or Dyne, was
connected with the courts at Westminster; nor indeed, in any
document that we have yet discovered of the period, does his
name occur.

There were two families of that name : one settled in
Northampton ; and the other lords of the manors of Dock-
lin^ton and Dadington, in Oxfordshire.2

ELY, Bishop of. See John de Hotiiam.

EVERDON, JOHN DE, Chancellor of Exeter and Dean

of London.

B. E. 1307.

John he Everdon was an officer of the Exchequer, and,
like his fellows, was of the clerical profession. He was
appointed in 30 Edward I. to superintend the levying of

Leland's Coll. i. P. ii. 275.

Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 69. 241.

1307—1327. THOMAS DE FISHEBUEN. 253

the fifteenth in the counties of Oxford and Berks. Soon
after the accession of Edward II., he was constituted a baron
of the Exchequer, his patent bearing date November 28,
1307. While he held a seat on that bench, he frequently
acted as an assessor of the taxes charged on the city of
London, and as a justice of oyer and terminer in various
counties, for the trial of offences connected with the revenue
and its collection. He certainly continued in his place
till nearly the end of the fifteenth year of the reign ; having
been summoned among the justices to parliament as late as
March 14, 1322.1 In 4 Edward II. he was dean of the free
chapel of St. Peter, in Wolverhampton 2, and was certified
as lord of that township in the ninth year. He held the
chancellorship of Exeter from May, 1308, till August, 1309 ;
and was afterwards a prebendary of Sarum, which he ex-
changed for the deanery of St. Paul's, London, to which
he was admitted on September 15, 1323; this not impro-
bably being the period when he resigned his seat on the
bench. He died on January 15, 1336, and was buried in
the church of St. Faith, under St. Paul's.3

EVERDON, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1324.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

EXETER, Chancellor of. See R. de Henghamj J. db
Everdon.

FISIIEBURN, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

THOMAS de Fisiiebuen was probably the son of Ralph de
Fisseborn, who, in 42 Henry III., paid a fine of one hundred

1 Purl. Writs, i. 110., ii. V. ii. 823, 824. ■ Abbrev. Rot. Orfg. i. 181.

Lfl Neve, 8 'J. 183.

254 JOHN DE FOXLE. Edw. II.

shillings in Northumberland, for marrying Beatrice, the
widow of William the Coroner.1 He and Walter de Camb-
hou were appointed justices itinerant in Tindale, in that
county, in 21 Edward I.2; and assizes taken before him
and Geoffrey de Hertelpool in Cumberland, in the same
reign, are referred to in 2 Edward II.3 He is again men-
tioned in 35 Edw. I. as the last of eight persons commissioned
by the king at the parliament then held at Carlisle, to convey
to William Testa, the pope's clerk, the royal permission to
act in the kingdom as his predecessors had done.4

There is little doubt that he continued to act as a justice
of assize under Edward II., being named in several coin-
missions till the seventh year of that reign, and being com-
manded, as was usual at intervals, to return the proceedings
before him into the Exchequer to be estreated.

His name occurs as late as 10 Edward II., as empowered
to raise men in Durham and Stockton.5

FOXLE, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1309.

The custody of the temporalities of the vacant abbey of
Westminster was committed to John de Foxle in the first
year of the reign of Edward II. On February 28, 1309, in
the second year, he was constituted a baron of the Exchequer
in the room of Roger de Hegham, deceased. Besides per-
forming the duties of that court, he was frequently named in
commissions, and appointed to take inquests by the parlia-
ment, and called upon to act as a justice of assize and of oyer
and terminer in the provinces ; and also in the perambula-
tions of the forests. Although it would appear that he re-
signed at the beginning of 16 Edward II., as Roger Beler

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 278. 2 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

3 Abbrev. Placit. 307. 309. 4 Rot. Pari. i. 210.

5 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 849.

1307—1327. JOHN FRAUNCEYS. 255

was put in his place on July 20, 1322, yet in the following
year he was employed in a judicial character in the counties
of Oxford and Berks.

He died in 18 Edward II., possessed of considerable pro-
perty in the counties of Hants, Berks, and Buckingham,
part of which was granted to him by the king. Among
other proofs of the royal favour, the manor of Ryndecombe,
in Gloucestershire, and lands and tenements in Estbruggeford,
Notts, and in Saxeby, Leicestershire, were committed to his
charge ; but on one occasion he was fined one mark, because
he and his wife Constancia had taken possession of certain land
in Berkshire without the king's license.1

FRAUNCEYS, JOHN.

? Keeper, 1310.

John le Fraunceys, the baron of the Exchequer and
justice in the reign of Henry III., was probably the uncle of
Master John Fraunceys, the subject of our present inquiry, (the
intervening article in the name being then not unfrequently
omitted,) if he wTere the same party who is called John, the
son of William le Fraunceys, who, in 22 Edward L, was
engnged in a suit relative to land in Meburn2, a manor which
had belonged to the baron of the Exchequer. The various
and discordant circumstances, however, mentioned in the
entries connected with the name in the reism of Edward I.

o

will give some idea of the difficulty in tracing any individual
to whom it belonged.

In the parliament of 18 Edward I., when Thomas de
Weyland, the chief justice, was disgraced, there is a petition
from one John Fraunceys, who had been imprisoned for a

1 Madox's Exch. i. 314., ii. GO. ; Pari. Writs, ii. 891 . ; Dugdale j Rot. Pari.
i. 298. 300—345. ; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 318. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 199
232. 239. 283.

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 85.

256 JOHN FRAUNCEYS. Edw. II.

year and a half in the Fleet by that judge, for a debt which
Agnes de Valence claimed from him ; and he was ordered to
be bailed. In the same parliament there is a petition which
charges John Frauncies with a murder, for which he had
been acquitted, and a new trial is prayed for by reason of
his kindred and his confederates having tried the appeal.1
In the last year of the same king, 35 Edward I., 1306, a
John Fraunceys represents that he was taken in the battle
of Rosslyn, had lost his horses, arms, and everything he had,
and was detained in a Scotch prison for fifty-seven weeks,
and only released on payment of a fine of forty marks; and he
therefore prays for the grant of certain land in Staffordshire;
the particulars of which are ordered to be reported to the king.
And in the same parliament held at Carlisle, Master John
Fraunceys, Rector of Queldryk, is one of the proctors
sent by the clergy of the diocese of York.2

The last of these was probably the subject of the present
notice ; as the duty to which he was appointed was commonly
performed by some officer in the court. Master John Fraun-
ceys was a clerk in the Chancery, and, on May 12, 1310,
3 Edward II., on the Great Seal being surrendered by
the chancellor, John de Langton, Bishop of Chichester, was
one of the three persons under whose seals it was placed in
the wardrobe3 ; a proceeding which scarcely warrants his being
included in the list of keepers. He wras among the " dilecti
clerici," to whom, with others, the correction of the ordinances
was submitted by the king in 5 Edward II.4; and he was
summoned among the legal men to parliament in the two
following years, after which his name does not appear.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 47. 49. 2 Ibid. i. 191. 193.

3 Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. II., m. 6. 4 Rot. Pari. i. 447.

5 Pail. Writs, ii. P. ii. 893.

1307— 1327. WALTER DE GLOUCESTER. 2,57

FRISKENEY, WALTER DE.

a E. 1320. Just. C. P. 1323. ? Just. K. B. 1324.

See under the Reign of Edward III.
FULBURN, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1323.

See under the Reign of Edward III.
GLOUCESTER, WALTER DE.

Just. Itin. 1310. B. E. 1311.

Master Walter de Gloucester, in a grant of lands
in Lysenden in Gloucestershire, made to him in 16 Edward I.,
is called the son of Simon Lymereth.1 He was evidently an
officer of the Exchequer; and in 22 Edward I. was entrusted
with the sheriffalty of Dorset and Somerset, which he held
for five years.'2 He then was appointed by the treasurer
and barons to visit the sea-ports to inquire into the conceal-
ment of the king's customs on wool, &c.3 At this period he
was one of the canons of Beverley.4 He was next named,
28 Edward I., among the perambulators of the forests in Hants
and Wilts; and about the same time was selected as one of the
king's escheators, acting in the north till the end of that reign,
and in the south forthe first four years of the following. In
33 Edward I., he assisted in tallaging Kent ; and two years
afterwards he was a commissioner of array in Glamorgan,
and paymaster of the levies there.5

During the early years of the reign of Edward II., he was
summoned to parliament among the judges, and was engaged
no doubt as escheator in various judicial commissions, lie was,
however, regularly constituted one of the three justices <>i'

1 Abbrev. Placit. 214. ■ Fuller's Worthies.

3 Madox's Exch. i. 784., ii. 169. ' Rot. Pari. i. 462.

5 Pari. Writs, i. 636.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 103—178. ; Madox, i. 7-10.

VOL. III. S

2.53

WILLIAM DE GOLDINGTON.

Edw. II.

assize for Gloucestershire and four other counties, in Decem-
ber, 1310, 4 Edward II.1 Dugdale does not notice him as a
baron of the Exchequer, although there is no doubt that he
was so, being designated by that title in two writs, directing
him to confer with Nicholas de Segrave ; and in the letters
patent constituting Walter de Norwich a baron in his place.
The patent of his own appointment has not been discovered,
but it must have been between June 16 and July 5, 1311,
the former being the date of his last summons to parliament,
where he is evidently placed among the justices of assize,
and the latter being that of the writ to Nicholas de Segrave.

He held his rank for little more than six weeks ; for his
death is recorded in Walter de Norwich's patent, which is
dated on August 29. 2

He died in possession of considerable property at Chertsey
and South wark in Surrey, and also in the counties of Lincoln,
Worcester, and Gloucester. By his wife Hawise he had a
son Walter, who died in 16 Edward II.3

GOLDINGTON, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1310.

There were at this time several families of this name. That
of Sir William Goldington was established in Essex, where he
held the manors of Raurethe, Badewe Parva, and Ringgers
in Tirling, besides many broad lands ; and acted in several
judicial commissions for that county. He is mentioned in
the Year Book as an advocate in the early part of the reign of
Edward II., in the fourth year of which he was appointed one
of the three justices of assize for Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.
He continued to serve for several years in those and other
counties, and was regularly summoned to parliament in

Dugdale's Chron. Series.

Cal. IiHjuis. p. in... i. 247. 305.

Pari. Writs, ii. 929.

1307—1327. HENRY DE GULDEFORD. 259

virtue of his office till the eleventh year. He died in 12
Edward II., and his executors were called upon to return his
proceedings as a justice of assize into the Exchequer. He
left a son named John, who was also a knight, and who was
an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster and the other barons in
rebellion. l

GULDEFORD, HENRY DE.

Jist. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

The family of Guldeford was settled at Hempsted in Kent ;
and Henry de Guldeford obtained a license from the king to
let for his life one hundred acres of land which he held in
enpite.2 In 26 Edward I. he was appointed to perambulate
the forests of the northern counties, receiving six shillings
a day for his expenses ; and two years afterwards was as-
signed to perform the same duties in the counties of Salop,
Stafford, and Derby. He next appears at the head of the
justices itinerant sent to visit the Isle of Jersey, a writ
dated in 32 Edward I. being addressed to him to make a
certain return as to a manor there seized into the king's
hands.3 During the whole of this time he was summoned
among the justices to parliament.4 In November, 1305,
33 Edward I., he was constituted one of the judges of the
Court of Common Pleas ; and the fines levied before him
began in 15 days of St. Martin in the same year; but for
some cause or other were not extended beyond that period.5
It seems probable, as he is only mentioned subsequently as
a justice itinerant, and in commissions for taking assizes, and
as he was certainly not re-appointed under Edward II., that

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 934. J Cal. Inquis. p. in., i. 292. J Dllgdftle.

- Rot. Pari, i. 130. 3 Ibid. 180. 491.

* Pari. Writs, i. 650. ■ Dugdale's Orig, II.

8 2

260

ROGER DE HEGHAM.

Edw. II.

he was soon removed from the Common Pleas, and that
Hervey de Staunton was placed there in his stead.

In the fourth year of Edward II., he was employed to take
assizes for Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, and as a justice
itinerant into Durham.1 He died in the early part of
6 Edward II., his last summons to parliament being dated on
July 8, 1312, the first day of that regnal year. He was
possessed of considerable estates in Sussex, Surrey, and
Kent2; and several of his descendants were sheriffs of the
latter county, one of whom entertained Queen Elizabeth at
his manor-house. Robert, the last of the name, was made a
baronet in 1685 by King James II. ; but leaving no issue,
the title became extinct at his death.3

HEGHAM, ROGER DE.

B. E. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Roger de Hegiiam was of a Kentish family : and probably
the son of Robert de Hegham, whose widow, Matilda, paid
for an assize in that county in 56 Henry III., 1272.4 Brought
up to the law, we find him in 21 Edward I. acting on the
part of the king on a quo warranto at York.5 In 25 and
26 Edward I. he assessed the tallage of London 6 ; and in
the latter year he was appointed to perambulate the forests
of five counties, for which he was paid at the rate of six
shillings a-day.7 At the end of the same year he is men-
tioned on the records as a baron of the Exchequer8, although
Dugdale does not introduce him into his list till two years
afterwards. In 33 Edward I. he was one of those assigned

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

2 Cal. Inquis. p. no., i. 252. ; Pari. Writs, ii. 960.

3 Burke's Extinct Baronetage.

5 Arch. Inst. York, Holy Trin. 154.

7 Pari. Writs, i. 397.

4 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 571.
6 Madox's Exch. ii. 2:15.
8 Madox's Exch. i. 467.

1307—1327. RALPH DE IIENGHAM. 261

to treat with the Scottish representatives concerning the
government of the land ; and it was in the same year that lie
received in full Exchequer the gross insult from William de
Brewes, which has been already described.1 Besides perform-
ing his duties as a baron, he acted in the last year of that
reign as a justice of assize in Durham, and was one of the
justices of Trailbaston for the home counties.2

On the accession of Edward II., he was re-appointed to
his seat in the Exchequer, which, however, he did not long
retain, as he died about the middle of the second year, viz.
between January 8, 1309, the date of the last writ sum-
moning him to a council, and February 28 following, when
his death is mentioned in the patent of John de Foxle, his
successor.

His son, of the same name, was elected knight of the shire
for Kent in the parliaments of 16 and 17 Edward II.3

HENGHAM, RALPH DE, Chancellor of Exeter.

Ch. Just. C. P. 1307.
See under the Reigns of Henry III. and Edward I.

Ralph de Hen g ham was the son of Sir Andrew de
Ilengham, of a knightly family, seated at St. Andrew's
manor at Henghani in Norfolk.4 He was brought up to
the then commonly united professions of the church and the
law ; in the former of which he held a canonry in St. Paul's
and the chancellorship of Exeter. He was collated to the
latter on October 19, 1275; but resigned it within three
years and a half. 5

Of his history as a lawyer, I find no mention till January,
1270, 54 Henry III., when the payment for assizes to be

1 See ante, p. 43. ; Abbrev. Placit. 256.

Rot Pail. i. 198. 218. 267. ■ Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 991,

1 Blotnefield'a Norfolk, i. 679. 5 Le Nere, 89.

s 8

262 RALPH DE HENGHAM. Edw. II.

held before him commence. This was probably the date of
his appointment as a justice of the King's Bench, for which an
annual salary of 40/. was assigned to him in the following
year. These entries of assizes before him are very numerous ;
and the rapidity with which he established his reputation in
the court is evinced by his standing at the head of the
circuits in which he was employed during the next two years
till the end of the reign.1

That, on the accession of Edward I., he was immediately
removed to the Common Pleas, appears from a fine having
been levied before him in November, 1272 ; and that his con-
tinuance in that court did not extend much beyond a year, is
sufficiently evident from the absence of any fine on which his
name is inserted after the following November in the second
year.2 Although no record exists of his appointment as chief
justice of the King's Bench, and Dugdale does not name him
in that character till 6 Edward I., an entry of Pleas "coram
Domino liege et R. de Ilengham et sociis suis, justiciis de
Banco Domini Regis in Octabis S. Michaelis anno regno &c.
secundo, incipiente tercio, apud Westm.,"3 is positive evidence
that he was then at the head of the King's Bench ; so that
the date of his elevation must have been between November,
1273, and September, 1274. His salary was sixty marks
per annum.

No circumstance worthy of note in his career occurs till
18 Edward I., when he was certainly removed from his
office and fined. What was the precise charge against him is
nowhere recorded, and the amount of the fine is variously
stated. It has been generally fixed at 7000 marks : but the
complaints against him in the next parliament were palpably
too slight to warrant such a punishment, and probably were
merely made by those mean spirits who are too ready to press

1 Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 504 — 584. ; Dugdale's Chron. Series.

2 Dugdale's Orig. 44. 3 Abbrev. Placit. 263.

1307—1327. RALPH DE IIKNGI1AM. 263

a falling man. One was, that the chief justice had confirmed
a false judgment pronounced by Solomon de Rochester, the
justice itinerant; and another, that a man had been arbitrarily
imprisoned by him.1 There is much more probability that the
fine did not exceed 800 marks, according to the tradition in
the reign of Richard III., which attributed its imposition to
Hengham's pity for a poor man having induced him to erase
from the Roll a fine of 13s. 4cL, and substitute 6s. 8d. for it.
The story went on to assert that with this fine the clock-
house at Westminster was erected, and a clock placed in it
which could be heard in the Hall.2 This tradition was re-
ferred to by Justice Southcote, in the time of Queen Eliza-
beth ; and by Chief Justice Holt in that of William III.,
when those judges were urged to alter a record.3 That
Hengham's offence could not have been a very grievous one,
is sufficiently proved by his restoration to the Bench at a
later date.

His retirement, however, was of ten years' continuance, and
his return seems to have been gradual. His name is in-
troduced nearly at the bottom of the list of judges and other
officers who were summoned to the parliament of March,
1300, 28 Edward I., as if among the justices itinerant. In
the following April he was the first named of those appointed
to perambulate the forests of Essex, Buckingham, and
Oxford4 ; and it was not till eighteen months afterwards, viz.
on September 14, 1301, 29 Edward I., that he was restored
to the Bench. He was not then replaced in his old court ;
but a vacancy having arisen by the death of John de Meting-
ham, he was constituted chief justice of the Common Pleas. '
In this office he continued till the end of the reign, and was
re-appointed by Edward II. He served that king for a very

1 Rot. Pail. i. 48. 52. ■ 4 Inst. 255.

3 Westminster Hall, i. ' Pari. Writs, i. 664.

5 Dugdale'a Chron. Series.

264 GEOFFREY DE HERTELPOLE. Edw. II.

short time; his last summons to parliament being dated
March 4, 1309, 2 Edward II.1; and his death occurring a
few days after, as his successor, William de Bereford, was
appointed on March 15. He was buried in St. Paul's
Cathedral, and Weever (p. 367.) gives his epitaph, in which
he is called " Flos Anglorum " and " vir benedictus." His
manor of St. Andrew's in Hengham he granted to his
two brothers, Robert and William, in succession.

Some of his decisions may be seen in the Year Book of
Edward II. Besides the " Registrant Brevium," which Coke
calls " the most ancient book of the law," he left two works
of note, called Hengham Magna and Hengham Parva,
which have been published with notes by Mr. Selden, and
are printed at the end of his edition of Fortescue de Lau-
dibus Anglias, 1741.

HERLASTON, WILLIAM DE.

? Keeper, 1321.

See under the Reign of Edward III.
HERLE, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1320.

See under the Reign of Edward III.
HERTELPOLE, GEOFFREY DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward T.

Geoffrey de Hertelpole was an advocate in the courts
of Westminster, and his name appears in that character in
the Year Book of Edward II. There are two entries among
the pleas showing that he acted with Thomas de Fisheburne
as a justice of assize at Newcastle in the reign of Edward I.,

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 995.

1307—1327. WILLIAM HOWARD. 265

iii the thirty-fifth year of which he was also joined with John
de Insula and Hugh de Louther, in a commission to punish
the soldiers raised in Westmoreland and Cumberland who had
absented themselves from the army. In the same year also
two petitions presented to the parliament, were referred to
him and others to inquire into. In 34 Edward I. the king
granted to him the manor of Kenweston in Durham for his
services.

He was summoned to the coronation of Edward II., and
continued during that reign to act as a justice of assize ;
attending the parliament among his brethren as late as the
nineteenth year.

He had a lawsuit relative to his manor of Brereton in
Northumberland, which seems to have lasted several years.1

HOTIIAM, JOHN DE, Bishop of Ely.

Chanc. 1318.

See under the Reign of Edward HI.
HOWARD, WILLIAM.

Just. C. P. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

The parentage of William Howard, or, as his name was more
frequently spelled, Haward, the ancestor of the Dukes of
Norfolk, is involved in some obscurity. Neither Dugdale
nor Sir Egerton Brydges states it, both making him the stirps
of the family.2 Henry Howard of Corby Castle, however, in
his Memorials, makes him the grandson of Robert Howard of
Terrington and Wiggenhall, near Lynn in Norfolk, living
in 12 Henry III., and son of John Howard, living in

1 Abbrev. Placit. 306—309.; Pari. Writs, i. 379., ii. P. ii. 1003.; Rot.
Pari. i. 194. 201. 295. 449. ; Cal. Rot. Pat. 65.

2 Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 265. ; Brydges' Collins' Peerage, i. 52.

266 WILLIAM HOWARD. Edw. II.

45 Henry III., and Lucy Germund, his wife.1 The pedi-
gree contained in the Arundel MS. in the British Museum,
No. 512. fol. 456., and in the handwriting of Camden, states
the grandfather to have been William de Wiggenhall, the
son of Alanus, with whom it commences.2 They were,
Henry Howard adds, " what we should call private gentle-
men of small estate, probably of Saxon origin, living at
home, intermarrying with their neighbours, and witnessing
each other's deeds of conveyance and contracts."

That William Howard's property was of some considerable
extent in Norfolk has been presumed from his being nomi-
nated one of the commissioners of sewers for the repair of the
banks and drains in that part of the county where his estate
was situate3; but as this occurred in 22 Edward I., the
appointment more probably arose from his having already
attained sufficient eminence in his profession to be selected as
one of the eight special justices who were assigned in 21 Ed-
ward I., 1293, to take assizes throughout the realm, in aid of
the judges of both benches, and of the justices itinerant. The
district to which he was assigned comprehended the northern
counties.4 Whatever was the extent, however, of his patri-
monial possessions, he gradually augmented them by pur-
chases in Wiggenhall, East Winch, and other neighbouring
townships.5

In his character of justice of assize he was summoned to
the parliament of August, 1295. On October 11, 1297,
25 Edward I., he was constituted one of the judges of the
Common Pleas, and took the oath to be faithful in the office
in the Exchequer, before the chancellor and the barons of
that court.6 Both in 33 and 35 Edward L, he was one of

1 Henry Howard's Memorials of the Howard Family (1834), App. xl.

2 Ellis's Letters of Eminent Men (Camden Soc), p. 115.

3 Dugdale, and Brydges. 4 Dugdale's Chron. Series.
5 Memorials, ut supra. G Madox's Excli. ii. 91.

1307—1327. WILLIAM HOWARD. 267

the judges named in commissions of Trailbaston ; the latter
being the last year of King Edward's reign.1

On the accession of Edward II. he was re-appointed, and
sat in the court during the whole of the first and part of the
second year of that reign. Dugdale states that the last
fine levied before him was on the morrow of St. John the
Baptist, 2 Edward I., which I take to be the decollation of
that saint, August 29, 1308, and not his nativity, June 25,
1309, because the patent of Howard's successor, Henry le
Scrope, was dated November 20, 1308. Howard is described
as chief justice of England on a window in the church of
Long Mel ford in Suffolk, where he is portrayed in his judge's
robes ; but as this was not erected till about the reign of
Edward IV. or of Henry VII.2, and therefore nearly two
hundred years after his death, it cannot be accepted as autho-
rity for a fact of which no other evidence appears.

He had two wives, both of whom were named Alice. The
first was a daughter of Sir Robert Ufford, the ancestor of
the family which acquired the earldom of Suffolk. The
second was the daughter of Sir Edmund de Fitton of Fitton
in Wiffffenhall, St. Germain's, which she afterwards inherited.
She and her husband resided at East Winch, near Lynn,
where he built a chapel, adjoining the church, in which he
wras probably buried.

The first marriage produced no issue ; but by the second
he left two sons, Sir John and Sir William. Sir Robert,
the lineal descendant of this Sir John in the fifth generation,
married Margaret, the daughter of Thomas Mowbray, Duke
of Norfolk, who ultimately became coheir of John Mowbray,
the fourth duke. Their son John Howard was summoned
to parliament as Baron Howard by Edward IV. in 1470,
and was created Earl Marshal and Duke of Norfolk by

1 Rot. Pari. i. 178. 218. ■ Dugdnle's Orig. 44. 99.

268

WILLIAM INGE.

Edw. II.

Richard TIL in 1485; and is Shakspeare's "Jockey of
Norfolk."

Not only does this, the premier dukedom, remain in the
family ; but in the present house of peers, the earldoms of
Suffolk and Berkshire, of Carlisle and of Effingham, and the
barony of Howard of Walden, are represented by descendants
from the same parentage. Besides these, several other peer-
ages which have now become extinct flourished during various
periods : the viscounty of Bindon from 1559 to 1619; the earl-
dom of Nottingham from 1597 to 1681 ; the earldom of Nor-
thampton from 1604 to 1614; the barony of Howard of
Escrick from 1628 to 1714; the earldom of Norwich from
1672 to 1777 ; the earldom of Stafford from 1688 to 1762;
the earldom of Bindon from 1706 to 1722. l

INGE, WILLIAM.

Just. Itin. 1307. Just. C. P. 1314. Ch. K. B. 1316.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

William Inge was an advocate of great eminence in his
profession, and is mentioned by Dugdale as the king's
attorney as early as 15 Edward L, 1287, being then retained
to prosecute and defend for the king at a salary of 20Z. a
year.- He appears in that character on several occasions in
the parliaments of 18 and 20 Edward I. 3 ; and in the latter
year is noticed as the king's Serjeant at law. During that
period, however, he was not summoned to assist in parlia-
ment. In 21 Edward I., 1293, he was one of the eight who
were assigned as justices to take assizes, &c. throughout the
kingdom in aid of the regular judges, his companion being
Adam de Crokedayk, and his division Lincolnshire and nine

1 Memorials, ut supra ; Nicolas's Synopsis.

a Issue Roll, iii. 101. 3 Rot. Pari. i. 24. 28. 38. 83. 85.

1307—1327. WILLIAM INGE. 269

other counties. He continued in that office till the end of
the reign ; numerous instances occurring in the Rolls of
parliament, and in other places, proving that he was so
employed.1 In 28 Edward I. he was appointed to peram-
bulate the forests of Gloucestershire and the neighbouring
counties; and on April 6, 1305, 33 Edward I., he was the
second of five justices of Trailbaston named for Norfolk and
Suffolk ; being also placed at the head of the same number
in a similar commission in February, 1307.2 From the
time of his entering on the duties of a justice of assize, he
was regularly summoned among the judges to parliament.3

The accession of Edward II. made no alteration in his
position, except that he seems to have been more closely in
connection with the king as one of his council4, and em-
ployed in various negotiations. Until his elevation to the
bench, his name appears among the advocates recorded in
the Year Book, showing that notwithstanding his employ-
ment as a justice of assize, he did not desert his practice at
Westminster. The patent of his appointment as a judge of
the Court of Common Pleas was dated September 28, 1314,

8 Edward II. ; but it is somewhat curious that the first fine
mentioned by Dugdale as levied before him, is in Hilary,
1313, 6 Edward II.5; the date, however, has probably
been misread or miscopied : the last fine was in July,
1315. In the previous January, while merely a justice of
the Common Pleas, he opened, by the king's directions, the
parliament then held at Lincoln.6

On the resignation of Roger le Brabazon as chief justice
of the King's Bench, which took place on February 23, 1316,

9 Edward II., AYilliam Inge succeeded. The date of his

1 Rot. Pat. i 150. 159. 161. 1G8. 189. 206. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 92. 96. 139.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 218. ; N. Feeders, i. 970. 3 Pari. Writs, i

1 Madox'l Exch. ii. :SO. 57. 6 Dugdalo's Orig. 44.

e Rot. Pari. i. 350.

270

JOHN DE INSULA.

Edw. II.

patent is not given, but that appointing his successor in
the Common Pleas is dated March 10 ; and in the following
August he is mentioned as chief justice of the King's Bench.

He presided over this court for little more than a year,
for on June 15, 1317, 10 Edward II., he was displaced by
Henry le Scrope. I am not aware of the cause of his re-
moval ; but the terms of the instrument directing him to
deliver up the proceedings to his successor, indicate no
displeasure.

By his return in 9 Edward II., and by the inquisition
taken after his death, it appears that he had large possessions
in the counties of Bedford, Dorset, Kent, Oxford, Hants,
Surrey, Sussex, Essex, Herts, and Suffolk. A complaint
was made against him to the parliament of 8 Edward II.,
for purchasing the manor of Woodmerston in Surrey,
pending a writ. Part of his Kentish property, the manor of
Stanstead, subordinate to Wrotham (near which he had also
the manor of Ightham), he obtained by his marriage with
Margery, one of the daughters of Henry Grapinell.

He died in 15 Edward II., 1321-2, leaving a daughter
named Joane, who became the wife of Eudo or Ivo la
Zouche.1

INSULA, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1307. B. E. 1313.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Some doubt has arisen whether this John de Insula, or
De L'Isle, was the individual who is recorded by Dugdale
as holding considerable possessions in the Isle of Wight,
and engaged with the king in the Scottish wars2, or whether
there was not another of the same name wholly employed
in legal occupations. The fact, that two of this name are

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 1039. ; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 299. ; Hasted's Kent, v. 3. 55.

2 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 739.

1307—1327. JOHN DE INSULA. 271

entered in the list of those summoned to the parliament at
Carlisle in the octaves of Hilary, 35 Edward L, 1307 l, one
as a baron, and the other apparently as one of the judges
or learned persons in the law, seems to decide the question.

It is certain that this John de Insula was an advocate in
the courts; and as early as 18 Edward I., 1290, was heard
before the parliament on the part of the king in two suits
there discussed. Two years afterwards he was amerced in
100 shillings for some contempt before the justices of assize2;
but in 21 Edward I. was himself appointed to act in that
character in nine counties.3 On Oct. 21, 1295, 23 Edw. I.,
he was admitted as one of the barons of the Exchequer;
and is so mentioned in Madox's list, in the thirty-first year.4
In 33 and 35 Edward I. he was one of the justices of Trail-
baston5; but whether he preserved his seat in the Exchequer
at the same time does not appear. He was not, however,
numbered among those barons who received patents on the
accession of Edward II., though he was still regularly sum-
moned with the judges to parliament, and in the fourth year
of that reign was placed at the head of the justices of assize
in the northern counties. He resumed his seat in the
Exchequer, by a patent dated January 30, 1313, 6 Ed-
ward II., and is frequently noticed in that character, and also
as acting on different circuits till the twelfth year. Soon
after this he died, for his executors were commanded by
writ, dated June 5, 1320, 13 Edward II., to cause all pro-
ceedings before him as a justice of assize or otherwise to be
estreated into the Exchequer/5

1 Rot Pari. i. 188, 189. 2 Ibid. 18. 28. 33. 83.

8 Dugdale's Cliron. Series.

4 Year Book, Part I. 36. ; Madox's Exch. i. 323., ii. 44. 56. 292. 304. 324.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 178. 218.

fi Pari. Writs, ii. 1104. ; Rot. Pari. i. 301—350. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. 223.

272 JOHN DE LANGTON. Edw. II.

LANGTON, JOHN DE, Treasurer of Wells, Arch-
deacon of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester.

Chanc. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Of the parentage of John de Langton, or of the place of his
nativity, nothing is known; nor whether he was connected
with the family of Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter-
bury in 1193, or with that of his own contemporary, Walter
de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. It may,
however, be presumed, that his relationship to the latter was
not very close, as his second elevation to the chancellorship,
at the commencement of the reign of Edward II., took place
at the very time when Bishop Walter was most violently per-
secuted ; the proceedings against the one, and the advance of
the other, being apparently instigated by the influence of the
same individual, Peter de Gaveston.

John de Langton was a clerk in the Chancery, and is the
first person to whom the title of master or keeper of the
Rolls can be distinctly traced. In a patent of 14 Edward I.,
1286, quoted by Mr. Hardy, he is called " Custos Rotulorum
Cancellarias domini Regis," a duty which then, probably, de-
volved on the senior clerk of the Chancery ; as even in the
present day that officer is still considered as the head of the
masters of that court. A confirmation of his occupying the
post appears in a memorandum in the parliament of 18 Ed-
ward I., 1290, that the transcript of letters sent to the court
of Rome was delivered to him in the Chancery to be en-
rolled.1 Like his brethren in that department, he was an
ecclesiastic, and held, among other preferments, canonries in
the churches of Chichester, Lincoln, and York, and the
treasurership of Wells.2

1 Rot. Pari. i. 25. 2 Chapter Book, Chichester Cath. MS.

1307—1327. JOnN DE LANGTON. 273

Within two months after the death of Robert Burnel,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, John de Langton was appointed
to succeed him as chancellor ; and the Great Seal was de-
livered to him at Tuggehale, on December 17, 1292, 21 Ed-
ward I.1 From a memorandum of words spoken in full
chapter at Bath, it would seem that "William de Hamilton,
who had been performing the duties of the Chancery in the
interim, had been expected to be raised to the place, and
that John de Langton was not desirous of the elevation, as
it was said that he was "chauncelir wolleye nulleye." This,
however, may have been only the tattle of the day : but there
are still extant several letters of congratulation, from abbots,
priors, and others, addressed to him on the occasion ; some of
them accompanied, as was too common at the time, with ap-
plications for patronage and favour.2 Langton continued the
prudent and sagacious course pursued by Burnel, his prede-
cessor ; and witnessed, during his ministry, the triumph of
his sovereign's arms in Scotland, and the resignation of that
kingdom by Baliol. An event much more important in its
consequences, also occurred while he held the Seal; viz., the
enactment of the statute called " Articuli super Cartas,"
28 Edward I., 1300, by which the great Charter was fully
confirmed, and regulations made to prevent any future en-
croachments on its provisions.

On the death of William de Luda, Bishop of Ely, in 1298,
a contest arose between the monks of that abbey, one party
electing their prior, and the other John de Langton, to fill
the vacancy. The king gave his assent to the latter choice;
but the pope, t<» whom the two candidates hastened to submit
their pretensions, superseded both, and placed another in the
seat.3 To conciliate all parties, however, the cunning pontiff
1 the prior to the bishoprick of Norwich, and gave the

1 Chins. 21 V.dw. I., m. 10. * Seventh Uep., Pub. Kec, App,i ii. 243.

* Godwin de l'r.isnl

VOL. III. T

274 JOHN DE LANGTON. Edw. II.

archdeaconry of Canterbury, then a very valuable prefer-
ment, to John de Langton. This appointment took place
in 1299.

During his absence at Rome, his official duties were per-
formed by William de Hamilton, that is to say, from Fe-
bruary 20 to June 16, 1299, when he returned.2 He re-
signed the chancellorship on August 12, 1302, 30 Edward I.,
for what cause has not been stated ; and after a lapse of seven
weeks he was succeeded by William de Greenfield, Dean of
Chichester.3 In May, 1305, 33 Edward I., Langton was
raised to the bishoprick of Chichester, and was consecrated
on September 19 in the same year.

Soon after the accession of Edward IT., he was again ap-
pointed chancellor. Although the precise date is not given,
his nomination probably took place immediately after Ralph
de Baldock, Bishop of London, the late chancellor, had
deposited the Great Seal in the king's hands, on August 2,
1307. It is certain he was in full possession of the office in
the following January, for on the 21st of that month
he delivered up the Great Seal to the king, who was then
proceeding to Boulogne to celebrate his nuptials with the
French princess, Isabel; and received another to be used
during the king's absence, which lasted only till February 7.4
He continued chancellor till May 11, 1310, 3 Edward II.,
when he resigned the Seal.3 Though this was shortly after
the appointment of the lords ordainers, of whom indeed
he himself was one, there is nothing to show that his retire-
ment was occasioned by their proceedings.

He presided over his diocese during the remainder of the
troubled reign of Edward II., and for the first ten years of
that of his successor; dying June 17, or July 19, 1337. He

1 Le Neve, 12. 2 Claus. 27 Edw. I., m. 11. 13.

3 Ibid. 30 Edw. I., m. 8. * Ibid. 1 Edw. II., m. 11.

5 Ibid. 3 Edw. II., m. 6.

1307—1327. HUGH DE LOUTHER. 275

was resolute in the performance of his ecclesiastical functions.
Having excommunicated Earl Warren for adultery, that
nobleman came with his retainers to lay violent hands on
him ; but the bishop, aided by his servants, succeeded in
resisting their attempt, and threw the earl and all his party
into prison. He was very bountiful to his see ; and in the
university of Oxford he founded a chest, still called by
his name, out of which any poor graduate might, on proper
security, borrow a small sum for his immediate necessities.1

LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY, Bishop of. See

R. DE NORTHBURGH. ,

LICHFIELD, Treasurer of. See J. de Sandale.
LONDON, Bishop of. See Ralph de Baldock.
LONDON, Deans of. See Ralph de Baldock, ? J. de
Sandale, J. de Everdon.

. LOUTHER, HUGH DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Hugh de Lotjtiier was descended from a long line of
ancestors, settled at Louther in Westmoreland* His father
was of the same name, and his mother was a daughter of
Moriceby, of Moriceby in Cumberland. He practised as an
advocate, and had acquired sufficient celebrity in 19 Ed-
ward I., 1291, to be employed by the king; receiving for
his fee 10/. for his services in Easter, and a similar sum in
Michaelmas term in that year.2 In the next year also, he
was employed in the king's business in Shropshire. Dugdale
on tills account represents him as the king's attorney-general'1 ;

1 Godwin de Prcesul. 506. ; Chapter Hooks, Chichester.

■ Devon's Issue Roll, 102. 3 Dugdale's Chron. Sn\

T 2

276 HUGH DE LOUTIIER. Edw. II.

but it is to be remarked that Richard de Breteville and
William Inge in those years acted in the same manner in
other counties ; and there is no proof that the office then
existed as a separate appointment.

In the second commission of justices of Trailbaston, issued
on Feb. 18, 1307, 35 Edward L, Louther was named among
five to act in Norfolk and Suffolk ; and in the same year he
was assigned with John de Insula to inquire into a case
which was brought by petition before the parliament, ac-
cording to the course then usually adopted, of referring these
investigations to judges and learned men in the law. Some
other instances occur in the second and eighth years of Ed-
ward II., in the latter of which he acted as a justice itinerant
in Yorkshire.1

He was returned a knight for the county of Westmoreland
in 33 Edward I., and was one of the supervisors of the array
for that county in 4 Edward II.2 He died in the tenth year
of the latter reign ; and by his wife, who was a daughter of
Sir Peter de Filiol, of Scaleby Castle in Cumberland, he left
two sons, Hugh and Thomas. The latter will be mentioned
as a judge of the King's Bench in the reign of Edward III.
From the eldest son Hugh, the succession continued in
lineal descent for more than three hundred years; when
William III., in 1696, raised Sir John Lowther, the then
representative of the family, to the peerage as Viscount
Lonsdale and Baron Lowther ; titles, however, which be-
came extinct in 1750, after the death of his two sons, Richard
and Henry, without issue. During the life of the latter,
there were no less than four baronets of the family alive at
the same time.

In 1784, James, the grandson of the first lord's uncle, was
ennobled by George III. with the titles of Baron Lowther,

J Rot. Pari. i. 209. 218, 219. 280. 341. 2 Pari. Writs, i. 714., ii. 1118.

1307—1327. ROBERT DE MADDINGLEY. 277

of Lowther, Kendal, and Burgh, Viscount of Lonsdale and
of Lowther, and Earl of Lonsdale, but having no children,
he obtained a new creation in 1797, of Baron and Viscount
Lowther of Whitehaven, with a collateral remainder to the
heirs male of his cousin, the late Rev. Sir William Lowther
of Swillington, Baronet, who was a descendant of the third
son of the great-grandfather of the first Viscount Lonsdale.

On the earl's death in 1802, the latter titles only devolved
on Sir William's son, who in 1807 received the additional
dignity of Earl of Lonsdale, now borne by his successor.1

MADDINGLEY, ROBERT DE,

Just. Itin. 1314.

Maddingley is a parish in Cambridgeshire ; and Thomas de
Maddingley, whom I conceive to have been the father of
Robert de Maddingley, was returned as burgess for Cam-
bridge to the parliaments of 26, 29, 30, and 33 Edward I.
Robert was one of the assessors of the tallage of that and
three neighbouring counties in 6 Edward IL, and was in
several judicial commissions in that locality about the same
period. In 8 Edward IL, September 12, 1314, he was one
of the justices of assize in Norfolk and Suffolk, William de
Ormesby being the other ; and he continued to perform the
same functions in these and other counties till April, 1321,
14 Edward IL, when, on account of his infirmity, John de
Bousser was appointed in his place in a commission for
Bedford and Bucks. His death is recorded in the patent
confirming Bousser's appointment, dated May 8 following.

2

MALBERTIIORP, ROBERT DE.

Just. K. B. 1320.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

Brydges' Collins's Peerage, 695 — 716. ; Nicolas's Synopsis.
Pari. Writs, i. 720., i. P. ii. 1129. ; Rot. Pari. i. 374. 448. 450.
T 3

278 PETER MALLOBE. Edw. II.

MALLORE, PETER.

Just. C. P. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Peter Mallore was probably a descendant of Glslebert
Mallore, one of the Conqueror's followers, and of Anchetil
Mallore, who was employed in the reign of Henry II. as
custos of the bishoprick of Sarum, and as dapifer of the Earl
of Leicester. Peter married Matilda, the widow of Elyas
de Rabayne, and one of the two daughters and coheirs of
Stephen de Bayeux (the brother of John de Bayeux, men-
tioned as a justice itinerant under Henry III.), and in
18 Edward I. petitioned parliament in relation to her part of
her father's property, the process concerning which was not
completed in 9 Edward II.1 He held the town of Mel-
combe, and certain lands at Dodemerton in Dorsetshire, in
ferm under the king at a rent of 61 10s. per annum2; and
was summoned to perform military service against the
Scots in 28 Edward I., as holding lands in that county of
the yearly value of 40/. This property was no doubt
granted to him in compensation for his services as a judge.

Nothing is told of his legal life before he was raised to
the bench of the Common Pleas, where he sat for above
seventeen years. The patent appointing him was dated 20
Edward I., probably the end of that year ; for the first fine
levied before him was in November, 1292, 21 Edward I.,
and the last was in June, 1309.3 During this period, he seems
to have been very actively employed. Sir William Wallace
was tried before him in 1304 4, and he was excused from his
ittendance in parliament for the purpose ; and in 1307 he

1 Rot. Pari. i. 44. 337. 8 Madox's Exch. i. 335.

3 Serviens ad legem, 282. ; Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. 44.

4 Turner's England, ii. 90. note.

1307—1327. ADAM DE MIDDLETON. 279

was selected as one of the justices of Trailbaston for the
home counties.

He was evidently removed soon after the above fine of
1309 was acknowledged before him; because, although he
was summoned as one of the assistants of the council to the
parliament of February 8, 1310, he was not included among
the six judges of the Common Pleas appointed on Septem-
ber 29, 1309.1 He died about the commencement of the
next regnal year, July, 1310, 4 Edward II.a

MELTON, WILLIAM DE, Archbishop of York.

? Keeper, 1308.
See under the Reign of Edward III.

MIDDLESEX, Archdeacons of. See Ralph de Baldock,
Robert de Baldock.

MIDDLETON, ADAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Adam de Middleton wa3 the possessor of the manor
of that name in the county of York. In 33 Edward I.,
April 6, 1305, he was the last named of five justices of
Trailbaston appointed for the ten northern counties.3 He
held the same place in the new commissions issued in 1307 ;
and in the parliament held that year at Carlisle, a reference
was made to him as to the excessive payment required for
the passage of the Humber.4 In 5 Edward II., the custody
of the castle of Kingston-upon-IIull and of the manor of
Mitton was committed to him 5 ; and by a mandate to
attend the parliament in 7 Edward II., 1313, it appears that

1 Pari. Writs, i. 722., ii. 1136., also p. 40. 2 Cal. Inquis. p. in., i. 939,

s N. Fccdera, i. 970. 4 Pot. Pari. i. 202. 218.

5 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 187.

T 4

280 WILLIAM DE MORTIMER. Edw. II.

he was then employed as a justice of assize. He is last
named in the ninth year of that reign, when he was certified
as holding several lordships in the counties of Notts and
York.1 In 35 Edward I. he had a grant of a cow pasture
in Heselspring in Cumberland, to which his son Peter, a
justice itinerant under Edward III., succeeded.2

MORTIMER, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itik. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

It does not appear how this William de Mortimer (Mortuo-
mari) was connected with the noble families of that name ;
and Blomefield, in speaking of one of them in Norfolk, ac-
knowledges the difficulty, in consequence of the many colla-
teral branches, of distinguishing the individual.3 All that is
recorded of this William is, that he was one of the justices
itinerant appointed in 20 Edward I., 1292, for the northern
counties, and that in the thirty-second year he acted as a justice
of assize in ten of the inland counties.4 In the following
year, he was named a receiver of the petitions of Ireland and
Guernsey, in the parliament held at Westminster in Sep-
tember.5 During the reign of Edward II. he continued to
act as a justice itinerant, and to be summoned as such to
parliament till the ninth year.6

MUTFORD, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1307. Just. C. P. 1316.

See under the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward ILL

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 1 172.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 201.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 106.

8 Blomefield's Norwich, i. 345. 4 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

* Rot. Pari. i. 159. 6 Pari. Writs, ii. 1205.

1307—1327. ROGER DE NORTHBURGIT. 281

NORTIIBURGH, ROGER DE, Archdeacon of Richmond,
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.

? Keeper, 1321.

Roger de Nortiiburgii is stated by Godwin to have been
captured in battle by the Scots in 1313. Two years after-
wards we find him in the king's service attesting a royal
writ; and in April, 1316, he was certainly keeper of the
wardrobe. On September 18, 1320, he was employed on a
mission to Carlisle, to treat for a truce with the Scots ; and
returned on October 13, receiving, for the expenses of himself
and his suite, the sum of 25V We next find the king, in con-
sequence of the chancellor's illness, delivering the Great Seal
into Northburgh's custody, as keeper of the wardrobe. This
occurred on April 16, 1321, 14 Edward II., and it would
appear that writs were then sealed in his presence and that
of two of the clerks in Chancery ; after which the Seal was
replaced in the wardrobe, where it remained at that and a
subsequent period.2 As, however, this was a place commonly
used for its secure deposit, there is scarcely sufficient reason
for inserting the head of that department in the list of
keepers of the Seal.

On May 29, 1317, the king presented Roger de North-
burgh with the archdeaconry of Richmond ; and subsequently
procured his election to the bishoprick of Lichfield and
Coventry, which took place on April 12, 1322. Over that
see he presided for nearly thirty-eight years, with nothing
to distinguish the remainder of his life, except that he held
the office of treasurer for two short periods in the second and
fourteenth years of the reign of Edward III. He died in
November or December, 1359 ; and is commemorated among
the chancellors and benefactors of Cambridge.3

1 Archffiologia, xxvi. 334. 2 Tarl. Writs, ii. P. ii. 731. 1231.

3 Le Neve, 1 24, 324. ; Godwin de Prasul. 320. ; Dugdale's Chron. Scries.

282 JOHN DE OEHAM. Edw. IJ.

NORWICH, Bishops of. See J. Salmon, W. de Ayre-

MYNNE.

NORWICH, Chancellors of. See R. de Ayremynne.
NORWICH, WALTER DE.

B. E. 1311. Ch. B. E. ? 1312, 1317.
See under the Reign of Edward III.

OKHAM, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1317.

John de Okham was joined in the commission with the
escheator ultra Trentam to take into the king's hands the
property of Anthony, patriarch of Jerusalem and bishop of
Durham, on his death in 4 Edward II.1 During the four
following years, he was clerk to Ingelard de Warlee, keeper
of the wardrobe 2, and held the office of cofferer of that depart-
ment.3 On June 18, 1317, 10 Edward II., he was consti-
tuted one of the barons of the Exchequer in the place of
Richard de Abyndon.

As he was not summoned to parliament beyond March 14,
1322, 15 Edward II., it is probable that he, about that time,
was removed from the bench ; but of this no entry affords
any certainty. There is no doubt, however, that he was not
included among the barons sworn in at the commencement
of the next reign.4

He is called " clericus," and being a canon of the free
chapel of St. Martin's, London, the custody of its deanery
was committed to him in 19 Edward II.5

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 175. 2 Rot. Pari. ii. 437.

8 Cal. Rot. Pat. 74. * Pari. Writs, ii. 1244.

5 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. L 290.

1307—1327.

WILLIAM DE ORMESBY.

283

ORMESBY, WILLIAM DE.

? Just. K. B. 1307. Just. Itin. 1307.
Ste under the Reign of Edward I.

William de Ormesby was appointed a judge of the King's
Bench at the same time that Roger le Brabazon was raised to
the chief justiceship of that court, in 24 Edward I., 1296.
He had, however, acted previously as a justice itinerant into
Northumberland and the other northern counties, in 20 Ed-
ward I., and into Yorkshire in the following year.1

On the reduction of Scotland in 1296, he was constituted
justiciary of that country ; and by the rigour with which he
extorted the penalties imposed by King Edward on those who
refused to take the oath of fealty to him, he naturally excited
the deep and general odium of that people. Wallace, in the
following year, surprised him while holding his court at Scone ;
and his followers being dispersed, he himself barely escaped.2

On his return to England, he resumed his duties in the
King's Bench, in which he is mentioned till the end of the
reign; as well as frequently on iters, and as chief of the jus-
tices of Trailbaston assigned for the counties of Norfolk and
Suffolk, in 1305, 33 Edward I.3

Some doubt may arise as to his having been re-appointed
to his seat in the King's Bench on the accession of Edward II.,
as no such writ was directed to him to take the oaths as
was addressed to his fellows, on September 6, 1307; and his
name does not judicially appear in the Abbreviatio Placitorum
after the death of Edward I. It is true that he was sum-
moned to attend the first parliament, and stands in his proper
place in the list ; but this was by a previous writ, dated
August 26 : and though he is summoned to all the subsequent
parliaments up to 1 1 Edward II., he is generally placed in

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

■ Tiivcti Annates, V5G. ; Ty tier's Scotland, i. 123. 128.

;i Abbrev. Placit. 242. 259. 294.; Rot. Pari. i. 1G6. 198.
407, 408.

Pari, Writs i.

284 ADAM DE OSGODBY. Edw. II.

that part of the list appropriated to the justices itinerant. That
he acted in the latter capacity, during the remainder of his
life, there can be no question; and it is not unlikely that be
Avas allowed, at the commencement of the new reign, to retire
from the heavier duties of the King's Bench to his estates in
Norfolk and Suffolk, in which counties he was principally
employed as a justice of assize during the whole period.1 He
died about 1317, and was buried at the abbey of St. Benet's,
at Hulme in Norfolk, to which he was a benefactor.2

In the pleas of 2 Edward II. he is spoken of as the husband
of Sibilla, late the wife of Roger Loveday, the justice itinerant
mentioned in the last reign 3 : and among the escheats or in-
quisitions post mortem of 7 Edward II., occurs the name of
Elena, the wife of William de Ormesby.4 This may perhaps
be explained by supposing that there might be two Williams
de Ormesby, both of Norfolk ; a suspicion which receives
some probability from the fact, that while the judge was
summoned with his fellows to the parliament at Carlisle,
in 35 Edward I., a burgess of the same name was returned to
the same parliament for Yarmouth, in Norfolk. They might,
however, be still the same person, for there is no proof that
judges, or at all events justices itinerant, were then precluded
from sitting among the Commons.

William de Ormesby is sometimes erroneously called chief
justice of England ; a mistake manifestly arising from his
having held that position in Scotland.

OSGODBY, ADAM DE.

M. R. 1307. Keeper, 1311.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

No mention is made of Adam de Osgodby till his appoint-
ment of keeper of the Bolls of Chancery, on October 1, 1295,

1 Pari. Writs, i. 766., ii. 1246. ; Rot. Pari. 275. 341. 450.

2 Taylor's Index Monast. 2. 3 Abbrev. Placit. 307.
4 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 254.

1307—1327. ADAM DE OSGODBY. 285

23 Edward I.1 He no doubt had been previously one of the
clerks of the Chancery ; and, from several entries relating to
the deposit of the Seal during the temporary absence of the
chancellor, it is plain that he was still considered as the chief
of them. He remained uninterruptedly in the office till
10 Edward II., 1316, a period of nearly twenty-one years.
In both reigns he frequently performed the functions of the
chancellor, when absent, sometimes alone, and sometimes in
connection with two or three of the other clerks. In that of
Edward I. he held it, under the seals of three clerks, during
the vacancy in the chancellorship occasioned by the resigna-
tion of John de Langton, from August 23 to September 30,
1302, the date of the elevation of William de Greenfield2;
under whom, during an absence, he again held it from
October 30 to December 11, 1302 3; and a third time, from
December 29, 1304, till January 16, 1305, between the
nomination and arrival of William de Hamilton.4 At the
parliament held at Carlisle in January, 1307, 35 Edward I.,
he acted as proctor for the dean and chapter of York, being
then a canon of that cathedral.5

From the third to the end of the eighth year of Ed-
ward II., the Seal was frequently deposited with Osgodby in
the same manner. At first it was merely in the absence of
the chancellor; but between the resignation of Walter Re-
ginald, Bishop of Worcester, as chancellor, and his appoint-
ment as keeper of the seal, viz. between December 9, 1311,
and October 6, 1312, Adam de Osgodby, Robert de Bardelby,
and William de Ayremynne are distinctly described as keepers
of the Seal6, and transacted all the business connected with it.
While Reginald continued keeper, the Great Seal was always
secured by the seals of these three.7

1 Rot. Claus. 23 Ed>. I., no. G. - Ibid. 30 Edw. I., m. 6. 8.

a Ibid. m. 2.; and 31 Edw. I., m. 18. ' [bid. S3 Edw. I., m. 22.

6 Rot. Pail. i. 1 90. 6 Ibid. i. 357.

7 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1219.

286 EDMUND DE PASSELE. Edw. II.

Adam de Osgodby, like all his brethren In the Chancery, was
an ecclesiastic, and held the living of Gargrave, in Yorkshire.
On November 7, 1307, 1 Edward II., the king granted to
him the office of custos of the House of Converts, in Chan-
cery Lane, during pleasure ; but, by a patent in the seventh
year, secured it to him for life.1 It was not, however, till
the year 1377 that this office was permanently annexed to
that of keeper of the Rolls.

His death occurred in August, 1316, on the 19 th of which
month his successor, William de Ayremynne, was appointed.
He left property in Yorkshire, to which Walter de Osgodby,
probably his brother, succeeded.2

PASSELE, EDMUND DE.

B. E. 1323.

Several members of this family, whose name is sometimes
spelled Passelewe and Passelegh, held offices in the Exchequer
for many years. In the reign of Henry III. there were
William, Robert, and Simon ; the last of whom has been al-
ready noticed as a baron of that court.3 Under Edward I.,
another Robert was employed as an assessor of the subsidies
in Sussex, for which county he was returned as knight of the
shire in the twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth years of that
reign.4

It is very probable that Edmund de Passele was the son of
the latter, as he had considerable estates in that county. In
16 Edward I. he was appointed one of the commissioners to
inquire as to the damage done by the overflowing of the sea
in the Isle of Thanet 5 ; and in the thirty-second year he as-

1 Rot. Pat. 1 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 13.; 7 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 17.
8 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 194. 279. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 235.
3 See vol. ii. p. 436. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 7, 8, 9, 10.
" 4 Pari. Writs, i. 771. 5 Lewis's Isle of Thanet, 77.

1307—1327. JOHN DE RADESWELL. 287

signed some lands in Sussex for the support of a chaplain to
do daily service in the chapel of Kethenourelegh, performing
afterwards a similar pious act by devoting certain tenements
inLudenham, Kent, to his chapel de la Legh.1

His name appears in the Year Book of Edward II. as an
advocate ; and in the third year of that reign he was specially
employed by the king and the council to attend to the king's
pleas, and is thereupon designated by Dugdale, from the
marginal title, a Serjeant. From that till the sixteenth year
he was frequently engaged as a justice of assize, or otherwise ;
and as such was commanded to bring his proceedings into
the Exchequer to be estreated, and received the customary
summons to attend the parliaments.

On September 20, 1323, 17 Edward II., he was constituted
a baron of the Exchequer, the duties of which he continued to
perform till the end of the reign. His death occurred in the
first year of Edward III., leaving Isabella his widow. Two
sons of his are mentioned ; one William, in 9 Edward II.,
in the grant of the manor of Parrok, in Hertfield, Sussex ;
and the other, John, who seems to have withheld the third
part of this manor from Isabella the widow.2

11ADESWELL, or REDESWELL, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1326.

Master Joiin de Kadeswell was probably the John de
lladeswell who was the complainant in a suit in 18 Edw. I.,
wherein he recovered a considerable estate in Bedfordshire
from Henry, the son of Beatrice, the widow of Robert de
Ivadeswell, by proving that Henry was born eleven days
after the forty weeks which is the legitimate time of bearing
by women, the more especially as it was further shown that

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 132. 207.

2 Tarl. Writs, ii. 1261. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 6. 62. ; Abbrev. Placit. 325.

288 WALTER DE REGINALD. Edw. II.

Beatrice had no access to her husband for one month before
his death.1

In 18 Edward II., John de Radeswell is mentioned as"
" Senescallum Regis," and principal custos of the lands and
tenements of Queen Isabella in England and Wales, with
an annual fee of 407. Two years afterwards, on September 1,
1326, he was advanced to the office of a baron of the Ex-
chequer, which he held only for the few remaining months
of that reign.

Though not re-appointed by Edward III., he was still
employed in Exchequer business ; being assigned towards
the end of the first year to supervise and appraise the goods
and chattels of Walter Reginald, Archbishop of Canterbury,
then lately deceased ; and in the record he is called " CleiTOUs
Regis."2

RANDOLF, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1307.

See under the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward III.

REGINALD, or RAYNALD, WALTER, Bishop op
Worcester, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Chancellor, 1310.

The Career of Walter Raynald, or Reginald, affords an early
instance in English history of the advance of an individual
from the lower ranks of life to the highest ecclesiastical
honours. He was the son of a baker at Windsor, and being
bred up to the church, was brought under the notice of
Edward I., a monarch whose powers of discrimination were
seldom at fault. The king soon discovered merit in the
youthful aspirant, whose appointment as tutor to the young
prince is no small evidence in favour of his character and

1 Abbrev. Placit. 221. ; also p. 234., where Robert is called Bartholomew.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 282, ii. 11. : Pari. Writs, ii. 1319.

1307—1327. WALTER REGINALD. |g9

abilities. To what particular brfl&gkaj mS instructions were
devoted does not appear ; but, judging both from the earlier
ana nie more matured career of his pupil, he failed (as might
be expected from the events of his own life) to check the weak-
ness of the prince's judgment, or to instil into him steadiness
of purpose. He, however, satisfied the father, from whom he
received the living of Wimbledon in 1298 ; and ingratiated
himself with the son, whose continued employment of him,
while Prince of Wales, is evidenced by a letter dated in
October, 1305, directing him to go to the barons of the
Exchequer to obtain a release, for a widow in Wales, from a
distress which they had illegally issued against her. }

On the accession of his pupil he was rapidly advanced.
He immediately obtained a canonry in St. Paul's, and was
constituted treasurer of the Exchequer on August 22, 1307.
To this was added the bishoprick of Worcester in April, 1308 ;
and on July 6, 1310, 3 Edward II., resigning the treasurer-
ship 2, the Great Seal was placed in his hands. The terms
used on the roll recording this event make it doubtful whether
he was invested with the office of chancellor or with that of
keeper. The oath he is described as taking, is "de officio
Sigilli illius fideliter exequendo ; " 3 which wrould seem to
apply more directly to the latter. In subsequent records,
however, he is certainly called chancellor4; and there is little
doubt that he held the Great Seal in that character till
December 19, 1311, 5 Edward II.5 Soon after his ap-
pointment he lent 1000/. to the king, to the advance «>i"
which has been attributed, without sufficient evidence, his
attainment of the Seal ; but as the loan was made after his
elevation, it may more charitably be ascribed to his desire to
assist the king in the necessities which then pressed upon

1 Ninth Hep., Pul). Rcc, A pp., ii. 249.

8 Madox'a Exoh. ii. 88. 1. m. 3 Rot. Clans. -1 Edw. II., in.

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 48. a. » Rot. Clans. 5 Eilu\ II., in. 1,8.

vol. in. u

29ji WALTER REGINALD. Edw. II.

him, the ordainers teSgJft^! at that tIme in Possessi°n of
the government and the royal purse ,' - ~ 011 order, indeed, for
the repayment of nearly one half of it was made so early
as May 1, 1311. l

Between December 19, 1311, and October 6, 1312, the
Seal never appears to have been under his control ; but on the
latter day it was again placed in his hands, only, however, as
custos or keeper, remaining sealed up under the seals of the
master of the Rolls and two other clerks in Chancery, in
whose presence it would seem that all writs were sealed.2
In this manner the office was executed till April 5, 1314,
7 Edward II.3, which is the last date on which the bishop
is mentioned in connection with the Seal.4

His removal from this high office, which no doubt took
place about that time, was not occasioned by any dimi-
nution of his sovereign's favour, but rather by his having
attained a higher elevation. On the decease of Archbishop
Winchelsey in May, 1313, although the monks had elected
Dr. Cobham, the sub-Dean of Salisbury — a most learned
and excellent man, — in his place, the king contrived to
get the election annulled by the pope, and his favourite,
Walter, to be substituted for him. The bull by which this
was effected is dated October 1, 1313; and he was with
great pomp enthroned on April 19, 1314, in the presence of
the king and queen and a large attendance of the nobility.
His rule over of the archbishoprick was illustrated by the
acquisition of many important privileges from the papal see.
He obtained no less than eight bulls conferring extensive
powers of visitation and dispensation.

During the earlier troubles with the barons he remained
faithful to the king ; but, on the queen's invasion of the king-
dom, he basely deserted his patron and master, adding strength

J Rot. Claus. 4 Edw. II., p. 2. m. 2 2 Ibid, 6 Edw. II., m. 5. 26.

3 Ibid. 7 Edw. II., m. 7. * Ibid. 8 Edw. II., m. 32.

1307—1327. ROBERT DE RETFORD. 291

to her party by the weight of his position, and, on the king's
deposition completing his infamy by crowning the son of his
benefactor.

This event, which took place on February I, 1327, was
quickly followed by his own death. The adulterous queen
is said to have so pressed the consecration of James de
Berkley, elected Bishop of Exeter, that the pusillanimous
archbishop, more fearful of the prevailing and present power
than that of the pope at a distance, did not dare to resist.
The Roman pontiff, enraged that his confirmation had not
been first obtained, by his threats and reproaches against the
offending prelate created such terror or such remorse in his
mind, that, within a few days after the announcement of the
pope's anger, a mortal sickness fell upon him. His death
occurred at Mortlake on November 16, 1327, and his re-
mains were interred in Canterbury Cathedral.

To the convent of Christchurch, the hospital of Maidstone,
and Langdon Abbey, he made considerable benefactions : but
any credit which he may have deserved for his liberality, or
for his mildness, prudence, and capacity for business, must
be overshadowed by the time-serving and abject weakness of
his character. To this cowardly spirit must be attributed his
ungrateful treachery to his king, his subserviency in the
matter of the Bishop of Exeter, and the dread of the
papal power which terminated his life.1

RETFORD, ROBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

By two pleas in 18 Edward I., relative to certain land in
Ordesale, Nottinghamshire, it appears that Kobert de Retford
was the son of Richard, who was the son of Thomas de Ret-

1 Godwin de Prasul. 103. 462. ; Ilasted's Kent, xii. 370. ; Augl. Sac. i. IS.
59. 532.

U 2

292 ROBERT DE RETFORD. Ei>w. II.

ford l, so called from a town in that county. He was first
summoned to parliament among the judges in August, 1295,
23 Edward I., and there are records of his pleas as a justice
itinerant at Norwich and at Dunstable in the next year.2
His attendance in parliament in that character is rioted till
the end of the reign3, in the thirty- fifth year of which,
February, 1307, he was placed among the justices of Trail-
baston for the home counties.4

Dugdale does not introduce him into his Chronica Series
till 4 Edward II. ; but there is not only the above proof
of his acting in the previous reign, but also, from the com-
mencement of this, there are regular writs summoning him to
parliament in the same manner. They are continued till
June, 1318, 11 Edward II., and there is evidence of his
exercising his functions not only in the home district, but in
Durham and in Leicestershire, up to the ninth year of that
reign.5

Among the records of the treasury of the Exchequer is an
indenture dated April 29, 9 Edward II., whereby the
executors of Robert de Retford delivered up a very large
number of the rolls and writs of the justices in Eyre which
had been in his possession.6 The only way to account for
his being summoned to parliament apparently after his death,
is by supposing either that there is a mistake in the date
of this indenture, or, what is more probable, that the par-
liamentary writs were made out from a list, in the correction
of which the clerks did not exercise sufficient care.

RICHMOND, Archdeacons of. See R. de Northburgh,

R. DE WODEHOUSE.

1 Abbrev. Placit. 284. 8 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 96, 97.

3 Pari. Writs, i. 801. 4 Rot. Pari. i. 218.

* Ibid. i. 346.; Dugdale's Chron. Series; Pari. Writs, ii 1331.

6 Cal. Exch. iii. 114.

1307—1327. GILBERT DE ROUBURY. 293

KODBOROUGH, MILO DE.

Just. Itin. 1310.

Milo de Rodborough took his name from tli.it town in
Gloucestershire; but was apparently resident in Worcester-
shire in the early part of the reign of Edward II., as in
the third year he was one of the assessors and collectors
in that county of the twenty-fifth which was granted by
parliament, and was also in a local judicial commission
therein. In the next year, 1310, he wras the last named of
the three justices of assize appointed for both these counties
and three neighbouring ones. It seems that he acted by
himself in Gloucestershire ; for before the end of that year,
viz., on May 26, 1311, a commission wras issued to four
justices to hear the complaints made against him in a peti-
tion from the men of that county, charging him with many
acts of oppression, corruption, and malversation in the execu-
tion of his office. The result of this inquiry does not appear ;
but it may be presumed to have been favourable to him,
inasmuch as in the two following years he was responsibly
employed, and, in the latter, was one of three assigned to
talliate the cities, &c. in the same five counties over which
his commission as a justice of assize extended. He died in
7 Edward II.1

ROUBURY, GILBERT DE.

Just. K. B. 1307. Just. C. P. 13 1 6.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Before Gilbert de Roubury became a judge, he evidently
held some place of consideration in the courts; several in-
stances occurring of his name being added to those of the
justices commissioned to take inquisitions2, and of his car-

■ Tail. Writs, ii. P, ii. 1.U1.; Dugdale j Ahhiw. Rot Orig. i. '205.
a Rot. Tarl. i. 29. 100.

U 3

294

JOHN SALMON.

Edw. II.

rying records into court.1 His appointment as a justice of
the Court of King's Bench occurred in 23 Edward I., 1295 2,
during the remainder of which reign he seems to have taken
a prominent part in the administration of justice. Summoned
among his brethren to parliament, he was frequently se-
lected as one of the receivers of petitions3 ; and in the Statute
of Champerty, 33 Edward I., he is specially mentioned as
clerk of the king's council, and as recommending the writ of
conspiracy.4

On the accession of Edward II. he was re-appointed to his
seat in the King's Bench; and in the ninth year of that
reign, March 10, 1316, he was removed into the Common
Pleas, taking the place vacated by William Inge.5 Fines
were levied before him there from that year till the beginning
of 14 Edward II.6; and the last summons to council addressed
to him is dated November 29, 1320. He retired from the
court, or died, before May 31, 1321, and was succeeded by
John de Bousser ; for though the patent to the latter does
not, from being illegible in parts, distinctly state the fact, it
is made apparent by the subsequent direction to the judges
to admit the said John de Bousser in the place u prasdicti
Gilberti ; " and there was no other G ilbert then in the Com-
mon Pleas.7

SALISBURY, Chancellor of. See R. de Ayremynne.
SALMON, JOHN, Bishop of Norwich.

Chancellor, 1320.

We learn that the names of the father and mother of John
Salmon were Salomon and Amicia, from his appointing four

1 Rot. Pari. i. 81, 82. 113. 126.

3 Rot. Pari. i. 159. 182. 189.

5 Rot. Pat. 9 Edw. II., p. 2. m. 22.

7 Rot. Pat. 14 Edw. II., p. 2. m. 6.

8 Dugdale's Chron. Series.
* Stat, at large, i. 150.
6 Dugdale's Orig. 44.

1307—1327.

JOHN SALMON.

295

priests to pray for their souls in a chapel he founded in the
chancel of Norwich Cathedral ; and it may be presumed that
the family was not of any eminence, from the bishop's as-
suming for his arms a rebus of his name ; three silver
salmons hauriant on a sable field. He is sometimes called
John of Ely, having been prior of the convent there.
Holding this dignity when William de Luda, bishop of that
see, died in 1298, he was elected his successor ; but the pope
interfering in favour of Ralph Walpole, Bishop of Norwich,
translated that prelate to Ely, and conferred the bishoprick
of Norwich on Salmon by a bull dated July 15, 1299.
Salmon was not employed by Edward L, but he visited Home
in 1306. On the accession of Edward II. he was sent to
France as one of the ambassadors to demand Isabella, the
daughter of King Philip, as the wife of his sovereign. In
the third year of the reign he was chosen one of the lords
ordainers ; and in the ninth he WftB among the commissioners
to open the parliament then held. On this occasion he made
a speech on the king's behalf, and took the part of his sove-
reign throughout his troublesome reign.

On January 26, 1320, 13 Edward II., he was appointed
chancellor in full parliament, in the place of John de Hot ham,
Bishop of Ely ; but, though he retained the office for three
years and a half, he seems to have been so severe a sufferer
from ill health, that the business of the Chancery was fre-
quently performed by deputies. His delivery of the Seal to
the custodes directed to act for him, on June 5, 1323, when
he was confined to his bed, may be considered as the date
of his ultimate retirement, although the entry is precisely
similar to those made on previous occasions, and although
the new chancellor was not named till the 20th of August
following.

He recovered from that sickness; for in the following year
he wrent as ambassador to the court of France, and succeeded

u 4

296 JOHN DE SAND ALE. Ei>w. II.

in negotiating a peace between the two kings. His health,
however, again failing, he died at the priory of Folkestone
on July 2, 1325, having presided over his diocese for nearly
six- and- twenty years.

Under his name of John of Ely he is enumerated among
the benefactors to the university of Cambridge. At Norwich
he built not only the chapel already alluded to, but a great
hall in the palace, the porch of which is the only remnant of
its former magnificence.1

SAN DALE, JOHN DE, Treasurer of Lichfield, ? Dean
of London, Bishop of Winchester.

Chancellor, 1314.

John de Sandale held an office connected with the
Treasury or Exchequer in 30 Edward I., 1302, when he is
mentioned as receiving a crown for Queen Margaret2 : in the
following year he and John de Drokenesford are called
treasurers3; and he was likewise one of those appointed to
assess the tallage in London and Middlesex, Kent, Surrey,
and Sussex. In 33 Edward I., he was present at the par-
liament then held at Westminster, and was named one of the
receivers of the petitions of Gascony ; and in that year also
he became chamberlain of Scotland, an office which he held
till the end of the rei^n ; being at the same time commissioned
to treat with the Scots on the affairs of that country.4

Called from Scotland at the accession of Edward II., lie
was constituted chancellor of the Exchequer on August 7,
13075, and at the end of the year was one of those directed
to instruct the sheriffs of London and Middlesex in arresting

1 Godwin de Praesul. 433; Angl. Sac. i. 412. 802. ; Le Neve, 210.; Rot.
Pari. i. 250. 443. ; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1234. ; Blomefield's Norwich, i. 497.

2 Rot. Pari. i. 474. 3 Devon's Issue Roll, 116

4 Rot. Pari. i. 159. 204. 211. 266. 465. 473. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 154,

5 Rot. Pat. 1 Edw. II., p. 1. m. 19.

1307—1327. JOHN DE SANPALE. 297

the Knights Templars.1 On May 14, 1308, Ave find him
acting as locum tenens for Walter Eeginald, Bishop of Wor-
cester, the treasurer ; and continuing to do so till that prelate
became chancellor, on July 6, 1310, 3 Edward I., when
the office of treasurer was placed in Sandale's hands. There
it remained until March 14, 1312, when he was succeeded by
Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, whose
locum tenens he was named in the following October. He
occupied this station till he was appointed chancellor, on
September 26, 1314, 8 Edward II., as on that day he was
commanded to give up all things appertaining to the treasurer-
ship to Walter de Norwich, then raised to that office.2

The Great Seal was on the same day delivered to him at
York, after the resignation of Walter Reginald3, who had
been translated from the bishoprick of Worcester to the
archbishoprick of Canterbury ; and he held it till June 9,
1318, 11 Edward II.4

Sandale, as most of the other clerks of the Exchequer, was an
ecclesiastic, and one of the king's chaplains. On January 10,
1310, he had been made treasurer of Lichfield, was a canon
of York, and is inserted in Le Neve's catalogue of the Deans
of London. It seems, however, doubtful whether he ever
held the latter dignity. During his chancellorship the bishop-
rick of Winchester became vacant, and he was elected to that
see in August, 1316 ; but presided over it for little more than
three years.5

Soon after his resignation of the Great Seal, to the custody
of which John de Ilotham, Bishop of Ely, succeeded, he was
restored to his office of treasurer, which was committed to
him on November 16, 1318, 12 Edward II.6 He held it

1 Rot. Claus. 1 Edw. II., m. 13.

* Madox'a Exch. i. 75. 314. 380 , ii. 8. 30. 38, 39. 50. 279. 290. 325.

" Rot. Claus. S Edw. II., m. 32. « Ibid. 11 Edw. II..

" Le Neve, 130. 183. 2 6 Madox'i Exch. ii

298

GEOFFREY DE SAY.

Edw. II.

during the remainder of his life, which terminated in less than
a year afterwards. He died on November 2, 1319, at South-
wark, and wTas buried in St. Margaret's Church there.1

His life seems to have been employed in a routine of official
duties, of which no further interruption is noticed than a
pilgrimage he made to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canter-
bury, a few months before he resigned the Seal.2 Previous
to his elevation to the bishoprick, his London residence, as
chancellor, was in Aldgate.3 He was one of the executors
of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, of whose property the
king in his necessities borrowed 4100 marks, and granted
the issues of the customs on wool in Kingston-upon-Hull
towards the repayment. From Edward I. Sandale received
the manor of Berghby in Lincolnshire, and from Edward II.
a house in the suburbs of Lincoln belonging to a religious
society then dissolved.4 It is probable, therefore, that his
family was settled in that county, although from its name it
no doubt had its origin in Yorkshire, in which, at his death,
he had property in the manor of Whetlay, near Doncaster.5

SAY, GEOFFREY DE.

? Just. K. B. 1322.

The reasons previously given for omitting the name of Wil-
liam de Dyve from the list of justices of the King's Bench,
although introduced into Dugdale's Chronica Series, apply
equally to that of Geoffrey de Say ; with the addition that,
the latter being a distinguished member of an ancient and
noble family, the absence of any proof that he was seated in
that court increases the presumption that he was not so.

Geoffrey de Say was descended from Picot de Say, a Shrop-
shire baron in the reign of the Conqueror. His father,

1 Godwin de Praesul. 223.; Angl. Sac. i. 316.

8 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. II., m. 11. 3 Ibid. 8 Edw. II., m. 4.

* Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 165. 195. 197. 5 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 292.

1307—1327. GEOFFREY 1)E SxVY. 299

William, who had large possessions in Kent, besides some in
other counties, died in 23 Edward L, 1295, leaving him an
infant of fourteen years of age. He and his wife Idonea, the
daughter of William de Leybourne, attended the coronation
of Edward II., in 1308, as from the county of Kent ; and he
was first summoned to parliament as a baron in the seventh
year of that reign, July 26, 1313. He was frequently called
upon to perform military services, but was never, as far as
appears from the records, employed judicially . It is extremely
probable, however, that among the numerous commissions
issued for the trial of the adherents of Thomas de Badlesmere,
there should have been one for his county of Kent, and that
he, as a baron of that county, should have been named in it,
and thus be entitled to the description of justiciarius regis,
which Gervas of Canterbury gives to him, and by which
every person so employed would be then designated during
the continuance of the commission.

He died in 15 Edward II., 1321-2, the very year named
by Dugdale as that of his judicial appointment ; leaving a son,
also Geoffrey, only seventeen years old, who succeeded him ;
but his male descendants failed in 1382, and the barony is
said to be in abeyance among the representatives of Idonea
and Joane, the two aunts of the last baron. In 1447, how-
ever, the grandson of Sir William Fiennes, who had married
the said Joane, was summoned to parliament with the title
of Lord Say and Sele, to which was added that of viscount
in 1G24. The viscounty became extinct for want of male
heirs in 1781 ; but the barony still survived, and was carried
through females into the family of Twistleton.1

1 Inland's Collect, i. P. ii. 275.; Dugdale's Baron, i. 511. ; Pari. Writs, ii.
P. ii. 1402. ; Nicolas's Synopsis.

300 ROGER DE SCOTRE. Edw. II.

SCOTRE, ROGER DE.

B. E. IS 10.

Roger de Scotre was possessed of Coringham and several
other manors in Lincolnshire. In 1309, 3 Edward II., he
and Edmund Passelegh were appointed to transact the king's
business of pleas ; and were directed to appear at the Ex-
chequer on Michaelmas-day, to do as the king and his
council should order. The body of the writ does not mention
the word " Serjeant ; " but the marginal title is " D §iantz
assignez as pletz le Roy ; " and he is accordingly inserted in
Dugdale's and Wynne's lists of Serjeants. On July 17, 1310,
4 Edward II., he was constituted a baron of the Exchequer
in the room of Thomas de Cantebrig; and in the same
year was the first named of three justices of assize for six
counties, of which Lincoln was one. His tenure of office
was very short; for he died between September 12, 1311,
the date of his last parliamentary summons, and March 3,
1312, when his successor, Walter de Norwich, received his
patent.

He left a wife, called both Agnes and Elizabeth, who died
in 10 Edward II. ; and an only daughter, named Elizabeth,
who died a minor in 7 Edward II.1

SCROPE, GEOFFREY LE.

Just. C. P. 1323. Ch. K. B. 1324.
See under the Reign of Edward III.

SCROPE, HENRY LE.

Just. C. P. 1308. Ch. K. B. 1317.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 1408.; Dugdale ; Abbrev. Pot. Orig. i. 187. 202. 205. ;
Cal. Inquis. p. in., i. 247. 259. 280.

1307—1327. HENRY SPIGURNEL. 301

SPIGURNEL, HENRY.

Just. K. B. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Spigurnel was the name given to the officer who sealed the
writs in Chancery ; and was by degrees adopted as the sur-
name of the family, by which the duty continued, probably
during many successions, to be executed. The first who is
mentioned is Godfrey Spigurnel, who, in a grant in 9 John cf
five bovates of land and a mill, in Skeggeby in Nottingham-
shire, is styled " serviens noster de capella nostra."1 He had
a grant of three " oboli " a day out of the ferm of the town of
Hertford, and is last mentioned in 1 1 Henry III.2 Nicholas
Spigurnel was probably his son, and seems to have per-
formed the same duties, and to have been sheriff of Essex and
Hertfordshire in 49 Henry III., the year before his death.
He was succeeded by Edmund 3, who died in 24 Edward I.,
leaving a son John, who, and whose son Edmund, died in
possession of Skeggeby, and of Stanton, in Essex, the former
in 2 Edward II., and the latter in 8 Edward II.4

I am inclined to believe that Henry Spigurnel was a
younger brother of John. He possessed lands in Northamp-
tonshire above 20/. a year; and was summoned in respect
thereof to perform military service in 25 Edward I., 1297.
In the same year his name is among the justices and
members of the council summoned to parliament 5 ; and he
appears to have acted in a judicial character in the previous
year.6 Dugdale, in the reign of Edward I., notices him only
as a justice itinerant, commencing with the thirtieth year;
but there is no doubt that he was at that time a judge of the

1 Rot. Chart. 169. 2 Rot. Claus. i. 356., ii. 182.

3 Fuller's Worthies; Excerpt, e Rot. Fin. ii. 4 1:'..

4 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 127. 231. 256. 5 Pari. Writs, i. 52. 289.
0 Abbrev. Rot Orig. i. 97.

302

HENRY SPIGUIiNEL.

Edw. II.

King's Bench. In Hilary, 29 Edward L, 1301, he and
William de Ormesby are recorded as holding " locum Regis "
at Lincoln, " in absencla R. de Brabanzon ; " and in Easter
of the same year on the Roll of Pleas " coram domino rege "
at Worcester, these two and Gilbert de Roubury are men-
tioned as holding the court in the absence of the chief justice1 :
and further, in the writ directing him to take the oaths on
the accession of Edward II., his previous seat in the court is
referred to.2

From his first appointment, till 19 Edward II., he seems
to have been most active in the performance of his duties,
and to have been employed as one entrusted with affairs
of confidence. In 4 Edward II. he was one of the king's
nuncios to the council, and was sent to Rome on a special
mission ; and in the seventh year he was summoned to
undertake, with the Bishop of Worcester and three others, an
embassy beyond the seas. Although returned by the sheriff
of Bedford, in 17 Edward II., as a knight beyond sixty years
of age, and unfit for service, we find him acting in the fol-
lowing year as a justice itinerant in the islands of Jersey and
Guernsey. His last recorded appearance as a judge is in
the parliament of November, 1325, 19 Edward II.; but
his death did not occur till three years afterwards.

The only account of his character is in the political song
before referred to, in which, when spoken of as a justice of
Trailbaston in 33 Edward L, he is described as " gent de
cruelte ; " but too much reliance must not be placed on so
suspicious an authority.

He lived at Kenilworth ; and, according to his own return
in 1316, was lord or joint-lord of various townships in the
counties of Bedford, Buckingham, Oxford, and Northampton.
He had also property in Essex and Leicestershire. By his

Abbrev. Placit. 242. 295.

Pari. Writs, ii. Part II.

1307—1327. HEEVEY DE STAUNTON. 303

wife Surah he had issue. John, who was knight of the shire
for Bedford in 1 Edward II., was probably his eldest son,
and died before his father. Thomas, who represented the
same county in 1-4 Edward II., was certainly the son of the
judge, and was living in 1366.

In 1335 King Edward III. granted one third of the
manor of Tottenham in Middlesex to Richard Spigurnel, for
his faithful services to his father and grandfather in Chancery ;
and Lord Coleraine, in his history of that town, asserts that
this Richard was Henry the judge, and that Dugdale had
mistaken the Christian name. It is scarcely necessary to
say that his lordship is wrong and Dugdale right. There
was a Richard in the family, who, in 18 John, left a son who
was placed under the wardship of Godfrey Spigurnel. The
Richard in question, who no doubt executed the original
office in Chancery from which the family was named, was
perhaps a descendant from him.1

STAUNTON, HERVEY DE.

Just. C. P. 1307. B. E. 1314. Ch. K. B. 1323. Ch. C. P. 1326.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

Hebvbt de Staunton, who by an easy mistake is some-
times called Henry de Staunton, was of a Nottinghamshire
family of large possessions and ancient lineage, which is still
flourishing at Staunton Hall in that county. The line began
with Malgerus in the time of the Conquest, and proceeded
through Geoffrey de Staunton his son, whose grandson,
Sir William, was the father of two sons, Sir Geoffrey de
Staunton, and the subject of this notice. Their mother

1 Pari. Writs, i. 8G4., ii. 1448. 1459. J Rot. Pari. i. 157—449.; Wright 'a
Political Sol : Nicholls's Leicester* 336. ; History of Tottenham, by

Oldfield and Dyson (IT'.K)), pp. 39. 41. j Rot. Clans, i. 286. J Abbrov. Placit.
319. 329.; N. Feeders, ii. 128.

304 HERVEY DE STAUNTON. Edw. II.

was Athelina, daughter and co-heir of John de Musters,
Lord of Bosingham, in Lincolnshire.1

No memorials remain of his studies ; but it is evident that
he was an ecclesiastic as well as a lawyer. On one occasion
he is called " Clericus," and on another is described as pre-
bendary of Hustwhait, in the cathedral of York.2 As a
lawyer he is first mentioned in 30 Edward I., 1302, among
the justices itinerant into Cornwall ; and in the next year as
holding the same character in Durham ; on both occasions
taking a low position on the list.3 In the parliament held at
Westminster in September, 1305, 33 Edward L, he was one
of those appointed to receive and answer the petitions from
Ireland and the isle of Guernsey 4, and on April 20, 1306,
he was called to the bench as a judge of the Common Pleas.
While performing the duties of that office, the proofs of
which appear by the fines levied before him 5, he acted in the
following year (being the last of the reign of that king) as
one of the justices assigned to take assizes in ten different
counties.

On the accession of Edward II. he was re-appointed in
the same court, and though his name does not occur in the
Year Book after the sixth year of the reign, he continued
to perform the duties of the office till September 28, 1314,
8 Edward II., when he exchanged his seat in the Common
Pleas for that of a baron of the Exchequer. On June 22,
1316, he became chancellor of the Exchequer; but seems,
however, to have been still employed in a judicial character
on various commissions, and to have been regularly sum-
moned to parliament with the other judges.6

In 1323, 17 Edward II., Hervey de Staunton was raised

1 Thoroton's Notts, i. 305. ; Burke's Landed Gentry.

8 Abbrev. Placit. 259. 335. 3 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

4 Rot. Pari. i. 159. s Dugdale's Orig. 44.

6 Pari. Writs, ii. 1457.

1307—1327. IIERVEY DE STAUNTON. 305

to the office of chief justice of the King's Bench. Dugdale
quotes a close roll commanding him not to quit the office
of chancellor of the Exchequer, but cause it to be executed
by some other fit person at such times as he should be
necessitated to attend the hearing of causes; and Madox
gives a writ, dated September 17 or 27 in that year, by
which the seal of the Exchequer was temporarily committed
to the custody of the treasurer.1 Staunton retained the chief
justiceship of the King's Bench for a very few months,
being superseded, on the 21st of March following, by Geoffrey
le Scrope : but he was five days afterwards reappointed
chancellor of the Exchequer. On July 18, 1326, 20 Ed-
ward II., he was constituted chief justice of the Common
Pleas, and gave up the seals of the Exchequer to Robert de
Ayleston, his successor.2

Dugdale cites the same patent as appointing him not
only chief justice of the Common Pleas, but chief baron of
the Exchequer also. This is a manifest blunder, as the
patent is wholly silent on the subject.

Half a year after this the king was deposed, and Hervey
de Staunton died about the same time ; William de Herle
being immediately made chief justice in his place.3 He
was buried in St. Michael's Church, Cambridge, where he
founded the House of that name, and endowed it with the
manor of Barenton and the advowson of the church there.4

A miserable rhyming pedigree of the family by one
Robert Cade may be seen in Thoroton's Nottinghamshire,
vol. i. p. 305. : but as the account it gives of the judge has
neither authority nor beauty to recommend it, it is un-
necessary to insert it here.

1 Dugdale's Orig. 38. ; Madox's Exch. ii. 53. e.

■ Rot. Pat. 20 Edw. II., m. 27. 29. ; Pail. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1458.

A Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 10. ' Uolinsbed, ii. 574. ; Cal. Rot. Pat. 98.

VOL. III. X

306 JOHN DE THORPE. Enw. II.

STONORE, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1320. ? Just. K. B. 1323. Just. C. P. 1324.

See under the Reign of Edward III.
THORPE, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

John de Thorpe was the son of Robert de Thorpe and
Maud his wife, of a considerable family, possessing Rolands,
Combes, Uphall, and other manors in Norfolk and Suffolk.
He was returned as knight of the shire for Norfolk in
33 Edward I., and acted in the same year as assessor and
collector of the aid to the king in that county.1 In 35 Ed-
ward I., 1307, he held the second place among the justices
of Trailbaston, then appointed for those two counties.2 In
the character of a justice he attended the first parliament of
Edward II. ; and though in the following years he was sum-
moned as a baron, it is evident that he continued to act as a
judge during the remainder of his life. He " and his com-
panions" are mentioned as justices in Norfolk in 8 Ed-
ward II. ; and various judicial duties were assigned to him
up to the seventeenth year.3 In 13 Edward II. he was
made sheriff of the county.4

He married Alice Mortimer; and at his death, on May 16,
1324, 17 Eclw. II., his son Robert succeeded him, but does
not appear to have been summoned as a baron. Some of his
manors remained till 1522 in the hands of his descendants.

He affords another instance of irregularity in the writs ;
having been summoned to parliament for nearly two years
after his death.5

1 Pari. Writs, i. 863. a Rot. Pari. i. 218. SOI.

3 Pari. Writs, ii. 1503-5. * Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 252.

5 Ibid. i. 278.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 310. ; Rot. Pari. i. 169. 419,420.;
Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 137. 611., &c. ; Pari. Writs, ii. 1504.

130 7—1327. WILLIAM TRUSSEL. 307

TOUTIIEBY, GILBERT DE.

J i st. Itin. 1318.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

TRIKIXGHAM, LAMBERT DE.

Just. C. P. 1307, Just. K. B. 1316. B. E. 1320.

See under the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward III.

TRUSSEL, WILLIAM.

? Just. 1326.

Historians usually describe William Trussel as a justiciary ;
but he certainly was not a judge of either of the courts of
Westminster, nor a regular justice of assize. His judicial
functions seem to have been confined to the special trials with
which his name is connected. He was apparently descended
from the William Trussel who has been already mentioned as
a justiciar in the reign of Henry III. ; and was second son of
William Trussel, of Gublesdone (Kibblesdone), in Stafford-
shire (a manor which came to the family by marriage, from
Roesia, the daughter and heir of William Pantolf), and of
other manors in Northamptonshire, by Maud, daughter and
heir of Warin dc Manwarin. His father, who was knight of
the shire for Leicester, where he also had property, in the
parliament of 8 Edward II., died in the eleventh year of that
reign. His elder brother, John, was called Trussel of Thorpe
Malsor, one of his father's manors in Northamptonshire, and
he himself was generally styled of Cublesdone. His mother
afterwards married Oliver de Burdeux.1

After his father's death he was returned member for the
county of Northampton in 12 Edward II., and is named
among the knights of that county, and the county of Stafford,
in the seventeenth year, 1224. In the interim he had been in

1 Cal. Rot Pat

\ 'J

308 WILLIAM TRUSSEL. Edw. II,

arms against the government, and was with the Earl of Lan-
caster in the defeat at Boroughbridge. He was there taken
prisoner, and appears to have been in custody on July 20,
1322 ; but a writ for his pursuit and capture on August 2
proves that he had made his escape. In the next year he
was at the head of those who ravaged the estates of the
Despencers.1 Joining the queen in France, he accompanied
her on her landing in England in September, 1326, and was
present at the fall of Bristol and the seizure of the elder
Despencer. Some writers say, that the aged earl was executed
without hearing or trial ; while others state, that he was
accused before Sir William de Trussel ; but there are no re-
mains of any regular proceedings against him. The younger
Despencer, on his capture, was arraigned before Trussel in an
equally informal manner ; his speech, in pronouncing the
horrible sentence, seeming to have been the only indictment.
That speech recapitulated all the popular charges against the
prisoner and his father; and, after minutely particularising
the punishment awarded, concluded by dismissing the fallen
favourite with coarse vituperation. Trussel is neither before
nor after described as a judge ; and the actor in so summary a
process, which has the appearance of martial law, is scarcely
entitled to be so designated.

Although there is no record that Trussel was returned as
a knight, or burgess, to the parliament that assembled at
Westminster on January 7, 1327, there is no doubt that he
was present in some character, as he was appointed procurator
for the whole parliament, and deputed to proceed, with
certain prelates and peers, to Kenilworth Castle, where the
king was confined, and to pronounce the renunciation of their
homage and fealty to him.

This formality completed, Edward III. was proclaimed;
and Trussel received the reward of his devotion by being

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1528.

1307—1327. HUMFREY DE WALEDENE. 309

immediately constituted the king's escheator south of Trent
Pie was, however, removed from this office in the following
year, having made himself an enemy in Roger de Mortimer,
the queen's favourite, on whose death he was reinstated in the
fourth year.1 In 7 Edward III. some change took place in
the office, and he had a grant of certain lands in the isle of
Anglesey, of which he was soon after made sheriff, and
constable of the Castle of Beaumaris. From the ninth to the
fourteenth year we find him again king's escheator, some-
times on one and sometimes on the other side of the Trent.2

After this time it is difficult to trace distinctly whether
the entries apply to his son William, or to him ; but it seems
most probable that it was the son who was the admiral of
the fleet in 13 and 16 Edward III., and who is stated by
Dugdale to have been summoned as a baron to parliament
in the latter year.3 If so, however, it is difficult to under-
stand how "Monsr. William Trussel" answers as the repre-
sentative of the Commons — that is to say, their speaker — in
the parliament held at Westminster in May, 17 Edw. III.4 ;
but the question is of little importance, because it is allowed
that neither he nor his posterity were ever afterwards sum-
moned as a baron.

WALEDENE, HUMFREY DE.

B. E. 1324.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

There are several proofs that Humfrey de Waledenc was an
officer in the Exchequer long before he became a baron of
that court. In 19 Edward I. the manor of Horsington was
committed to him, during the minority of the heir, at a rent
of 50/. a year.5 In 28 Edward I. he was appointed to

' Abbrev. Rot Ong. ii. 4—11. 42—71. * Ibid. 78. 82. 103—136.

1 Dugdale's Huron, ii. 143. 4 Rot. Pari. ii. 136.

Abbrev. Hot. Orig. i. 66.

x 3

310 IIUMFREY DE WALEDENE. Edw. II.

perambulate the forests of Somerset, Dorset, and Devon.1
In 30 Edward I. the bishoprick of Worcester was committed
to him during its vacancy; and four years afterwards the
archbishoprick of Canterbury.2 He held the latter only from
June 8, 1306, till March 26, 1307, when a papal nominee
was substituted for him.3

His appointment as a baron of the Exchequer took place
on October 19, 1306, 34 Edward I. ; but he only retained his
office till the following July, when the reign terminated.4

Although he was not one of the barons sworn in on the
accession of Edward II., there is nothing to show that he was
disgraced. On the contrary, he is found among the justices of
oyer and terminer, in the fourth and eighth years of that
reign, for Essex and Hertford. In 13 Edward II. he had an
extensive grant of the stewardship of various royal castles
and manors in eleven counties — among which was the park of
Windsor, — and of the auditorship of their accounts ; a grant
which was renewed four years afterwards to him and Richard
de Ikene.5 About the same time he is mentioned also as
steward to the Earl of Hertford ; and seems to have been
appointed, at his desire, one of the justices to take an assize in
which he wTas interested.6

He was restored to his place on the Exchequer bench on
June 18, 1324, 17 Edward II. ; but though he acted during
the remainder of the reign7, it does not appear that he sat as a
baron under Edward III. He died in the fifth year of that
king, leaving an infant heir, during whose minority his lands
in Stanford Rivers, in Essex, and his manor of Lavar Mag-
dalen, in the same county, were placed under the custody of
John de Cantebrig, at a rent of 207. His son, of the same

1 Pari. Writs, i. 398. s Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 119. 150.

3 Madox's Exch. ii. 224. 4 Ibid. ii. 46. 49. 57. 325.

5 Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. i. 252. 276. 6 Rot. Pari. i. 398.

7 Pari. Writs, ii. Part ii. 1567.

1307 — 1. _ INGELARD DE WARLEE. 311

name, was escheator of that county and Hertford, in the
twenty-third year of Edward III.1

WALSINGHAM, RICHARD DE.

Just. Itin. 1307.
See under the Reign of Edward I.

RiCHARD de WALSINGHAM was a knight residing in Nor-
folk, his family being so called from the town of that name.
He was returned for the county to the parliaments of 28,
29, and 33 Edward I. ; and it was probably on that account
that he was placed in the latter year among the five justices
of Trailbaston appointed for Norfolk and Suffolk 2, and was
re-nominated in the new commissions of 1307.3

He was summoned among the justices to parliament in the
first year of Edward II., and, during the remainder of his
life, was occasionally employed in judicial business ; being
more than once commanded to cause the proceedings before
him as a justice of assize or otherwise to be estreated into
the Exchequer. He still continued to represent Norfolk in
parliament up to 7 Edward II. ; and is last mentioned in
12 Edward II. In the following year his executors were
directed to bring in the proceedings before him.4

His wife, whose name was Anastasia, was buried in the
Black Friars at Thetford.3

WARLEE, INGELARD DE.

? Keei>eu, ISIQ. B. E. 1316.

INGELARD DE Warlee was of the clerical profession, and
was procurator for the Archdeacon of Worcester in the
parliament of 35 Edward I.6 Mr. Hardy has introduced him

1 Abbrev. Rot, Olig, 50. 52. 201- 203. ; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 37.

Pari. Writs, i. 892. 3 Rot. Tail. i. 318.

4 Pari. Writs, ii. 1574. * Weever, 828.

Rot. Pari, i 19a 344,

X 4

312 GEOFFREY DE WELLEFORD. Edw. II.

as keeper of the Great Seal on May 11, 1310, 3 Edward II.,
because on the resignation of the chancellor, John de
Langton, Bishop of Chichester, on that day, the king de-
livered it to him to be kept in the wardrobe.1 He was then
keeper of that department, in which, during any vacancy, the
Seal was ordinarily deposited merely for safe custody. It so
remained, on this occasion, only till the next day, when it was
delivered to certain clerks of the Chancery, to perform the
duties ; and afterwards re-deposited there. Ingelard de
Warlee continued keeper of the wardrobe till the eighth year
of that reign. In 10 Edward II., on December 29, 1316, he
was appointed a baron of the Exchequer, in the place of
Hervey de Staunton, who was raised to the chancellorship of
that court ; and he so continued till his death, which occurred
in June, 1318, 11 Edward II., soon after which Robert de
Wodehouse was put in his place.2 There is an entry in the
wardrobe accounts, that "two pieces of Lucca cloth" were
laid upon his body, buried in the church of St. Martin's-
le-Grand.3

WELLEFORD, GEOFFREY DE.

? Keeper, 1310.

Geoffrey de Welleford is mentioned as a clerk of the
Chancery in 35 Edward I.4 The only reason for the in-
troduction of his name in this catalogue is, that under the
chancellorship of Walter Reginald, Bishop of Worcester,
when that prelate went to the king at Berwick, on Dec. 12,
1310, 4 Edward II., the Great Seal was committed to
Adam de Osgodby, the keeper of the Rolls, to be kept under
the seals of Robert de Bardelby and Geoffrey de Welleford.
They retained it till the chancellor's return a week after-

1 Hardy's Catal. - Pari. Writs, i. 1582.

3 Archaeologia, xxvi. 340. 4 Pari. Writs, i. 191.

1307—1327. JOHN DE WESTCOTE. 313

wards.1 He appears again, under the same circumstances,
on December 1, 1319, 13 Edward II., when the Seal was
placed in the custody of Robert de Bardelby, to be kept
under the seals of Master Henry de Cliff, Geoffrey de
Welleford, and William de Cliff, until the return of the
chancellor, John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely, from Newcastle
to York, where they accordingly sealed the writs.2 The
last record of his acting as a clerk of the Chancery is on
May 20, 1321, when he was present at the delivery of the
Seal.3

Of his private history, little that is certain remains ; and it
is doubtful whether he was connected with the family of
Ralph de Welleford, who has been noticed as a justicier in the
reigns of Richard and John. In the last year of the latter
king, there is a plea relative to the church of Norton in
Leicestershire, in which the names of Geoffrey and Regi-
nald, the sons of Walter de Welleford, occur4 : but of this
Geoffrey I can discover no more than that he had a grant, in
6 Edward II., of a messuage in the parish of St. Dunstan's,
near the New Temple, at an annual rent of forty shillings.5

WELLS, Treasurer of. See J. de Langton.

WESTCOTE, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1310.

John de Westcote appears to have been located in
Sussex, where he had property in the township of Leo-
minster, and obtained a license that the Abbot of Battle
might grant him the manor of Anstigh for the term of his
life. He was an advocate in the courts, and his name
occurs in the Year Books in the early part of the reign of

1 Rot. Clans. 4 Edw. II., m. 17. * Ibid. 13 Edw. II., m. 13.

;1 Ibid. 14 Edw. II., m.\1. * Abbrev. Placit. 92.

» Abbrev. Rot. Ori". i. 193.

314

JOHN DE WESTCOTE.

Edw. II.

Edward II. In the fourth year he was not only one of the
three justices of assize appointed for Essex and Hertford,
and the four neighbouring counties, but was also in a com-
mission in Hampshire and Wiltshire. He is not named in
any judicial employment later than 8 Edward II. ; and his
death occurred between that date and June in the thirteenth
year, when his executors were commanded to bring all pro-
ceedings before him into the Exchequer.1

WINCHESTER, Bishop of. See J. de Sandale.

WODEHOUSE, ROBERT DE, Archdeacon of Rich-
mond.

B. E. 1318.

See under the Reign of Edward III.

WORCESTER, Bishop of. See W. Reginald.
YORK, Archbishop of. See W. de Melton.

1 Abbrev. Hot. Orig. i. 198.; Dugdale ; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1601.
Pari. i. 300.

315

EDWARD III.

Reigned 50 years, 1 months, and 27 clays; from January 25, 1:527,
to June 21, 1377.

SURVEY OF THE REIGN.

When Edward III. assumed the title of King of France, he
added the year of his nominal reign over that country to that
of his reign in England. His claim to the French crown was
not urged, nor the new style adopted, till the beginning of the
fourteenth year, January 25, 1340 ; from which period, for
more than twenty years, all public documents have a double
date, the fourteenth year of England being called the first of
France ; and so on till the treaty of Bretigny, when he
formally renounced his title on May 8, 1360, in the thirty-
fourth year. In little more than nine years, however, he
resumed the title ; and from June 11, 1369, 43 Edward III.,
he again introduced the second date, as if it had not been
interrupted; and so continued the practice till the last year
of his reign, which was designated the fifty-first of England
and thirty-eighth of France.1

Edward's assumption of the title of King of France, his
renunciation of it, its subsequent revival, and his frequent
absences from the kingdom in support of his claim to that
crown, occasioned several changes in the armorial bearings

1 Ntcolai's Chronology of History, p. 297.

316 SEALS. Edw. II L

and inscriptions engraven on the Great Seal, the designs of
which gradually increased in richness and beauty.1

1. The Seal used for the first nine months after the kind's
accession was that of his grandfather, Edward L, which origin-
ally represented that monarch sitting on his throne, the back
and sides of which were ornamented with pinnacles and arcade
work. To these Edward II. had added two castles at the
sides of the throne ; and Edward III. merely introduced, on
the same Seal, an engraving of two flowers of the arms of
France, as a distinguishing mark.2 The other side of the Seal
had an impression of the king, in full armour, on horseback.

2. This first Seal was broken " in minutas pecias" on
October 5, 1327, and the chancellor gave these pieces to his
sealer. A new Seal was then adopted, which, in the procla-
mation announcing its introduction and conveying its im-
pression to the sheriffs of all the counties in England, is
described as differing from the other, as well in its circum-
ference as in its design on both sides.3 The alteration on the
reverse consisted of a different form of chair, or throne, and
the substitution of two large fleurs-de-lis on the sides, instead
of the castles ; on the obverse, by a new style of armour, and
a more graceful drapery for the horse. A payment of 51.
to a goldsmith on June 2, 1332 4, for making this seal,
leads to no conclusion as to its cost, as it not improbably was-
a balance or instalment of the account.

3. In 1335, one of the chamberlains of the Exchequer was
paid for going "from York to London, to order a certain
Great Seal, for the rule of the realm of England, to be newly
made."5 This new Seal, however, was not brought into use
till July 10, 1338, 12 Edward III.; when, the king being

1 In this account I have heen greatly assisted by an article in the Archaeo-
logical Journal, vol. ii. p. 14., written by Professor Willis with his usual accuracy
and perspicuity.

2 N. Fcedera, ii. 683. 3 Ibid. 718.

* Issue Roll, 6 Edw. III., 142. 5 Ibid. 9 Edw. III., 145.

1327—1377. SEALS. 317

about to leave the kingdom, in prosecution of his claim to the
throne of France, sent an impression of it to all the public
authorities, stating that he should take the Great Seal with
him, and had provided this to be used in his absence. The
variation consists in the reduction of the height of the chair,
and the substitution of three lions on each side for the fleur-
de-lis.1

4. A fourth Seal became necessary, by the king's formal
assumption of the title of King of France. This did not occur
till the commencement of his fourteenth year, January 25,
1340, although he had occasionally adopted the style from
October 7, 1337. The first use of this new Seal was its
being appended to his proclamation against his rival, Philip
de Valois, dated at Gaunt, February 8, 1340. On his return
to England on the 21st of that month, his proclamation of
its introduction was, as usual, accompanied by impressions to
be exhibited to the people.2

This Seal, which the king had brought with him from
foreign parts, and which was, no doubt, of foreign workman-
ship, is represented as coarse and ill- engraved, in which the
throne is flanked by two towers, and has a clumsy canopy,
with a shield of the arms of France and England quarterly,
hanging on each side; the title "Rex Francic et Anglie"
appears on the legend ; and the area is diapered with fleurs-
de-lis. The record of its destruction, occasioned, no doubt, by
its unfinished and inartistic execution, is dated on June 20,
1340 3 ; so that its existence was not of half a year's duration.
No notice is taken of the appropriation of the pieces.

5. The next Seal was brought into use on the day of the
destruction of the last; and as the king was then going abroad,

: In the engraving! to the new edition of Rymer, this seal is made to precede
the former in date ; but Professor Willis has clearly proved the contrary to he
the proper arrangement.

\. Feeder*, ii I 109. ill.-. :1 I hid. ii. I] 29.

318 SEALS, Ed^-. III.

it was a seal for the rule of the kingdom during his absence,
in substitution of the third-mentioned Seal, the fate of which
is not recorded. It is somewhat curious that no engraving or
specimen of this Seal has yet been discovered : its design is
therefore unknown, except that in the legend the title runs
"Rex Anglic et Francie."

6. On the king's angry return to England from Tournay
on November 30, 1340, he took away the last-mentioned
Seal from the chancellor, and gave to William de Kildesby
another Great Seal, which he had brought with him from
foreign parts, and ordered that it should be thenceforth used
in his kingdom of England.1

Its design is the king on a throne, with a rich triple canopy
over his head, and seven compartments of tracery panelling
behind, lions on each side, and a shield, quartering France
and England, suspended under a pointed arch. The title in
the legend is " Rex Francie et Anglie et Dominus Hibernie."
It is the first Great Seal in which tabernacle work is intro-
duced, and exceeds its predecessors in richness of effect.

This Great Seal was the substitute for the fourth which
was destroyed, and was to be used when the king was within
the realm, while the fifth was employed during his absence.
This change took place whenever the king went abroad, and
these two Seals continued to be used till the peace of Bretigny,
May 8, 1360, 34 Edward III.

7. Soon afterwards, a new Seal was made in accordance
with that peace2, and was the richest and handsomest of them
all. Tabernacle work divides it into three large, and four
narrow, compartments alternately. In the centre is the king
on the throne, with lions seated on each side ; St. George and
the Virgin Mary in the two narrow compartments near him ;
shields, quartering France and England, are suspended in the

1 N. Frcdera, ii. 1141. ■ Ibid. iii. 868.

1327—1377. CHANCELLORS. 319

two next large compartments ; and two warriors stand in the
small ones outside. The style is " Rex Anglic, Dominus
Hibernie et Aquitannie." It will be observed that, though
he dropped the title of king, he still continued to use the
arms of France.

This Seal continued in use till June 11, 1369, when, the
treaty of Bretigny being set aside, the king resumed the title
of King of France. On that day this seventh Seal was
returned to the Treasury, and the fifth and sixth Seals were
again brought forward and used1; but in the latter years of
the reign this seventh Seal, the legend being altered to " Rex
Francie et Anglic et Dominus Hibernie," was again called
into operation, and it became the regular Great Seal not only
of Edward III., but of four of his successors, with the mere
substitution of their names for his.2

It is scarcely necessary to apprise the reader that all these
seals were in two pieces, and that the double impression was
taken upon wax placed between them. The chancellor received
an annual allowance of wax for this purpose, which was sup-
plied from the king's great wardrobe.3

Besides the Great Seal, and its representative while the
king was abroad, there were also seals for each of the three
courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, all
in two pieces. The seal for the office of Privy Seal was in
one piece only. New ones were delivered in the forty-third
year, when Edward resumed the title of King of France.

During this long reign there were seventeen chancellors,
one of whom held the office three times, and another twice.
Their official career occupied a period of forty-nine years and
a half; and in the remaining ten or eleven months the Great
Seal was held by keepers between the death or resignation of
one chancellor and the appointment of another. Of these

1 N. Foedera, ill. 8G8. Irchaeol. Journ. ii. 41.

8 Archotologia, xxxi. 90. ; fssue Ltoll, 44 Edw, III., 301.

320 CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS. Euw. III.

intervals there were only four ; the longest of which was four
months and twenty days, and the shortest only nineteen days.

Twelve of the seventeen chancellors were ecclesiastics ; four
being or becoming archbishops, and eight bishops ; one was
a military knight ; and the remaining four wTere educated as
lawyers. These latter were forced upon the king by the
parliament ; but he on each occasion took an early opportunity
of restoring the Seal to clerical hands. The longest period
that any chancellor held the Seal wras about eight years and
a half, and the shortest about eight months. No less than
four chancellors died in this reign while holding the office.

In every one of the above-mentioned intervals the keepers
consisted of clerks of the Chancery, headed by the master of
the Rolls. Other temporary keepers, selected from the same
officers, wrere frequently appointed during the reign, when
the chancellors were absent on their own or the king's affairs ;
but as these were mere deputies, and not independent keepers,
they are excluded from the table of chancellors, but their
names are noticed in the following detailed account of the
succession of the office.

Chancellors and Keepers.

On the king's accession the Great Seal was in the custody
of William de Ayremynne, Bishop of Norwich, and Henry
de Cliff, master of the Rolls ; but three days afterwards,
January 28, 1327, it was delivered to

John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely1, who had held it for
nineteen months in the previous reign. His continuance in
the office of chancellor was for little more than a year ; his
retirement taking place on March 1, 1328.

Henry de Cliff and William de Herlaston, the
former master of the Rolls, and the latter one of the clerks in

1 Rot. Claus. 1 Edw. III., p. l.m. 25.

1327—1377. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS. 321

Chancery, were then entrusted with the Seal as joint keepers ;
for though it was delivered to Cliff to be kept under the seal
of Herlaston, and he was to entertain the clerks and other
officers, and to be paid the accustomed fee, yet the record dis-
tinctly says that on the next day they both sealed l : and they
are called "custodes magni sigilli" on May 12, when they
replaced it in the king's hands.

Henry de Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, was on the
same day appointed chancellor2; and remained in office till
the king, breaking the shackles in which the queen and
Mortimer had bound him, took upon himself the government
of the kingdom, and reclaimed the Great Seal on Nov. 28,
1330.3

Burghersh was several times absent from court ; viz. from
July 1 to 30, 1328, when he went with the queen to Ber-
wick ; from August 17 to 26 ; from January 15 to 19, 1329 ;
and from May 31 to June 11, 1329, being then abroad with
the king. On all these occasions the Great Seal was depo-
sited with Henry de Cliff and William de Herlaston, or one
of them, in the same manner as before ; and separate entries
were made thereof on the Boll.4

John de Stratford, then Bishop of Winchester,
received the Seal on the day of Burghersh's removal5, and
held the chancellorship till September 28, 1334, a period of
nearly four years, being in the latter year raised to the
archbishoprick of Canterbury.

During this his first chancellorship, John de Stratford was
frequently sent abroad, and the Great Seal was, as usual,
placed in the hands of other persons to act for him. These
were his brother, Robert de Stratford, who is some-

1 Rot. Claus. 2 Edw. III., m. 33. ■ Ibid. m. 26.

3 Ibid. 4 Edw. III., m. JG.

* Ibid. 2 Edw. III., m. 2. 17. 20. ; 3 Edw. III., m. 19, 20,
5 Ibid. 4 Edw. III., m. 16.

VOL. III. Y

322 CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS. Edw. III.

times called locum tenens of the chancellor; Henry de
Cliff, master of the Rolls ; William de Melton, Arch-
bishop of York ; and Henry de Edenstowe, Thomas de
Baumburgh, and John de St. Paul, clerks in the
Chancery.1

Richard de Bury, or de Aungerville, Bishop of
Durham, was constituted chancellor on September 28, 1334,
when John de Stratford resigned.2 He held the Seal only
till June 6, 1335, when

John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, was
re-appointed 3, and remained in office for nearly two years.

Robert de Stratford, then Archdeacon of Canter-
bury, who had acted frequently as locum tenens for his
brother, the archbishop, was appointed his successor on
March 24, 1337 4, and became Bishop of Chichester in
September following. He kept the Seal for about sixteen
months.

The Rolls contain no entry of the disposal of the Seal
during the occasional absences of the last three chancellors.

Richard de Bynteworth, Bishop of London, suc-
ceeded Robert de Stratford on July 6, 1338.5 He died in
possession of the Seal on the 7th of December in the follow-
ing year.

During his short administration he appears to have been
absent only thirteen days, for the purpose of being consecrated,
viz., from July 6 to the 19th, during which John de St.
Paul, master of the Rolls, and Thomas de Baumburgh acted
for him.6

On Bynteworth's death the business of the Chancery was
transacted by the above two and Michael de Wath, who

1 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 10., p. 2. m. 2. ; 6 Edw. III., m. 3. 22.
30. ; 7 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 3., p. 2. m. 4. ; 8 Edw. III., m. 27.

2 Ibid. 8 Edw. III., ra. 10. 3 Ibid. 9 Edw. III., m. 23.

4 Ibid. 11 Edw. III., p. 1. in. 29. 5 Ibid. 12 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 23.

8 Ibid.

1327—1377. < 1IANCELL0RS AND KEEPERS. 323

held the Seal from December 8, 1339 S to February 16,
1340; when

John de St. Paul, the master of the Rolls, was ap-
pointed sole keeper of the Seal 2, which he retained till

John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, was
placed in the office for the third time on April 28, 1340.3
He resigned, on account of alleged infirmity, in less than
two months.

Robert de Stratford, his brother, then Bishop of
Chichester, was thereupon restored on June 20 ; but being
absent, the Seal, which was then newly made, was placed in
the hands of John de St. Paul, the master of the Rolls, till
the bishop's return to court on July 12.4 His second
chancellorship was abruptly terminated by the sudden arrival
of the king from the siege of Tournay, and his angry dismissal
on December 1 in the same year.5

Sir Robert Bourchier was then taken from his mili-
tary occupations, and installed into the office of chancellor
on December 14, 1340.6 The parliament, however, soon
became dissatisfied with the appointment; and the knight
returned to his original profession within eleven months after
receiving the Seal.

During this short interval he was twice absent; on the
first occasion from December 16 to the end of the year, when
the Seal was left with Thomas de Evesham, then, or a
few days after, made master of the Rolls, and Thomas de
Brayton and Edmund de Grymesby, clerks in the Chan-
cery7, and on the last occasion from February 14 to March •",
1341, when the Seal remained in the custody of Thomas
de Pardishowe, under the seals of Evesham and Brayton,

1 Rot Clans. 19 Edw, III., p. a. m. 11,

- Ibid. 14 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 42. 3 Ibid. p. 1. m. 27.

4 Ibid. p. 1. m. 13. 5 Ibid. p. _'. in.

0 Ibid. p. 'J. in. 10. 7 Ibid.

I 2

324 CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS. Edw. III.

the two latter, however, performing the duties attached to its
possession.

Sir Kobert Parning, then treasurer, but who had been
chief justice of the King's Bench, was raised to the chancellor-
ship on October 29, 1341 l ; and died on August 26, 1343.

For a month after this event no chancellor was appointed ;
but the Great Seal remained in the possession of John de
Thoresby, master of the Rolls, and the before-mentioned
John de St. Paid and Thomas de Brayton, who jointly trans-
acted the business.2

Robert de Sadington, the chief baron of the Ex-
chequer, received the Seal as chancellor on September 29,
1343.3 He held it for little more than two years.

John de Ofeord, Dean of Lincoln, was made chancellor
on Sadington's resignation, October 26, 1345 4, and retained
the office till his death on May 20, 1349, having, a few
months previously, been elected Archbishop of Canterbury.

The duties of the Chancery were then executed by David
de Wollore, the master of the Rolls, in conjunction with
St. Paul and Brayton, and Thomas de Cotyngham,
another clerk of the Chancery 5, until

John de Thoresby, who had been advanced to the
bishoprick of St. David's, received the Seal as chancellor on
June 16, 1349.6 He became successively Bishop of Wor-
cester and Archbishop of York, and then resigned the Seal,
after having held it for above seven years.

Two absences only are recorded in his time; one from
September 2 to October 8, 1351, when the Seal was com-
mitted to Wollore, Brayton, and Grymesby 7 ; and the other
from August 4, 1353, to a day not mentioned, Wollore,

1 Rot. Claus. 15 Edw. III., p. 3. m. 22. 2 Ibid. 17 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 24.

3 Ibid. p. 2. m. 20. 4 Ibid. 19 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 10.

5 Ibid. 23 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 10. 6 Ibid. p. 1. m. 8.

7 Ibid. 25 Edw. III., m. 12.

1327—1377. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS. 325

Brayton, and Andrew de Offord, being then entrusted
with the Seal.

William de Edington, Bishop of Winchester, suc-
ceeded John de Thoresby on November 27, 1356 !, and
performed the duties of the Chancery without any named
substitute for about six years and three months, when he
was allowed to resign.

Simon Langiiam, Bishop of Ely, was put in his place
on February 19, 1363 2; and he in like manner acted
throughout the four years and a half of his chancellorship
without a recorded deputy.

William of Wykeham's appointment as his successor
took place between the 10th and 17th of September, 1367,
41 Edward III.3 After three years and a half, in conse-
quence of the Commons objecting to the great offices of state
being held by the clergy, King Edward was compelled to
relinquish his services ; and

Sir Robert de Thorpe, chief justice of the Common
Pleas, was substituted for him on March 16, 137 1.4 He
was the fourth chancellor of this reign who died in office,
that event occurring on June 29, 1372.

At the commencement of his chancellorship, he had per-
mission to visit his home, when Walter Power, William

DE BURSTALL, WlLLIAM DE MlRFIELD, and NICHOLAS DE

Spaigne, all clerks in the Chancery, were entrusted with
the custody of the Seal during his absence, the length of
which is not stated.5

Sir John Knyvet, chief justice of the King's Bench,
was promoted to the chancellorship on July 5, 1372 6, and
remained in office, without any notice of a deputy, for four
years and a half; when

' Rot. Claus. SO Edw, III., ro. l. s Ibid. :s: Edw, III., m. 39.

Il.u.ly's Ciital. 40. * Rot. CUuS. 15 Edw. [II., m

• Ibid. 8 Ibid. 46 Edw. Ill , m, 80,

y 3

326

MASTERS OF THE ROLLS.

Edw. III.

Adam de Houghton, Bishop of St. David's, was made
chancellor in his place on January 11, 1377 !, and so con-
tinued for the remaining five months of Edward's- reign. On
the king's death on June 21, he was abroad on a mission to
the King of France, having deposited the Seal with William
de Burst all, then master of the Rolls, Richard de
Ravenser, and Thomas de Newenham.2

The master of the Rolls was, as is shown in the preceding
statement, in most cases one of the persons to whom the
business of the Great Seal was entrusted either on the death
or during the absence of the chancellor. Six out of the
seven of these officers, who lived in the reign of Edward III.,
were employed in this duty, Michael de Wath being the
only exception. They succeeded each other in the following
order.

Masters of the Rolls.

Henry de Cliff, who held the office at the end of the
reign of Edward II., died in possession of it about January,
1334.

Michael de Wath succeeded him on January 20 in
that year, 7 Edward III.3; and resigned on April 28, 1337.

John de St. Paul, one of the masters in Chancery,
was appointed on that day4, and retained the office till
December 2, 1340, when, upon an apparently unfounded
charge of mal-administration made by the king on his return
from the siege of Tournay, he was dismissed.

Thomas de Evesham, the senior master in Chancery, re-
ceived the appointment on January 10, 1341, 14 Edward III.5;
but only retained it six weeks, when

1 Rot. Claus. 50 Edw. III., p. 2. m.27. 2 Ibid. 51 Edw. III., rn, 7.

3 Ibid. 8 Edw. III., m. 36. * Ibid. 11 Edw. III., p. l. m. 13.

5 Ibid. 14 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 9. & 10.

1327—1377. MASTERS OF THE ROLLS. 327

John de Thoresby was installed on February 21, 1341 !,
and held the post till he was made keeper of the Privy
Seal, between May 20 and July 26, 1345.

David de Wollore's grant does not appear ; but pro-
bably it was dated between the last two days, although he is
not mentioned with the title till July 2, 1346.2 He died in
the office in 44 Edward III., 1370.

William de BuRSTALL was his successor. Dugdale
dates his nomination on March 28, 1371 3 ; and he was still
master of the Rolls at the death of the king on June 21,
1377.

Only one of these masters, John de Thoresby, was after-
wards raised to the chancellorship, and that not till three or
four years after his retirement. Three of them, Michael de
Wath, John de St. Paul, and Thomas de Evesham, fell back,
after filling the office, into their former places as clerks in
the Chancery ; and two only, Henry de Cliff and David de
Wollore, retained their position till their deaths. Although
the master of the Rolls was clearly a separate officer, nomi-
nated by the Crown, taking a special oath, and admitted with
great solemnity, there is no doubt that he was still considered
one of the clerks of the Chancery : and David de Wollore
is described solely by that title twenty years after his
appointment as master of the Rolls, though he still retained
that office.

During the time of William de Burstall, the office of keeper
of the House of Converts, Domus Conversorum, in Chancery
Lane, was permanently annexed to the mastership of the
Rolls ; both, however, having been before occasionally held
by the same individual.

This establishment was founded by Henry III. as an
asylum for such Jews as embraced the Christian religion.

1 Hot Claus. 15 Eclw. III., p. 1. m. 34. a N. Fodera, ill 85.

s Dugdale's Chron. Series.

Y 4

328

ROLLS HOUSE.

Edw. III.

The erection of the church must have been commenced just
previous to 1232 ; for by a charter dated on January 16 in
that year, 16 Henry III.1, the king granted the liberal sum
of seven hundred marks to be annually paid to the converts
frequenting the church, for their support, and for the
construction of their church and buildings ; to be drawn out
of the Exchequer half-yearly, until they were more largely
provided for in lands and rents, and a certain place assigned
to them, whereby they might be able to sustain themselves
decently, to the honour of God and the Blessed Virgin, to
whom the church was dedicated. The precise position of the
church is pointed out in this and a subsequent record to be
in the place called New-streete, between the Old and the New
Temple in London. This street was soon afterwards named
Chancellors' Lane ; which was subsequently softened to its
present denomination, Chancery Lane.

It is evident from this document that as yet there was no
head of the establishment; the-duty of communicating between
the converts and the king being therein assigned to the chief
justiciary, or the chancellor. Nor was there any such officer
on the 19th of April in the following year, the date of the
next charter. 2 The erection of the buildings had in the mean
time proceeded, for, instead of its being called a church only,
it is described as a House, which the king had caused to be
founded "ad sustentationem fratrum conversorum et conver-
tendorum de Judaismo ad fidem Catholicum. " This is a
grant of the houses and lands which belonged to John
Herbeton (Herlicum* as the name is afterwards more correctly
spelled) in London, and then in the king's hands as his
escheat, except the garden in the said place called New-
streete, which the king had previously given to his chancellor,
Ralph de Neville, Bishop of Chichester3; and for their

N. Fcedera, i. 201.
Sec ante, vol. ii. p. 201

2 Ibid. 208.

1327—1377. ROLLS HOUSE. 329

further support the king assigned to them all the escheats in
the city of London during his reign.

Females as well as males were allowed to be members
of this community ; as we learn from a mandate to admit
William de Lincoln and Christiana de Oxonia, converts, dated
August 11, 1233, and addressed to Stephen de Stranda and
Josceus Fitz-Peter, in whose custody the congregation is
there stated to be. l

These, then, it would appear, were the first keepers of the
House, and held the office jointly ; but a short time afterwards
Josceus Fitz-Peter became sole keeper, custos domus, —
a mandate to the escheators and sheriffs of London, dated
April 19, 1235, directing them to give him, under that title,
possession of John Herlicum's lands and houses in pursuance
of the grant.2

On April 1, 1237, the king, having obtained the church of
St. Dunstan, Fleet Street, from the abbot and convent of
Westminster, bestowed it as a further endowment for this
house ; and on November 8, 1248, he granted to the "master
and brothers" the houses, rents, lands, and tenements in
London which had been forfeited by Constantine, son of
Alufus, who had been hanged for felony.3

The keepers of this house were almost invariably eccle-
siastics ; and were in general removable at the king's pleasure,
but sometimes were appointed for life. Robes were assigned
to them out of the king's wardrobe. Master Walter, who
subsequently became keeper, was chaplain at the foundation,
and received thirty marks a-year for his support.4 There
were afterwards two, and sometimes three chaplains to the
establishment.

1 Rot. Claus. 17 Hen. III., m. 6. 2 Ibid. 19 Hen. III., m. 13.

3 Rot. Chart. 33 Hen. III., m. 7.

4 Writs, Hit 17 Hen. III. ; Devon's Issue Roll, 515.

330

ROLLS HOUSE.

Edw. III.

Keepers or Masters of the House of Converts,
till it was permanently annexed to the master-
ship of the kolls.

1233. Aug. Stephen de Stranda, i joint keepers. — Claus. 17 Hen. III.

Josceus Fitz -Peter, J m. 6.
1235. April. Josceus Fitz-Peter. — Claus. 19 Hen. III. m. 13.

1240. Easter. Master Walter received ten marks as keeper. — Devon's

Issue Roll, p. 15. ; Lib. 24 Hen. III.
1265. Nov. 28. Adam de Cestreton, for life. — Pat. 50 Hen. III. m. 41.
1268. Thomas de la Leye, for life.— Pat. 53 Hen. III. m. 21.

1271. April 13. John de Sancto Dionysio, afterwards Archdeacon of

Rochester, for life. — Pat. 55 Hen. III. m. 19.

1288. Oct. 16. Robert de Scardeburgh, during pleasure. — Pat. 16

Edw. I. m. 4.

1289. Dec. 16. Richard de Climpinges.— Pat. 18 Edw. I. m. 45.

During his time the Jews were banished from the
kingdom.

1290. Oct. 27. Walter de Agmondesham, during pleasure. — Pat.

18 Edw. I. m. 3.

In 26 Edward III. he was receiver of the money
for payment of the expenses of the army in Scot-
land (Liber Rob. Hayroun in Carlton Ride), and
afterwards became chancellor of that kingdom. — Rot.
Pari. i. 469.

1298. April 10. Henry de Bluntesdon, called the king's chaplain and
" Elymosinarius," during pleasure. — Pat. 26 Edw. I.
m. 20.

1307. Nov. 7. Adam de Osgodby, master of the Rolls, during plea-
sure.—Pat. 1 Edw. II. m. 13.

1313. Sept. 18. Adam de Osgodby, master of the Rolls, for life. — Pat.
7 Edw. II. p. 1. m. 17.

At this period the rents were so much in arrear that
the king issued a mandate to the mayor and sheriff of
London to assist in their collection. — Pat. 7 Edw. II.
p. 1. m. 13.

1316. Aug. 20. William de Ayremynne succeeded him in both offices,
and had the grant of this for life. — Madox's Exch. i.
259. He resigned the mastership of the Rolls on
May 26, 1324, but continued keeper of this House
till October 4, 1325, when his removal no doubt took
place on his becoming Bishop of Norwich.

Under him the brethren complained to the king

1327—1377. ROLLS HOUSE. 331

that their allowance from the Exchequer was three

years in arrear, and that some had died for want of

it.— Rot. Pari. i. 378.
1325. Oct. 4. Robert de Holden, for life. — Rot. Pat. 19 Edw. EL p. 1.

m. 2.

Soon after the deposition of the king he was re-
moved.
1327. March 8. Richard de Ayremynne, for life.— Rot. Pat. 1 Edw. III.

p. 1. m. 13.

He had been, but was not then, master of the Rolls.

He afterwards placed this office in the hands of the

king1, to the use of
1339. June 6. John de St. Paul, master of the Rolls, to whom it was

then given for his life. — Rot. Pat. 13 Edw III. p. 1.

m. 10.

St. Paul retained it after he had ceased to be

master of the Rolls, but resigned on his being made

Archbishop of Dublin.
1350. Jan. 28. Henry de Ingelby, for life. — Rot. Pat. 24 Edw. III.

p. 1. m. 30.

On his resignation
1371. July 22. William de Burstall, master of the Rolls, received the

appointment for life.— Rot. Pat. 45 Edw. III. p. 2.

m. 29.

From this time the two offices of master of the Rolls and
keeper of the House of Converts have always been held by
the same person. The patent by which they were annexed
is dated April 11, 1377, 51 Edward III., two months before
the king's death. After reciting that by the negligence of
preceding keepers the chapel and buildings had become
ruinous, and that William de Burstall had expended great
sums in their repair since he became keeper, and also
in erecting new houses there, the king grants, that, for the
future support of the house, it shall for ever be annexed to

1 It appears, however, by Rot. Claus. 6 Edw. III., m. 30., that though Richard
de Ayremynne was then keeper of the House of Converts, Henry de Cliff, the
master of the Rolls, resided there. The record states that he took the Great
Seal to his " Hospicium " at the House of Converts, and sealed in the chapel of
the converts.

332

MASTERS IN CHANCERY.

Edw. III.

the office of the keeper of the Rolls of the Chancery, and
that the chancellor shall have power to institute every suc-
ceeding keeper of the Rolls into the said house.

No earlier accounts of the keeper of the House of Con-
verts now exists than those of Richard de Ayremynne, com-
mencing 5 Edward III., 1331 ; nor have any later been dis-
covered than 6 James L, 1608, when Edward Bruce, Lord
Kinlos, was master. After the banishment of the Jews in
1290 the number of converts must have greatly diminished ;
for during the period comprehended in the accounts, they
seldom exceeded five or were less than two. The usual
daily allowance was three-halfpence to the men and one
penny to the women.1

Masters in Chancery.

The six following clerks or masters in Chancery, whose
names occur under Edward II., continued to act in this
reign. There were probably six others, but I have not been
able to discover who they were.

Henry de Cliff, M.R.

-

-

1 to 7 Edw. III.

Adam de Brome

-

-

1 to 3

—

William de Herlaston

-

-

1 to 27

—

John de Crosseby -

-

-

1 to 2

—

William de Leycester

-

-

1 to 8

—

Henry de Edenestowe

-

-

1 to 20

—

Those appointed in this reign

were —

Thomas de Baumburgh

-

-

1 to 14

—

? Adam de Herwynton

-

-

2

—

Thomas de Evesham (M. R.

for

six weeks in

}

2 to 17

14 Edw. III.)

Michael de Wath (M. R. from 8 to 11 Edw. III.)

-

6 to 14

—

John de Blebury -

-

-

6 to 12

—

1 That learned antiquary and amiable man, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, in
whose department these records are kept, has obligingly furnished me with
these particulars.

12 to 15 —

1327—1377. MASTERS IN CHANCERY. 333

Thomas de Brayton, or Drayton - - - 6 to 33 Edw. III.
John de St. Paul (M. R. from 1 1 to 14 Edw. III.) - 7 to 23 —

John de Langtoft - - - - -7 to 14 —

Edmund de Grymesby - - - - 9 to 27 —

Thomas de Elingham - - - - 1 1 —

Robert de Kettleseye - - - - 1 1 to 20 —

? William de Kyldesby - - - - 12 —

? Thomas Durant, Archdeacon of Middlesex - 12 —
John de Wodehouse, afterwards chancellor of the 1

Exchequer J

? Henry de Iddesworth - - - - 12 to 20

Henry de Stratford - - - 14

Thomas de Sibthorp (killed by his clerk) - - 14 to 25

Thomas de Cotyngham - - - - 14 to 44

Thomas de Pardishowe - - - - 15

John de Marton - - - - -15 to 17

John de Thoresby, M. R. - - - - 15 to 19

Ely as de Grymesby - - - - 15 to 36

Gilbert de Chishull - - - - 18

Thomas de Capenhurst - - - -18 to 21

William de Emeldon - - - - 18 to 28

Andrew de Offord - - - - - 19 to 29

David de Wollore, M. R. - - - - 19 to 44

? John de Chestrefeld - - - - 22

John Gogh - - - - - 25 to 29

William de Newenham - - - - 25 to 29

Walter Power - - - - - 25 to 47

John de Rokyngham - - - - 33

John de Codyngton - - - - 33 to 43

? John de Branketre - - - - 36 to 48

William de Mir field - - - - 36 to 49

Richard de Ravenser, Archdeacon of Lincoln - 36 to 51

Nicholas de Spaigne - - - - 45 to 48
? Robert de Wykford, afterwards Archbishop of "I

Dublin and chancellor of Ireland J

William de Burstall, M. K. ... 45 to 51

Thomas de Newenham - - - - 45 to 51

? Simon de Multon - - - - 46 to 49

Henry de Codington - - - - 49 to 51

Richard de Tissyngton - - - - 50

Thomas de Thelwall - - - - 50 to 51

John de Freton, or Frethorne - - - 50 to 51

? Michael de Ravendale - - - - 50 to 51

P Peter de Barton - - - - - 50 to 51

45 to 50 —

334

MASTERS IN CHANCERY.

Edw. 111.

? John de Bouland -

? Walter Skirlawe, Dean of St. Martin's, London,"

afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, Bath and Wells,

and Durham

50 to 51 Edw. III.

51

Throughout the reign they attended the parliament, and
were almost invariably appointed receivers of the petitions
presented to it, the triers of which were selected from among
the peers and the judges.

By a petition in 4 Edward III. it appears that for time
out of mind it had been the practice, under the royal command,
for the chancellors to present the livings in the king's gift,
within the value of twenty marks, to the clerks in the Chan-
cery ; and that it had so continued until Henry de Burghersh,
Bishop of Lincoln, became chancellor ; and the clerks complain
that he, during the whole of his time, presented these livings
to his own clerks, contrary to the king's will and the said
ordinance and usage. Whereupon they pray that the king
and his council will order that the chancellor shall in future
give the said benefices to the clerks, and that this shall be by
" eleccion de le3 mestres de la chauncellerie" The answer to
this petition was, that they should be given to the clerks of
the Chancery and the Exchequer, and the two benches, and
no other.1

Here we have another step towards the adoption of the
present title of masters in Chancery ; and before the end of
the reign the designation was introduced into the formal
appointment to the office.

In 49 Edward III. the king granted that Henry de
Codington should, during his life, be one of his clerks "de
majori gradu, vidlt. : unus de 12 Magistris cancellariae nostra
predicts, " of which one was then deficient : and in a grant to
Thomas de Th el wall, two years afterwards, he is spoken of as
" unius de duodecim clericorum nostrorum in cancellaria de

Rot. Pari. ii. 41.

1327—13;;. MASTERS IN CHANCERY. 335

primo gradu." These are the first instances I have seen of
their number being fixed.

One of their privileges was to have all pleas between any
of their body and other persons tried in the Chancery ; and a
writ issued against one of them by the sheriffs of London, at
the suit of a private party, was annulled, and the plea ordered
to be prosecuted "in cancellaria nostra ;" ■ and this privilege
extended to their servants.2

The robes of the clerks were supplied out of the issues of
the Hanaper ; and the keeper of that department in May,
24 Edward III., was ordered to pay to the chancellor
71. Is. 8d., being the sum which their summer robes, in con-
sequence of the dearness of the materials, had cost beyond
the accustomed allowance.3

The importance of the position in which they stood, if not
the nature of their duties, may be in some measure collected
from the oath appointed for them to take, which is appended
to the "Ordinance for the Justices," 20 Edward III. They
are to swear that they will " serve the king and his people in
their office ; that they will not assent nor procure the king's
disherison nor perpetual damage to their power, nor do any
fraud to any man's wrong, nor thing that toucheth the
keeping of the Seal ; that they shall give counsel in the thing
that toucheth the king when required, and conceal it when
given ; and that they shall put their lawful power to repress
and amend the king's disherison or fraud on the Seal known
to them; and, if they cannot do it, shall certify the chancellor
to be amended."

The same statute shows that there were other clerks of a
lower grade in the same department, called clerks of course,
clerici cle cursu, who swore the same oath, with several addi-

1 N. Foedera, iii. 13. Ibid. 797.

8 Ibid. 1 0*7.

336 CHANCERY. Edw. III.

tional clauses relative to the issue of writs, the preparation of
which belonged to them.1

These, no doubt, were the " clerks of the Chancery " who, at
four different times in 44 Edward III., received of the king's
gift, 11, Is. 6d., 131. 6s. 8d., and 37. 13s. 4c/., for their labour
in writing letters to all parts of England to borrow money
for the king, and on other state affairs. William de Wyn-
terton, " clerk in the Chancery," who was paid 6s. 8d. for
writing two charters of the foundation of the king's chapel at
Westminster, in 24 Edward III., was also probably of this
class.'2

During the second year of this reign the Chancery was
held at York, where the King's Bench and Exchequer were
then established; and it seems also to have been there
throughout the seventh year. But in all the remainder of
the reign it appears to have been permanently fixed in
London and Westminster. The place of its sittings, in the
latter, is invariably in the Great Hall, "at the marble seat
where the chancellors were accustomed to sit ; " and in the
former, was principally in the Chapter House of the Friars
Preachers, or Friars of Mount Carmel, in Fleet Street ;
being occasionally varied from circumstances now unknown,
or for the convenience of the holders of the Seal. Thus we
have one instance of a sealing at the House of Converts,
another at the New Temple, and two at Berkyng Chapel,
near the Tower.

I have already shown, in the survey of the preceding reign,
the commencement of the practice of a separate reference to
the Chancery. The Rolls of Parliament, and other records,
prove that the same course continued under Edward III. ;

1 Stat, of Realm, i. 306.
Pell Records, 126. 220. 419. 479.; Devon's Issue Roll, 154. For the
communication of several of the documents referred to in this account, I have
to express my grateful acknowledgments to William Brougham, Esq., one of
the present masters.

1327—1377. KING'S BENCH. 337

and that the equitable jurisdiction of the chancellor, if not
completely established, was practically recognised in the
course of this reign, seems to be generally acknowledged.1
There is no doubt that there was, at this time, a regular
Court of Chancery ; that it was held in Westminster Hall, at
the marble stone, or marble chair; that "the chancellor
usually sat there, among the clerks of the Chancery ; " 2 and
that, when so sitting, he was said to be "in plena cancel-
laria." 3 There is an instance, in 44 Edward III., of all the
judges of both benches coming into Chancery to debate as to
the widow of a grantee of the crown being entitled to livery
for her son, who was under age.4 In a case, also, in 17 Ed-
ward III., the chancellor, Parning, brought down the record
in a suit from the Chancery, into the Court of King's Bench
with his own hand.5

It was still the duty of the chancellor or keeper of the seal
"tenere hospitium" for the clerks of the Chancery and the
other officers of the department.6

The courts of King's Bench and Exchequer, in the first
year of Edward's reign, were removed from London to York,
to the great annoyance of the citizens of the former, whose
remonstrances were at that time unable to produce a reversal
of the order.7 But in October in the next year the king,
by advice of the parliament, commanded both courts to
return to Westminster ; the Exchequer to be held there in
the next Hilary term, and the King's Bench at Easter.8

It is evident, however, that the King's Bench still followed
the royal movements ; for we find an enactment in February,
8 Edward III., that it should stay in Warwickshire after the

1 Hardy's General Introd. to Close Holls, 110.

Rot (laus. ig Edw. 111., p.2. in. -Jl. :i Ibid. 25 Ed\r. III., m, 11.
1 Year Book, Mic. 44 Edw. III., p.4& 5 Ibid. East. 17 Edw. III., p. 21.
r> Rot Claws. 2 Edw. Ill . in 7 N. l'ojdora, ii. 717.

8 Rot. Pari. ii. I
VOL. III. A

338

king's bench.

Edw. III.

following Easter : and in 38 Edward III., the Commons
presented a petition to the king, complaining that as the
Bench is wandering from county to county the people are
made to come before the justices in each county, to their great
distraction and cost ; and that many are defeated for want of
wise counsel, whereof they can find none because of the un-
certainty of the place ; and therefore praying that the said
Bench may be established in Westminster or York. The
king refused to renounce his prerogative of ordering his
Bench where he should please ; but promised to do so as
should be best in ease and quiet of his people : and a similar
complaint, with much the same answer, occurs in 46 Ed-
ward III.1

Chief Justices of the King's Bench.

There is some doubt whether Geoffrey le Scrope, who
was chief justice of this court at the end of the reign of
Edward IL, was re-appointed on the commencement of this ;
and it is questionable whether the place was filled up during
the first year.

? Henry le Scrope, however, who had presided in the
court during part of the former reign, is stated by Dugdale
to have been discharged from the office of chief justice on
March 1 in the first year ; so that, if there is no mistake in
this, he may have held it during the months of January and
February, 1327. But this again seems to be contradicted by
the fact that he was appointed second justice of the Common
Pleas on February 5. The greater probability seems to be
that the discharge was to Geoffrey le Scrope, and that the
office was then left vacant until certain suspicions which were
harboured against him had been investigated. On his
clearance from these

1 Rot. Pari, ii 286. 311.

1327—1377. KING'S BENCH. 339

Geoffrey le Scrope was reinstated on February 28,
1328, 2 Edward III. The king requiring his presence with
him in France in the next year,

Robert de Malberthorp, one of the judges of the
court, was raised to its head on May 1, 1329 ; but he resigned
the place to

Henry le Scrope on October 28 following, who in his
turn was superseded by his brother,

Geoffrey le Scrope, on December 19, 1330. Geoffrey
being again called upon to accompany the king abroad,

Richard de Wilughby, a judge of the court, was sub-
stituted for him from March 28 to September 20, 1332,
6 Edward III., when

Geoffrey le Scrope resumed his position for about a
year ; but going then on an embassy to France,

Richard de Wilughby was replaced on September 10,
1333, 7 Edward III.

The precise date on which Geoffrey le Scrope resumed his
office does not appear; but he is called by the title of chief
justice in the mandate to him to attend the parliament of
Edward Balliol in Scotland, which is dated February 1,
1334 ] ; and in the parliament at York which was held about
the 20th of the same month it was enacted, that the King's
Bench should stay in Warwickshire after Easter, "fur that
Sir Geoffrey le Scroop, chief justice, is busie in the king's
weighty affairs, whose place to supply Sir Richard Wilughby
is appointed."2

Scrope became second judge of the Common Pleas on
July 16, 1334, but remained there only a short time; as
he was not in that court in 1337, and was certainly chief
justice of this on April 4, 1338, when lie was commanded
in that character to admit two new judges to their places.3

1 N. Feeders, ii. 875. * Rot. Pari. ii. 377.

3 Rot. Claus. IS Edw. III., p. 1. m. 11.
Z 2

340 king's BENCH. Edw. III.

He resigned previous to the following October, being then
called "nuper Capitalis Justiciarius."1

Richard de Wilughby, who, during Scrope's numerous
embassies, had performed the duties of the office, was then
re-appointed, and continued to act till the middle of the year
1340; when, being removed, he made way for

Robert Parning, a judge of the Common Pleas, who
was constituted chief justice on July 24, 1340, 14 Ed-
ward III. Before six months had expired, Parning was
made treasurer, and was succeeded by

William Scot, one of the judges of the court, who was
appointed its chief on January 8, 1341, 14 Edward III.
On his death,

William de Thorpe, also a member of the same bench,
became chief justice on November 26, 1346, 20 Edward III.
He was disgraced in the twenty-fourth year, and

William de Shareshull, then a justice of the Com-
mon Pleas, superseded him on October 26, 1350. On his
retirement,

Thomas de Setone, another justice of the Common
Pleas, was made chief justice of the King's Bench on July 5,
1357, 31 Edward III. He was succeeded by

Henry Green, also from the Common Pleas, on May 24,
1361, 35 Edward III. It does not clearly appear whether
he was disgraced, as stated in Joshua Barnes's history of
the reign; but he was certainly removed October 29, 1365,
39 Edward III., when

John Knyvet, likewise from the Common Pleas, was
put in his place. He created a vacancy by accepting the
Great Seal, as chancellor, on June 30, 1372, 46 Edward III.

John de Cavendish, also a judge of the Common Pleas,
was appointed chief justice on July 15 following, and held

1 Liber. 12 Edw. III., m. 4.

I. 1327.

II. 1328.
[V. 1330.

March 6.

7.
9.

Dec. 15.

1331.

Jan. 18.

1327—1377. KING'S BENCH. 341

the presidency of the court during the .six remaining years of
the reign.

Judges of the King's Bbncii.

The two junior judges of this court at the end of the last
reign were Henry Spigurnel and Robert de Malberthorp.
The former was not re-appointed, being incapacitated by age ;
but the latter, after a short interval, was replaced in his seat.

Walter de Friskeney.
Robert de Malberthorp.
Robert Baynard.

Henry de Hambury, loco ? W. de Friskeney.
Richard de Wilughby, removed from the Com-
mon Pleas, loco ? R. Baynard.
Thomas de Louther.

Geoffrey de Edenham, loco R. de Malber-
thorp, made Just. C. P.
VI. 1332. Jan. 28. Thomas Bacon, from the Common Pleas ; loco
R. de Wilughby, about to be made Ch. K. B.
VII. 1333. March 20. William de Shareshull, for only two months.
VIII. 1334. Sept. 14. • Robert de Scardeburgh, or Scorburgh, from

the Exchequer ; loco ? T. de Louther.
XII. 1338. April 4. Robert Brundish.
William Faunt.
XIII. 1339. May 2. William Scot, loco ? T. Bacon.

Sept. 6. John de Shardelowe, Just. C. P. ; loco R. de
Scardeburgh, made C. P.
On November 30, 1340, the king returned from
the siege of Tournay, and being disappointed at t he-
want of funds, hastily dismissed and imprisoned several
of his judges and other officers on charges of mal-
administration. It would appear from the above
arrangement that the judges of this court at the time
were,

Robert Parning, chief justice,
Henry de Hambury, William Faunt,

Geoffrey de Edenham, William Scot,

Robert Brundish, John de Shardelowe.

But of these, though Hambury was alive in ii> Ed-
ward III., and Edenham in 15 Edward III., it is

342 king's BENCH. Edw. III.

very doubtful whether they remained so long on the
Bench, as their names are not on the Liberate Roll
of October, 12 Edward III. Neither are those of
Brundish or Faunt, of whom there is so total a blank
that it is difficult to say whether they retained their
seats. It is therefore not impossible that Parning,
Scot, and Shardelowe were then the only members of
the court; and it is even uncertain whether the latter
had not returned to the Common Pleas before this
date. He, however, was a sufferer on this occasion :
Parning was made treasurer, and Scot chief justice in
his room. The only vacancy supplied at the time was
XIV. 1341. Jan. 8 Robert de Scardeburgh, loco ? J. de Shar-
delowe.
XV. Roger de Bankwell.

Oct. 28. William Basset, from the Common Pleas.
1342. Jan. 10. Adam de Steyngrave, also from the Common
Pleas.
XIX. 1345. William de Thorpe, Just. C. P. loco ? R. de

Scardeburgh.
A mandate to the keeper of the wardrobe to deliver
the judges' yearly robes, gives us with certainty their
names at its date, April 1, 1347, 21 Edward III.
Those of the King's Bench were,

William de Thorpe, chief,
William Basset, Roger de Bankwell.

XXVIII. 1354. Thomas de Setone, loco ? W. Basset.

XXIX. 1355. Oct. 12. William de Notton, loco ? R. de Bankwell.
XXXV. 1361. Sept. 30. Thomas de Ingelby.

The judges of the King's Bench cannot be so distinctly
traced during this reign as those of the Common Pleas, no such
means of evidence existing as is afforded by the fines levied
in the latter court. The number at the commencement was
certainly three, afterwards increased to four ; and I am
much inclined to think that they never exceeded that number,
and that both Hambury and Edenham were removed long
before I have felt justified, in the subsequent columnal list,
in placing a successor to either of them. Of Brundish and
Faunt so little appears, that I have many doubts of their
having ever sat on this bench. A question may also be

1327—1377. COMMON PLEAS. 343

raised whether some judge has not been omitted ; for it seems
unlikely that there should have been only two judges for
several years before the end of the reign. According to the
best evidence I can collect as to the judges whose names
have been produced, the only two who sat in this court at
the death of the king on June 21, 1377, were chief justice
John de Cavendish and Thomas de Ingelby.

Notwithstanding the clause in Magna Charta ordaining
that the Common Pleas should be held in some certain
place, there is sufficient evidence to show that under Ed-
ward III. the rule was not strictly abided by. The statute
of 2 Edward III. c. 11., enacts that before the Common
Bench be removed, " the justices shall be warned by a time, so
that they may adjourn the parties by such time that they
shall not lose their process."

The ordinary place of sitting still continued to be at West-
minster ; but in the eighth year an assize was brought in the
Common Pleas then sitting at York, for the office of ushery
in that court, the plaintiff complaining that he was disseised
of his freehold in York. One of the counsel distinctly says
that "the Common Bench is not in a certain place, but
sometimes here (in York) and at other times in London,
changed according to the king's will."1 Reference also is
made to an assize held before Sir William Herle and his
companions, in the Common Pleas at York, in an un-
dated petition to parliament9; but which must have been
about the same period, as Herle soon after retired from the
court.

It is probable, as the Chancery and the King's Bench
were, as we have seen, not stationary at this period, that the
removal of the courts was occasioned by the war with Scot-

1 Year Book, Hil. 8 Bdw. III., pi. 47. ■ Rot. Pari, ii.

Z 4

344 COMMON PLEAS. Edw III.

land, and the king's desire to have his judges near him while
he was prosecuting it.

Another instance of this court sitting at York may be
found in the petition of the Commons in 38 Edward III.,
already adverted to, in which it is prayed " that the King's
Bench may be established at Westminster or York, where
the Common Bench remains, that a man may have counsel of
one place or the other." l

Chief Justices of the Common Pleas.

Hervey de Staunton, the chief justice of this court
at the end of the last reign, was probably in too bad a state
of health to be re-appointed at the commencement of this, as
he died in the same year. Within a few days after the
accession of Edward III.,

William de Herle, one of the judges of the court,
was appointed chief justice, his patent being dated Febru-
ary 4, 1327. He was replaced by

John de Stonore, then chief baron of the Exchequer,
on September 3, 1329, 3 Edward III. ; who was superseded
in his turn, and

William de Herle restored on March 2, 1331, 5 Ed-
ward III. In little more than four years he was honourably
exonerated from his office, on July 3, 1335, 9 Edward III.

John de Stonore was reinstated on July 7, but was
removed for some alleged misconduct when the king returned
from Tournay at the end of 1340, 14 Edward III. ; and

Roger Hillary, one of the judges of the court, was
made chief justice on January 8, 1341. 2

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 286. ; Manning's Serviens ad legem, 179, 180.

2 William Scot, although introduced hy Dugdale on April 27, 1341, is
omitted here ; its insertion being evidently a mistake, as Scot was then, and
continued to he, chief justice of the King's Bench.

1327—1377. COMMON PLEAS. 34 5

John de Stonore was restored on May 9, 1342, and
sat till his death, when

Roger Hillary was replaced on February 20, 1354,
28 Edward III. ; and also died in the office.

Robert DB THORPE was raised to the vacant seat on
June 27, 1356, 30 Edward III. He filled it till he was
called to take the chancellorship on March 26, 1371, 48
Edward III.

TVilliam de Fyncheden, a judge of the court, was
appointed in his stead on April 14 ; and was succeeded by

Robert de Bealknap on October 10, 1374, 48 Ed-
ward HI., who occupied the seat during the remainder of
the reign.

-©-

Judges of the Common Pleas.

Tite only changes in the five judges who acted in this court
at the end of the last reign, were the appointment of one of
them, William de Herle, as chief justice in the place of
Hervey de Staunton ; the removal of John de Bousser for a
short time ; and the introduction of Henry le Scrope as second
justice.

I. 1327. Jan. Henry le Scrope, John de Stonore,

John de Mutford, Walter de Friskeney.

March 24. John de Bousser, loco W. de Friskeney, made
K.B.
II. 1328. March 6. Richard de Wilughby ; being a sixth, who was
afterwards made second justice on Septem-
ber 2, 1329.

III. 1329. March 2. John Travers, loco John de Stonore, made

Ch. B. E.
Sept. 30. Thomas Bacon, loco 11. de Wilughby, made
second justice.

IV. 1331. Jan. 18. llobertdc Malberthorp, from the King's Bench,

loco 1!. de Wilughby, made K.B.
John de Cantebrig, loco J. de Rfutford.
John Inge, loco J. de Bousser.

346 COMMON PLEAS. Er>w. III.

V. April 1. John de Stonore, from being chief, to be second

justice, loco R. de Malberthorp.
VI. 1332. Jan. 28. John de Shardelowe, loco T.Bacon, made Just.
K.B.
Feb. 3. Richard de Aldeburgh, being a seventh justice.

VII. 1333. May 30. William de Shareshull, from the King's Bench ;

loco ? J. Travers.
VIII. 1334. July 16. Geoffrey le Scrope, loco J. de Stonore.

Sept. 24. John de Trevaignon, being an eighth justice.
XI. 1337. Hil. William Basset, loco ? G. le Scrope.

March 18. Roger Hillary, loco ? J. de Cantebrig.
William Scot, loco ? J. de Trevaignon.

XIII. 1339. Sept. 6. Robert.de Scardeburgh, Just. K.B., loco J. de

Shardelowe, made K. B.

XIV. 1340. Feb. 4. James de Wodestoke, loco ? W. Scot.

? John de Shardelowe, loco R. de Scarde-
burgh.
May 23. Robert Parning, being a ninth justice.
Oct. 9. Richard de Wilughby, loco ? R. Parning, made

Ch. K. B.
On the king's return from France on November 30,
the following would appear to have been the judges of
the court, viz.,

John de Stonore, chief justice,
John Inge, Roger Hillary,

Richard de Aldeburgh, ? John de Shardelowe,

William de Shareshull, James de Wodestoke,

William Basset, Richard de Wilughby.

Of these, Stonore, Shareshull, Shardelowe, and Wi-
lughby underwent the king's displeasure and were re-
moved ; and probably Inge, as he is not mentioned as a
judge afterwards. Roger Hillary was made chief justice ;
and a new patent was issued in favour of Aldeburgh and
Basset, together with Thomas de Heppescotes. This
looks as if the court was newly constituted ; and as
Wodestoke died about this time, it is not improbable that
it was so, the number being thus reduced to four.
1341. Jan. 8. Thomas de Heppescotes, loco ? R. Hillary.

XV. May 30. Richard de Kelleshull, making a fifth, loco

? J. Inge.
Oct. 28. Adam de Steyngrave, loco W. Basset, made
Just. K. B.
XVI. 1342. April 23. William de Thorpe, loco ? A. de Steyngrave,
made K. B.

132;

•1377.

COMMON PLEAS.

347

May 10.
May 16.

June 4.

XIX. 1345. Nov. 10.

John de Stouford, loco ? T. de Heppes-

cotes.
William de Shareshull, restored.
John de Shardelowe, restored.
Richard de Wilughby ? restored about this

time.
Roger Hillary, having surrendered the chief
justiceship to J. de Stonore, took his
seat as a puisne judge, thus making the
ninth.
William de Shareshull, Ch. B. E., to be
second justice loco ? W. de Thorpe, made
K. B., thus reducing them to eight.
Wre have a precise list of the judges who sat in this
court on April 1, 1347, from the record granting them
their robes. They were,

John de Stonore,
Richard de Wilughby, William de Shareshull,

Roger Hillary, Richard de Kelleshull,

John de Stouford;
the places of John de Shardelowe and Richard de Alde-
burgh, deceased, not having been filled up.
1348. Jan. 14.

XXI.
XXVIII. 1354. Feb. 6.

XXIX.
XXXI.

1355.
1357.

XXXIII. 1359.

July 4.

July 11.
Oct. 25.

XXXV. 1361. Sept. 30.

XXXVIII. 1364. Feb. 3.

XXXIX. 1365. Oct. 29.

XLV. 1371. Nov. 27.

XLVI. 1372.

Thomas de Fencotes, loco R. de Aldeburgh,
increasing them again to seven.

Henry Green, loco ? W. de Shareshull,
made Ch K. B.

Thomas de Setone, loco ? J. de Fencotes.

Henry de Molelowe, loco ? T. de Setone,
made Ch. K. B.

John de Moubray, loco ? J. de Stouford.

William de Skipwith, loco ? R. de Kelles-
hull.

John Knyvet, loco ? Henry Green, made
Ch. K. B.

John de Delves, loco ? W. de Skipwith,
made Ch. B. E.

William de Fyncheden, loco ? J. Knyvet,
madeCh. K.B.

William de W'yehingham.

John de Cavendish, loco ? W. de Fyncheden

made Ch. C. P.
Roger de Meres, loco ? J. de Delves.
Roger de Kirketon, unless be hi' the same

with Roger de Meres, as suggested in

the memoir of the latter.

348

EXCHEQUER.

Edw. III.

XLVIII. 1374. Nov. 28. Roger de Fulthorp, loco ? J. de Moubray.
L. 1376. Oct. 8. William de Skipwith, loco ? J. de Caven-
dish, made Ch. K. B.
From the twenty-ninth year of the reign the
number of the judges of the Common Pleas had
been reduced to five ; and the following were the
members of the court at the death of the king on
June 17, 1377 :

Robert de Bealknap, chief justice,
William de Wychingham, Roger de Fulthorpe.
Roger de Kirketon, William de Skipwith.

The Exchequer, with the exception of its temporary trans-
fer to York during part of the first and the whole of the second
year of the reign, while the king was in the north prosecuting
his Scottish war1, seems to have been permanently established
at Westminster.

The barons of this court were not commonly men of
legal education, but were usually raised to its bench from
their practical knowledge of the revenue, acquired in minor
offices connected with it. Sometimes, but not always, the
chief baron was an exception ; and in the statute of Nisi
Prius, 14 Edward III., c. 16, it is enacted "That if it happen
that none of the justices of the one bench nor the other come
into the county, then the Nisi Prius shall be granted before
the chief baron of the Exchequer, if he be a man of the law?
The other barons are not named at all in the statute; neither
do they ever appear among the justices of assize, unless they
have been Serjeants, or have been previously removed from
one of the other benches.

Chief Barons of the Exchequer.

Walter de Norwich, who had long held the first place
in this court, was re-appointed chief baron of the Exchequer

N. Fcedera, ii. 713. 717.; Rot. Pari. 442.

1327—1377. EXCHEQUER. 349

on the accession of Edward III. He died in the third year:
and

John de Stonore, a judge of the Common Pleas, was
nominated on February 22, 1329; but only sat there till the
3rd of the following September.

HENRY LE SceOPE, at that time acting for his brother as
chief justice of the King's Bench, was made chief baron
December 19 ; and continued in the office till his death, on
September 7, 1336, 10 Edward III.

Robert de Sadington was raised to the office on
March 20, 1337 ; and remained at the head of the court till
he received the Great Seal as chancellor on September 29,
1343, 17 Edward III. The vacancy was not supplied for
more than nine months ;

William de Shareshull, then a judge of the Common
Pleas, who was his successor, not receiving the appointment
till July 2, 1344. He resumed his place in the Common
Pleas, as second justice, on November 10, 1345; and his
seat in this court was supplied by

John de Stouford, a judge of the Common Pleas,
who was chief baron for a month only, from November 1 0
to December 8, 1345, 19 Edward III. ; when

Robert de Sadington resumed his seat at the head of
the court; and retained it till his death in 1350.

Gervase de Wtlford, one of the puisne barons, was
then made chief baron on April 7, 1350, 24 Edward III. ;
and his presidency appears to have lasted during the remainder
of his life.

William de Skipwith must have been appointed before
February 12, 1362, 36 Edward III., as he is called chief
baron on that date. He is stated to have shared in the dis-
grace of Henry Green, the chief justice of the King's Bench ;
and they were certainly removed on the same day, October 29,
1365, 39 Edward III.

350

EXCHEQUER.

edw. in.

Thomas de Lodelowe filled the office of chief baron
from that date till February 3, 1374, 48 Edward III.

William Tank was then appointed his successor, but
did not retain his seat much more than a year and a half;
being succeeded by

Henry de Asty on November 12, 1375,49 Edward III.,
who continued chief baron for the remainder of this, and re-
ceived a new patent at the beginning of the next, reign.

Barons op the Exchequer.

Of the five junior barons of the Exchequer at the end of the
reign of Edward II., Edmund de Passele died in the same
year, and Humfrey de Waledene and John de Radeswell
were not re-appointed. New patents were granted to the
other two, —

I. 1327. Feb. 2. William de Fulburn, and

William de Everdon ; and two days after
Feb. 4. William de Boudon was constituted second

baron, a title then first introduced.
Oct. 15. Robert de Nottingham, loco W. de Boudon.

III. 1329. April 16. Robert de Wodehouse, made second baron.

IV. 1330. Dec. 20. Robert de Ayleston.

Wrilliam de Cossale, loco ? W. de Fulburn.
Thomas de Garton, as second baron, loco ? R.
de Wodehouse, made chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.
Adam de Steyngrave, loco R. de Ayleston,

made treasurer.
William de Denum.

Thomas de Blaston, loco ? T. de Garton.
Robert de Scorburgh, or Scardeburgh.
Dec. 18. John de Hildesley.
VIII. 1334. Nov. 9. Adam de Lymbergh, late chancellor of Ireland,
loco J. de Hildesley.
X. 1336. Oct. 3. Nicholas Haghman, loco ? R. de Scorburgh.
Nov. 10. John de Shordich, loco ? W. de Everdon.

XIII. 1339. Sept. 26. William de la Pole, loco ? A. de Lymbergh.

XIV. 1340. June 21. William de Northwell, loco W. de la Pole.

The bench of the Exchequer, on the return of the
king from Tournay, November 30, 1340, was filled

V. 1331. Oct. 10

VI. 1332. July 24.

Sept. 24.
Nov. 2.

1327—1377. EXCHEQUER. 351

by the following barons, (William tie Northwell I
presume having retired on his being made treasurer
of the household) :

Robert de Sadington, chief baron,
A i lam de Steyngrave, John de Shordich,

Thomas de Blaston, and perhaps Nicholas Hagliman*
Although I do not find that any of these were im-
plicated in the charges brought by the king against
other judges, it is apparent that a new bench was
constituted, and that none of these were re-appointed
except the chief baron and Thomas de Blaston*
Three new ones were joined to them, viz.
1341. Jan. 20. William de Broclesby.

Gervase de Wilford, loco ? J. de Shordich.
William de Stowe, loco ? A. de Steyngrave.
XVIII. 1344. July 2. Alan de Ashe, loco ? T. de Blaston.
XXI. 1347. March 8. John de Houghton, loco ? W. de Stowe.

The barons of the Exchequer, as named in the
order for their robes on April 1, 1347, were,
Robert de Sadington,
William de Broclesby, Alan de Ashe,
Gervase de Wrilford John de Houghton.

XXIV. 1350. April 16. James Huse, loco G. de Wilford, made Ch.

B.E.
XXVI. 1352. May 24. William de Thorpe as second baron, loco
? A. de Ashe.
William de Retford, loco ? W. de Broclesby.
Henry de Greystock, loco ? W. de Thorpe.
John de Bukyngham, loco ? J. de Houghton.
Robert de Pleste, loco ? J. de Bukyngham.
Almaric de Shirland, loco ? H. de Greystock.
John de Stokes, loco ? James Huse.
William Gunthorp, loco ? R. de Pleste.
John de Blockley.

Henry de Percehay, loco ? A. de Shirland.
Laurence de Allerthorpe, loco ? W. de Ret-
ford.
Nicholas de Drayton, loco ? J. de Stokes.
The number of barons for the most part was five,
but occasionally one or two were added. At the
close of the reign there were six ; viz.

lbnry de Asty, chief baron,
Henry de Percehay! Nicholas de Drayton,

Laurence de Allerthorpe, William Gunthorp,
John de Blockley.

XXVIII.

1354

Nov. 27.

XXX.

1356.

Oct. 6.

XXXI.

1357.

XXXVI.

1362.

XXXIX.

1365.

Oct. 29.
Nov. 3.

XL VII.

1373.

XLIX.

1375.

Oct. 5.
Nov. 27.

L.

1376.

Nov. 14.

Table of Chancellors and Keepers of the Seal, and
of Masters of the Rolls.

A. R.

A.D.

Chancellors or Keepers.

Masters of the Rolls.

1

1327, Jan. 25

Henry de Cliff.

28

John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely,
Chanc.

—

2

1328, March 1

Henry de Cliff, M. It. ") Keg erg
William de Herlaston J ^

—

May 12

Henry de Burghersh, Bishop of
Lincoln, Chanc.

4

1330, Nov. 28

John de Stratford, Bishop of Win-
chester, Chanc.

—

7

1334, Jan. 20

Michael de Wath.

8

Sept. 28

Richard de Bury, or de Aunger-
ville, Bishop of Durham, Chanc.

—

9

1335, June 6

John de Stratford, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Chanc.

11

1337, March 24

Robert de Stratford, Archdeacon
of Canterbury, Chanc.

April 28

—

John de St. Paul.

12

1338, July 6

Richard de Bynteworth, Bishop of
London, Chanc.

—

13

1339, Dec. 8

John de St. Paul, M. 11. ]

Michael de Wath I Keepers

—

Thomas de Baumburgh J

14

1340, Feb. 16

John de St. Paul, Keeper

—

April 28

John de Stratford, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Chanc.

—

June 20

Robert de Stratford, Bishop of
Chichester, Chanc.

—

Dec. 14

Sir Robert Bourchier, Chanc.

—

1341, Jan. 10

Thomas de Evesham.

15

Feb. 21

—

John de Thoresby.

Oct. 29

Sir Robert Parning, Chanc.

—

17

1343, Aug. 27

John de Thoresby, M. R. "j

John de St. Paul > Keepers

—

Thomas de Brayton J

Sept. 29

Robert de Sadington, Chanc.

—

19

1345, ? July

—

David de Wollore.

Oct. 26

John de Offord, Dean of Lincoln,
Chanc.

—

23

1349, May 20

David de Wollore, M. R. ~j

John de St. Paul 1 g
Thomas de Brayton i r

—

Thomas de Cotyngham J

June 16

John de Thoresby, Bishop of St.
David's, Chanc

—

30

1356, Nov. 27

William de Edington, Bishop of
Winchester, Chanc.

—

37

1363, Feb. 19

Simon Langham, Bishop of Ely,

Clianc.

—

41

1367, Sept.

William of Wykeham, Bishop of

Winchester, Chanc.

—

45

1371, March 16

Sir Robert de Thorpe, Chanc.

—

28

—

William de Burstall.

46

1372, July 5

Sir John Knyvet, Chanc.

—

50

1377, Jan. 11

Adam de Houghton, Bishop of
St. David's, Chanc.

The king died June 21, 1377.

1327—1377,

king's bench.

353

S*

l l I ll 1 la l I I i

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if

William d
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VOL. III.

A A

354

COMMON PLEAS. Edw. III.

Table of the Chief Justices and

A.R.

1

A.D.

Chief Justice.

JUSTICES OF THE

1327, Jan 25

to Feb. 5

William de
Herle

Henry le Scrope

John de Mutford

John de Stonore

March 24

—

2

1328, March G

—

—

—

—

3

1329, March 2

__

John Travers

Sept. 2, 3

John de Stonore

Richard de Wi-

30

lughby

4

1331, Jan. 18

—

Robert de Malber-
thorpe

John de Cantebrig

—

5

March 2

William de

Herle

April 1

—

John de Stonore

—

6

1332, Jan. 28

—

—

—

—

Feb. 3

-

—

—

-

7

1333, May 30

-

—

-

William de Shares-
hull

8

1334, July 16

_

Geoffrey le Scrope

_

Sept. 24

-

—

—

—

;,

1335, July 7

John de Stonore

_

ii

1337, Jan.

—

William Basset

March 18

—

Roger Hillary

13

1339, Sept. 6

—

—

—

—

14

1340, Feb. 4

-

—

-

—

May 23

_

Oct. 9

—

—

—

—

1341, Jan. 8

Roger Hillary

-

Thomas de Hep
pescotes

removed

15

May 15

—

—

—

Oct. 28

-

Adam de Steyn-
grave

William de Thorpe

-

16

1342, April 23

John de Stouford

May 9-16

John de Stonore

restored

June 4

18

1344, July 2

made Ch. B. E.

19

1345, Nov. 10

—

William de Shares-
hull

made Ch. B. E.

Dec. 8

_

restored

21

1348, Jan. 14

—

—

—

24

1350, Oct. 26

made Ch. K. B.

_

28

1354, Feb. 6

—

Henry Green

20

Roger Hillary

—

—

29

1355

—

—

—

30

1356, June 27

Robert de
Thorpe

-

-

31

1357, Julv 4

33

1359, July 11

—

—

John de Moubray

f

Oct. 25

—

—

—

35

1361, Sept. 30

John Knyvet

__

38

1364, Feb. 3

39

1365, Oct. 29

—

William de Fyn-
cheden

—

William de Wy-
chingham

46

1371, April 14

William de
Fyncheden

made Ch. C. P.

—

—

Nov. 27

—

John de Cavendish

—

40

1372,

—

—

—

48

1374, Oct. 10

Robert de
Bealknap

—

—

Nov. 28

—

Roger 'de .Ful-
thorpe

—

50

1376, Oct. 8

William de Skip-
with

1327—1377. COMMON PLEAS.

Judges of the Common Pleas.

355

COMMON PL]

Walter de Fris-

keney
John de Bousser

Richard de Wi-

lughby

made 2nd Just.

John Inge

Thomas Bacon

John de Sharde-
lowe

Richard de Alde-
burgh

-

Robert de Scarde-

burgh
John de Sharde-

lowe

-

John de Tre-
vaignon

William Scot

~~ '

James de Wode-
stoke

Robert Faming.
Richard de Wi-
lughby.
removed.

? removed

removed

—

Richard de Kel-

leshull

__

-

restored
died 1311

-

Roger Hillary

? restored.

-

Thomas de Fen-
cotes

Thomas de Se-
tone

Henry de Motdow

made Ch. C. P.

=

William de Skip-
with

John de Delves

Roger de Meres

Roger deKirkiton

A A 2

356

EXCHEQUER,

Euw. III.

8*

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1 1 1

1 1 1

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i ii i i i i i 1 1 igi i i ^ i ii igil

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1330, Dec. 19-20

1331, Oct. 10

1332, July 24
Sept. 24
Nov. 2

Dec. 18
1334, Nov. 9

1336, Oct. 3
Nov. 10

1337, March 24

«Oc5

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1347, March 8
1350, April 7

1352, May 24
1354, Nov. 27
1356, Oct. 6
1357,
1362,

8
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Nov. 3
1373,

1374, Feb. 3

1375, Oct. 5
Nov. 12

27

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1327—1377. JUDGES' SALARIES. 357

The salary of the chief justices of both benches, at the
beginning of the reign, was 40/. each, and that of other
judges 40 marks each. The latter stipend was all that was
then given to the chief baron and his associates in the
Exchequer.

By stat. 20 Edward III. chap. 1., after enacting that the
judges are to take no reward from any one but the king, it is
especially stated that " for this cause we have increased the
fees (les feez) of the same our justices, in such manner as it
ought reasonably to suffice them." This increase is also
particularly referred to in the proceedings against "William
de Thorpe for corruption four years afterwards.

This seems to contradict Dugdale's assertion that they
were reduced from the twenty-fifth year. He allows, how-
ever, that he sees no direct certainty ; and the instances of
smaller amounts which he produces may have been the
balances after previous payments, or instalments of what was
due ; for the Treasury was not always ready to pay in full.

The word " fee " in the statute evidently meant the salary
paid to them by the king, that being the ordinary name given
to it ; and had no reference to any larger payments to
which the judges were entitled on proceedings before them.

It is curious, however, that the salaries themselves were
not increased ; but the expressions of the statute and the
king are explained by entries on the Issue lioll of 44 Ed-
ward III., 1370, which has been published in extenso by
Mr. Frederick Devon ; where the following payments to the
judges will show that, though no change was made in their
stipulated salaries, additional allowances were separately
granted to them.

.John Knyvet, Ch. K. B., had 40/. yearly for his fee in the
office; but he had also, by letters patent " lately granted,"
loo marks yearly, to be received so long as he should remain
in the office. Of this he received 20£ on November 14. in

A A 3

358 JUDGES' SALARIES. Edw. III.

part payment of 50 marks then payable to him ; and on
November 28 he received 13/. 6s. Sd., the balance. In the
latter entry the grant is stated to be for his "good service,
and that he might more fitly maintain his estate." l

Thomas de Ingelby, the only puisne judge of the King's
Bench at that time, received 40 marks as his annual fee ; but
he also received 20/. a year as a judge of assize ; and likewise
an additional grant of 40/. per annum, beyond the fee,
appointed to be paid to him as long as he should remain in
the office.2

Robert de Thorpe, Ch. C. P., had 40/. for his fee of office ;
with an additional 40/., which is described as having been
granted to him for life, for his good service, and that he
might more fitly maintain the military order which he had
received from the king.3

The other judges of the Common Pleas mentioned in this
roll are John de Moubray4, William de Wychingham5, and
William de Fyncheden6 ; all of whom have 40 marks as
their fee, also 20/. as justices of assize ; and Moubray 40
marks, and the two others 40/. by additional grants.

The chief baron, and the two other barons of the Ex-
chequer, had each of them 40 marks for their annual fee : but
the chief had also 20/. as a justice of assize, which the others
had not ; showing that they were not employed in that duty.
One of them, howTever, Almaric de Shirland, had an addi-
tional grant of 40 marks, for services rendered and to be
rendered, until otherwise provided for.7

The same record shows us that there were also some
Serjeants who were employed as justices of assize, and re-
ceived salaries for that duty of 20/. a year each.

The records of this reign afford us the first description of

1 Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 349. 374. 391.

8 Ibid. 346. 353. 3 Ibid. 34G. 4 Ibid. 341. 346. 370.

5 Ibid. 354. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 280. 340. 346.

1327—1377. JUDGES' SALARIES. 359

the materials which were allowed to the judges for their robes.
Of these they were provided with three ; the keeper of the
oreat wardrobe having an annual mandate to deliver to each
of them, for their summer robes, " dimidium pannum curcum
et unam peciam sindonum et dimidium," — half a cloth of a
colour called curcus, and one piece and a half of fine linen
silk ; for their winter robes, " unura aliud dimidium pannum
curcum cum uno capucio et tribus fururiis de bogeto albo," —
one other half of the cloth of the curcus colour, with a hood
and three furs of white budge, or lambskin ; and for their
Christinas robes, which seem to have been what we should
now terra their full dress, " unum aliud dimidium pannum
curcum cum uno capucio de triginta et duabus ventribus de
merim, una fururia de septem cir' de merim et duabus
fururiis de bish'," — half a cloth of the colour curcus, with a
hood of thirty-two bellies of miniver, a fur of seven tires of
miniver, and two furs of silk.1

The justices of both benches and the barons of the Ex-
chequer had all the same judicial dress ; and the chiefs of the
different courts are not noticed as having anything to dis-
tinguish them from their fellows.

No special dress is mentioned for the justices itinerant ;
but after the earlier years of this reign, these officers were
discontinued as separate appointments; the duties which
they had performed now devolving on the regular judges,
when they travelled as justices of assize. No one, by stat.
14 Edward 111. c. 16., could act in the latter character,
except a justice of one bench or the other, or a king's Serjeant
sworn.

1 Although in each of the robes the pannus is called "curcus," Dugdale in
one instance translates it " short," and in the others •' colour curt." I have
adopted the latter, and, acknowledging my ignorance of these matters, have

taken his translation of" sindonum," " fine linen silk," and of the other articles
enumerated. Orfg. ]>• 98. ; Ahhrev. Hot. Orig. ii. 192.

A A 4

360

JUSTICES ITINERANT.

Edw. III.

Justices Itinerant.

III.

1329.

Ralph de Bereford,

John Randolf,

Adam de Brome,

Gilbert de Toutheby,

John de Ifeld,

Lambert de Trikingham,

John de Radenhale.

IV.

1330.

Hugh de Courtney,

Thomas de Radclyve,

Nicholas Fastolf,

Robert de Thorpe,

Peter de Middleton,

William de Zouche, of Ha-
ringworth.

VII.

1333.

John Claver.

XXII.

1349.

William de Herlaston.

William de Scothou.

In the Issue Roll of 44 Edward III., 1370, there are entries
of payments made to no less than seven Serjeants acting as jus-
tices of assize (pp. 346. 349. 354. 360, 361. 369.), viz.—

* Robert Bealknap, John de Fencotes,

* John de Cavendish, * Roger de Fulthorpe,
Edmund Chelreye, * Roger de Meres,

William de Wakebrug.
Those marked * afterwards became regular judges.

Commissions of Trailbaston were occasionally issued for
extraordinary offences in the early part of the reign, and
they are mentioned in the Year Book in the twenty-second
year.1

The statute 20 Edward III. is called " The Ordinance for
the Justices." The duties prescribed for them, as detailed in
it, are afterwards comprehended in their oath, which is sub-
joined to the statute, and is in the following form : —

" Ye shall swear, that well and lawfully ye shall serve our
lord the king and his people in the office of justice, and that
lawfully ye shall counsel the king in his business, and that
ye shall not counsel nor assent to anything which may turn
him in damage or disherison by any way, manner, or colour;
and that ye shall not know the damage or disherison, whereof

1 Kot. Pari. ii. 404. 411.; Newcome's St. Alban's, 223.; Year Book, P. ii.
11.

1327—1377. JUDGES' OATH. 361

ye shall not cause him to be warned by yourself or by
other ; and that ye shall do equal law and execution of right
to all his subjects, rich and poor, without regard to any
person ; and that ye take not by yourself or by other, privily
nor apertly, gift nor reward of gold nor silver, nor of any other
thing which may turn to your profit, unless it be meat or
drink, and that of small value, of any man that shall have
any plea or process hanging before you, as long as the same
process shall be so hanging, nor after for the same cause; and
that ye take no fee as long as ye shall be justice, nor robes
of any man, great or small, but of the king himself; and that
ye give none advice or counsel to no man, great nor small, in
no case where the king is party ; and in case that any, of what
estate or condition they be, come before you in your sessions
with force and arms, or otherwise against the peace, or
against the form of the statute thereof made, to disturb ex-
ecution of the common law, or to menace the people that
they may not pursue the law, that ye shall cause their bodies
to be arrested and put in prison ; and in case they be such
that ye cannot arrest them, that ye certify the king of their
names and of their misprision hastily, so that he may thereof
ordain a convenable remedy ; and that ye, by yourself nor by
other, privily nor apertly, maintain any plea or quarrel
hanging in the king's courts or elsewhere in the country;
and that ye deny to no man common right by the king's
letters, nor none other man's, nor for none other cause ; and
in case any letters come to you contrary to the law, that ye
do nothing by such letters but certify the king thereof, and
proceed to execute the law notwithstanding the same letters;
and that ye shall do and procure the profit of the king and
of his crown, with all things where ye may reasonably do
the same. And in case ye be from henceforth found in
default in any of tin; points aforesaid, ye shall be at the

362 KNIGHTHOOD OF THE JUDGES, ETC. Edw. III.

king's will, of body, lands, and goods, thereof to be done as
shall please him ; as God you help, and all saints."1

The knighthood of some of the judges is evidenced by
various mandates to the keepers of the wardrobe to supply
them with certain apparel and furniture at the king's
expense. Of these the following examples are given by
Anstis in his " Observations Introductory to an Historical
Essay upon the Knighthood of the Bath."

The first is in 3 Edward III., 1329, "pro Joh. de Cam-
bridge novo milite faciendo tanquam Baneretto."

At that time he was a king's serjeant, and acted as a
justice itinerant; and in January 1331 became a judge of
the Common Pleas.

A similar order occurs in 6 Edward III., 1332, in favour
of Robert de Scoresburgh, who became a baron of the Ex-
chequer in this year, and had been a justice itinerant; of
Thomas Bacon, John de Shardelowe, and Richard de Aide-
burgh, at that time judges ; of William de Denum, a baron
of the Exchequer ; and of William de Shareshull, then only
a king's serjeant. The entry is "pro militia eorundem tan-
quam pro Banerett."

In the next year, 1333, the legal men included in an order
of the same description are William de Shareshull again,
who, in the interval, had been made a judge, which raises
the supposition that the former order had been annulled ;
Robert de Scardeburgh, which, if he was the same person
who is called Robert de Scoresburgh in the former order,
leads to the same impression ; and John de Shoreditche, a
doctor of civil law, who had been chief clerk of the Common
Pleas, and was not made a baron of the Exchequer till three
years afterwards. All these are knighted "tanquam Bane-
retti " except Robert de Scardeburgh, to whose name that
distinction is not added.

1 Stat, of Realm, i. 305.

1327—1377. KNIGHTHOOD OF THE JUDGES, ETC. 363

Thomas de Fencotes has similar allowances at Christmas,
21 Edward III., 1347, "ad recipiend. ordinem militarem
ad modum Baneretti;" no doubt in anticipation of his being
made a judge of the Common Pleas, which took place on
January 14 following.

The last order in this reign quoted by Anstis is for John
Moubray and William Skipwith, "pro apparatibus suis ad
ordinem militarum ad modum Baneretorum recipiendum,"
at Christmas, 1360, 34 Edward III., both of whom had
been recently made judges of the Common Pleas.

All of these it will be seen were, or were about to be,
made judges, except three, who afterwards were also raised to
the bench. John de Shoreditche does not appear to have
been a serjeant, but was knighted for his services as a royal
ambassador. John de Cambridge and William de Shareshull,
however, were Serjeants; but the former was also a justice
itinerant, and the latter's investiture seems to have been
delayed till the following year, when he was raised to the
bench; so that they form no certain precedent for the
knighthood of the Serjeants.

Dugdale, in the rubric to such of these mandates as he
quotes, calls the parties Knights of the Bath ; and Anstis
introduces all of them for the purpose of showing that they
were so. There does not, however, seem sufficient authority
for so designating them. Although the nature of some of
the articles supplied plainly proves that bathing was part of
the ceremony, there is nothing to show that it was a peculiar
distinction for any separate order at that time existing.
The order of the Bath is never mentioned, but, on the con-
trary, the: parties arc all spoken of as receiving "militiam" or
" ordinem militarem," or " novo milite faciendo," that is,
simple knighthood; the only difference noticed being that
they were to receive this knighthood " (anquain baneretti,"
which was a somewhat more honourable order than that of a

364

KNIGHTHOOD OF THE JUDGES, ETC. Edw. III.

simple knight. Granting all the facts adduced by Anstis, he
fails to prove the correctness of the inference he draws from
them, by omitting to state any distinct difference at this
time between the ceremonial adopted on the institution of a
knight bachelor, viz., one who was called upon under penalty
to assume the order, and those on whom knighthood was con-
ferred, as in the above instances, as a matter of royal favour.
If knights bachelors were obliged to go through the ceremony
of bathing at their investiture, his whole argument falls to
the ground.

No doubt can exist that, besides those named in the
foregoing extracts, many, if not most, of the other judges
received the order of knighthood, although the records of their
investment do not remain. The higher rank which some of
these bore in the law, would make it very unlikely that they
should be marked by a less honourable distinction than the
others, unless the latter had rendered some peculiar service,
which does not appear to have been the case.

Geoffrey le Scrope, who was unquestionably a knight at
the commencement of the reign of Edward III., was ad-
vanced to the higher order of Banneret in the fourteenth year,
and received a grant of 200 marks for the support of the
dignity ; but he is never called a Knight of the Bath. Neither
was his brother, Henry le Scrope, who was alike distinguished ;
and I am not aware of any one of the chief justices of either
bench who was not admitted into knighthood ; but no ex-
pression indicates that they were of the order of the Bath.
I cannot find any evidence that a peculiar order so called
existed at all in this reign ; and it is certain that, in the
public documents where the names of knights occur, no
addition appears intimating a difference in their order.

However desirous King Edward might be, as he evidently
was, to improve the course of justice, and to secure the purity
of the bench, it is obvious, from various incidents in his reiim

1327—1377. CORRUPTION OF THE JUDGES. 365

connected with the administration of the law, that he was
liable to be led away by sudden impulses; and after awarding
punishment without due consideration, to feel himself com-
pelled to annul his sentenee, and restore those who had been
the victims of his impetuosity. Thus, on his return from the
siege of Tournay in 1340, irritated by the failure of the sup-
plies he had expected, not only were Robert de Stratford,
Bishop of Chichester, the Chancellor, and John de St. Paul,
the master of the Rolls, visited with his indignation, but
John de Stonore, the chief justice of the Common Pleas,
and John de Shardelowe, William de Shareshull, and Richard
de Wilughby, puisne judges, were all dismissed from the
bench on some charges the nature of which is not recorded.1
But in less than two years all the four judges were restored
to their seats, and the other two resumed their places in the
king's favour.

In 1350, William de Thorpe, the chief justice of the
King's Bench, was convicted on his own confession of re-
ceiving bribes to stay justice 2 ; but though his property was
forfeited to the crown on his condemnation, the king appears
to have relented, and to have made him second baron of the
Exchequer in May, 1352, unless I am mistaken in sup-
posing the latter to have been the same person.

Another instance of the king's readiness in making charges,
or of his leniency in overlooking them, occurred in October,
1365, when, according to Joshua Barnes, he discharged and
imprisoned both Sir Henry Green, the chief justice of the
King's Bench, and Sir William Skipwith, the chief baron of
the Exchequer, "on account of many notorious enormities,
which he understood they had committed against law and
justice."3 Green was not restored, as he died in 1369 ; but
a Sir William de Skipwith, who, for the reasons I have

1 Barnes's Edward III., SIS. - \. Fcedera, Hi. 208.

Barnes's Edward III., GG7.

366 TERMS. Emv. III.

given in the sketch of his life, may, I think, be identified
with the chief baron, was constituted chief justice of the
King's Bench in Ireland, in February, 1370, and a judge of
the Common Pleas in England, in October, 1376.

It cannot be doubted, however, that, notwithstanding their
oath, the judges were in the habit of taking payments from
others besides the king. The Knights Hospitallers' Survey,
made in 1338, gives us a most unfavourable insight into the
corruption of the times. It speaks of pensions paid to divers
persons, " tarn in curia domini regis, quam justiciariis,
clericis officiariis et aliis ministris, in diversis curiis suis, ac
etiam aliis familiaribus magnatum, tam pro terris tenementis
redditibus et libertatibus Hospitalis, quam Templariorum, et
maxime pro terris Templariorum manutenendis ;" specifying
pensions to the amount of 440/., of which 60Z. are paid to the
judges, clerks, &c. ; the chief baron, Sir Robert cle Sadington,
receiving 40 marks ; besides caps given twice a year to 140
officers of the Exchequer, beginning with the treasurer and
ending with the lowest functionary.

A further sum of 60 marks a year is stated to be spent
in the employment of a general procurator or attorney, to
conduct their business in the different courts ; and an annual
expenditure of 200 marks in presents made in the courts of
the king and the nobles " pro favore habendo, et pro placitis
defendendis, et expensis parliamentorum." *

Although, as we have seen, the statute of 3 Edward I.
permitted assizes to be held during the sacred periods of
Advent, Septuagesima, and Lent, dispensations were still
considered necessary on some occasions before the judges
acted. An undated one is quoted by Spelman 2, entitled,
" Licentia concess. Justic. Regis de Assis. tenend. sacro tem-
pore non obstante ; " by which Richard, Abbot of St. Alban's,

1 Notes and Queries, ii. 123, 8 Original of the Terms, 95.

1327-1377. PLEADINGS. 367

grants license and authority to John Shardlow and his com-
panions to hold assizes at Barnet, within his jurisdiction, on
the Monday before the Feast of St. Ambrose, according to
the effect of the king's writ. As that feast falls on April 4,
it probably was in the holy week before Easter in that year;
and therefore, as it extended beyond the Statute, required a
special dispensation. Spelman suggests that this license was
granted in the reign of Edward I. ; and says that Shardlow
was a justice of oyer in Pickering Forest, Yorkshire, in the
beginning of that reign, apparently forgetting that Barnet is
in Hertfordshire. There was certainly no regular judge of
that name until the reign of Edward III. ; and indeed no
doubt can arise as to the period when the fact occurred, in-
asmuch as the only Abbot of St. Alban's whose name was
Richard (except the last under Henry VIII.) flourished in
the reign of Edward III. ; and as the abbot died in May,
1334 l, and John de Shardelow (who afterwards became
chief justice of the King's Bench) did not become a judge
till January, 1332, the limit within which this license was
dated, is precisely ascertained ; and on referring to the table
for finding Easter, it will be seen that Easter Day fell upon
April 4 (St. Ambrose) in the year 1333 2; and that conse-
quently the previous Monday was the first day in Passion
Week.

The pleadings in the courts had been hitherto carried on
in French. But that language was almost entirely unknown
to the people of England, who began with justice to complain
that their rights, their liberties, and their lives were subject
to laws which they could not understand ; and that in their
suits with each other, they knew not what was said either
for or against them " by their Serjeants or other pleaders."
No possible advantage arising from the continuance of the

1 Dugdalo'a Monast. ii 197. Rcolas'a Chron, of I I'm

368 THE KING'S ATTORNEY. Edw. III.

absurd practice, the king was desirous of granting his people
a boon by which they would be materially benefited, and
he himself lose nothing; and accordingly, by a statute
passed at Michaelmas, 36 Edward III., 1362, chap. 15, it
was enacted, that from the fifteenth of Hilary then next, all
pleas whatever should be pleaded, defended, debated, and
judged in the English tongue, but that they should be
entered and enrolled in Latin.

An awful pestilence overrun England in 1349, 23 Ed-
ward III., and raged so tremendously that the courts did
not sit in Trinity Term of that year. The Rolls also of
Trinity Term, 35 Edward III., 1361, are wanting on account
of a recurrence of the same calamity. The proceedings of
the latter term were twice adjourned ; at first to the morrow
of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and then to the
octaves of St. Michael.1

Attornati Regis.

From the following list, principally taken from Dugdalc, it
will be apparent that the king had two advocates at the same
time to conduct his business in the courts ; one being specially
stated to be in the King's Bench, and the other in the
Common Pleas. The salary was 10/. a year, with occasional
gifts from the king. Three are mentioned expressly as being
king's Serjeants.

I. 1327. Adam de Fyncham, who acted in the last reign, is mentioned
as the king's attorney before the King's Bench in this
year. He is called Clericus.
Alexander de Hadenham, in the Common Pleas.
William de Mershton, in the Common Pleas ; appointed on
February 26.
III. 1329. Richard de Aldeburgh, one of the king's Serjeants ; became
a judge of the Common Pleas in 1332.

1 Cal. Exch. Introd. xlvi. xlvii. ; N. Foedera, iii. 616. 621.

1327—1377.

THE KING'S ATTORNEY.

369

VIII. 1334.

XII. 1338.

XVI. 1342.

XXriI. 1349.
XXVII. 1353.

XXX. 1356.

XXXIV. 1360.

XXXVI. 1362.

XXXVII. 1363.

XL. 1366.

XLI. 1367.

Simon de Trewythosa, also a king's serjeant, had
twenty marks for prosecuting the king's business in
parliament and before the justices of the bench.
He died in 1339.1

William de Ilepton, or Hopton, King's Bench.2

John de Lincoln, in the King's Bench ; appointed on
May 28, and again mentioned in 1343.

John de Clone, or Clove, in the Common Pleas, on
August 4, and again in 1339 and 1343.

William de Merington, " vivente John de Clove."3

William de Thorpe, a king's serjeant ; made justice
of the Common Pleas in the same year, and chief
justice of the King's Bench in 1346.

Simon de Kegworth, King's Bench, October 12.

? Henry de Greystoke, afterwards a baron of the Ex-
chequer.

John Gaunt, in the Common Pleas. He seems after-
wards to have held the " officium proclamatoris in
banco regis parcell' officii hostiarii de scaccario." 4

Richard de Friseby, May 4.

William de Pleste, King's Bench.

William de Nessefield, November 4. He had been
the king's escheator in the northern counties.5 The
king, in 1366, gave him 1001. for the prosecution of
those who killed John de Coupland.6

Thomas de Shardelowe, called clerk, November 9.
He acted in the following reign, and was, I believe,
the son of the judge.

John de Ashwell, May 20.

Michael Skylling, in the Common Pleas

In the Issue Roll of 44 Edward III., the last
three are mentioned. Shardelowe and Skylling are
each called the king's attorney, and each has 10/.
yearly for his fee : Ashwell has a special grant of 10/.
for his services in prosecuting for the king.7

A case occurs in this reign in which the queen's attorney
is directed to appear on her behalf before the treasurer and
barons of the Exchequer.'

1 Cal. Inquis. p. in., ii. 88.
■ Il)id. ] :i.

1 Abbrev. R<>t. Orig. ii. 240. &c
7 Devon'i Issue Roll, 126.

VOL. III. B li

* Cal. Hot. Pat. 119.

* Cal. Inquis. p, in., ii

0 \. PoBdera, in. 786. lou.

' Rot Pari. ii. 110.

370

SERJEANTS.

Edw. III.

Although, as we have already seen, the king's Serjeants
attended the parliament, we have in this reign the first
example of their being specially summoned. Their title was
not always designated in the summons, though frequently
they were so described ; and that a selection only was made
may be inferred from the smallness of the number who were
so distinguished. Thus, there were two only in 3 Edw. III. ;
three in the eighth, ninth, and tenth years ; two in the
twentieth; and four in the nine following years.1

The precise nature of their duties there is not clearly
ascertained ; but, among others, they were required to assist
the lords and judges appointed to try the petitions presented.
Their names are not stated on the Rolls, but the entry is to
the following effect ; that the triers named may call to them
the chancellor, treasurer, steward, and chamberlain, "and
also the king's Serjeants if need be."'1

"A king's serjeant sworn," as we find in stat. 14 Edw. III.,
c. 16., already cited, might be appointed to act as a judge
of assize ; and Coke states (2 Inst. 422.) that the expression
includes any serjeant-at-law, as all of them are called by the
king's writ, and are sworn. Numerous instances are to
be found, in the Year Books of this reign, of their being
so employed.

Serjeants.

All the names in the following list are taken from
Dugdale's Chronica Series and Wynne's Serjeant-at-Law,
except where other references are given. Those marked *
became judges ; those marked f are not described as king's
Serjeants; and those marked \ are mentioned in the Year
Books as acting with the regular judges as justices of assize,
and must therefore have been Serjeants.

Manning's Serv. ad legem, 206.

2 Rot. Pari. ii. 268. &c.

1327—1377.

SERJEANTS.

371

I. 1327.

III. 1329.

IV. 1330.
V. 1331.

VIII. 1334.

IX. 1335.

XII. 1338.

XIV. 1340.

XV. 1341.

XVII. 1343.

XVIII. 1344.

XIX. 1345.

XX. 1346.

XXIV. 1350.

XXVIII. 1354.

XXX. 1356.

XXXI. 1357.

XXXVI. 1362.

XXXVII. 1363.
XL. 1366.

XLIV. 13T0.

XLV. 1371.

XLIX. 1375.

LI. 1377.

John de Denum, * Gilbert de Toutheby.

Both of these were Serjeants in the last reign ;
and the latter, in 2 Edward III., had 201. a year
for his expenses in the king's business.

* Richard de Aldeburgh, * John de Cantebrig.

* John de Trevaignon.

* William de Denum, * William de Shareshull.
f John de Munden, f Richard de Bellishall.

The two latter were stewards of the Abbey
of St. Alban's in the beginning of the reign, and
are styled Servientes in Banco : and
f Thomas de Lincoln was a serjeant-at-law in 1331.1

* William Scot, Simon de Trewythosa.

* Robert Parning, Lucas de Burgh.
William de Hopton.

J Aldred de Doresme, Spigurnel.

* John de Stovard, no doubt Stouford.

* William de Thorpe.
| * Thomas de Fencotes.

{ Rokel.

* Robert de Thorpe,

* Henry Green.

* William de Notton.
I : Burton.

* Thomas de Setone.

* William de Skipwith,
f William de Fishide.

* f John Kny vet.

Edmund Chellerey,

* William de Wychingham.
t Richm.

* John de Moubray.

William de Fyncheden.

* Robert Bealknap.

* Roger de Meres,

* f John de Cavendish,2
f John de Fencotes,2

* Roger de Fulthorpe,
I Wakbruge.

| Walter Persey,

* John Holt.

Hillary.5

t-
* f Roger de Kirketon.2

f Moris.8

f Gillardus de Ufflete.2
* Henry de Pcrcehay.

I * David Hannemere.

The term Serjeant was sometimes applied to freeholders,
who, holding by military service, were bound to serve as

Ncwconics St A 1 ban's, 'J 18. 223.

BBS

■ Year Book, 40 Edw. III.

372 APPRENTICES. Edw. III.

men-at-arms, though not knighted, and in most cases not
holding so much land as to raise the obligation of accepting
knighthood. That they then held the next degree to knights
appears from two cases in the Year Books, 22 Edward III.,
p. 18., and 26 Edward III., p. 57., in the latter of which,
in the failure of four on the grand assize, the f'moultz
vaillantz seriantz " are directed to be chosen knights.
Such " Serjeants and men of the law " are brought into distinct
contrast in the ordinance of 46 Edward III., which prohibits
the election of men of law as knights of the shire in par-
liament, and directs that knights and Serjeants of the most
value in the county shall be returned.

This ordinance is stated in the preamble to have been
occasioned by " men of law, who pursue divers businesses in
the king's courts, for private persons," causing petitions to be
presented in parliament "in the name of the Commons,
which in nothing touches them, but only the private persons
with whom they are retained." But why was the prohibition
limited to their election as knights of shires ? Might they
not be guilty of the same abuse if they were members for
cities, &c. ?

These Serjeants frequently becoming esquires to the
knights, the term esquire began about this time to supersede
the inferior title of serjeant, and to be adopted by those who
were not entitled to it by service in that character. l

There can be no doubt that the apprentices of the law
were, in fact, attorneys for their clients, representing them in
the courts. In 11 Edward III,, John de Codington, "an
apprentice of our lord the king, and attorney," presented a
petition to the parliament, complaining that, having neither
lands nor tenements, nor arms for peace or war, he had been
commanded to come armed to Ore well, on pain of death ;

1 Serv. ad legem, 192, 193. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 310. ; Titles of Honour, 832.

1327—1377. COUNSEL. 373

" which," he says, " would be in disherison of his clients, for
whom he is attorney; " whereupon he was excused.1

This John de Codington was, perhaps, an apprentice in one
of those establishments which we now call the Inns of Court,
or Chancery ; for we find him, in 25 Edward III., clerk of
the Parliament; and, in the thirty-third year, one of the
masters of the Chancery.

That there were apprentices of different degrees we learn
from the capitation tax, imposed two years after King Ed-
ward's death. There we find that the same rate, forty
shillings, is charged upon " chescun serjeant, et grant Ap-
prentice du Loy;" that "other apprentices who pursue the
law " are to pay twenty shillings ; and that a rate of only six
shillings and eightpence is made on "all the other apprentices
of less estate, and attorneys." 2

Apprentices certainly acted as advocates in the court from
the commencement of the reign ; for in Trinity Term of 1 Ed-
ward III. the Year Book reports a case (PI. 3.) in which
"un apprentice demanda:" and it would appear, from another
case in the same term (PI. 10.), that either an attorney was
then synonymous with apprentice, or that attorneys might
plead in court ; for we find " un attorney dit," and Justice
Stonore deciding on his application.

Counsel.

The Year Books supply the following names of counsel,
acting in the courts : they include Serjeants ; and the added
initials show the courts to which those who became judges
were first advanced.

Aldeburgh, C. P., Ashbourne, Basset, C. P.,

Anar, T. Bacon, C. P., Bedel,

Asch, Assh, Aish, B. E., Bankes, Becley,

1 Rot. Pari. ii. » H,id. iii. 58.

B B 3

374

COUNSEL.

Edw. III.

Bereford, Just. Itin.,

Gurnay,

Mallom,

Berl,

Hallop, Halop,

Maimer,

Birc,

Haln,

Middleton,

Blaike,

Hamton,

Mombray, Moubray,

Blaiston, B. E.,

Hannemere, B. E.,

C.P.,

Bours,

Hanington, Havering-

Moris,

Brand,

ton,

Motelow, Mutlow,

Brett,

Hastings,

C.P.,

Burgh,

Hatch,

Mottel,

Burton,

Haul, Hauley, Hauld,

Moyn,

Caracer,

Plepper, Heppescotes,

Notton, K. B.,

Cantebrig, Caunt, C. P.,

C.P.,

Palm,

Casse,

R. Hillary, C. P.,

Parning, Parn, Parner ,

Cavendish, C. P.,

Hillary,

Ch. K. B.,

Chelring, Chellerey,

Holt, C. P.,

Peng,

Chust,

Honnington,

Penros,

Claimond, Clom.,

Hoo,

Percy, Parshay, B.E.,

Clopton,

Hoop, Hopton,

Perle,

Collett,

Horneby,

Plegh, Pleste,

Derworth,

Hug,

Poer, Power,

Desty,

Huini,

Pointon,

Devom, PDenum, B.E.,

Hunden,

Pole,

Pigg,

Husse, ? Huse, B. E.,

Pultone,

Aldred de Doresnie,

Hut,

Rede, Redenhale,

Douers,

Ingham,

Richm,

Eccles,

Ingelby, K. B.,

Ripp,

Elmer,

Jukemp,

Riss,

Essonour,

Kary,

Rob,

Estham,

Kelby,

Rockel,

J. Fencotes,

Kell, Kels,Kelleshull,

Rolf,

T. Fencotes, C. P.,

C.P.,

Roull,

Fiffe,

Kirby,

Russel,

Fishe, Fishide,

Kirton, Kirketon,

Sading, Sadington,

Fitz-John,

C.P.,

Ch. B. E.,

Fulthorpe, C. P.,

Knyvet, C. P.,

Sadling, Sadel, Sad-

Fyng, Fyncheden, C. P.,

Laising,

lingstanes,

Gaign, Gayne,

Laund,

Sand,

Gasc,

Led,

Sauk,

Gleit,

Leic,

Scharde, Shardelowe,

Goddel,

Leuc,

C.P,

Gotham,

Lincoln,

Scorb. Scord. Scarde-

Gower,

Lodelow, Leod, Lud,

burb, B. E.,

H. Green, C. P.,

Loding, Ch. B. E.,

Scott, C. P.,

R. Green,

Loved ay,

Scrope,

1327—1377.

INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY.

375

Sell. Shelbie,

Suss,

Trever. Trewythosa,

Setone, K. B.,

Tank, Ch. B.E.

Trewood, Treu,

Sidenham,

Thirning, C. P.,

Ufflete,

Skipwith, C. P.,

R.Thorpe, Ch. C.P.,

Wad,

Skylling,

W. Thorpe, C. P.,

Whishaw,

Smet,

Tond, Toutheby, Just.

Wich. Wichingham,

Somers,

Itin.,

C. P.,

Standf,

Tours,

Wikwood,

Stouford, Stouflf, Ston-

Irani, Travers, C. P.,

AVilby, Wilughby,

ford, C. P.,

Tremayn, Trem,

C.P.,

Stourbugh,

Trench,

Will, Wilt.

Stret,

Tressillian, K. B.,

Wolf,

Strod,

Trevaign, Trevaignon,

Worth,

Sudb,

C.P.,

Yong.

Suer,

From the time when Henry III. prohibited the continuance
of schools in London for the study of the law in 1235 ], there
is a total silence among historians, till the present reign, as to
the places where, and the manner in which, that study was
pursued. Although it is the fashion to attribute to the reign
of Edward III. the institution of the several inns of Court,
it is to be lamented that legal antiquaries have given us no-
thing but tradition as the ground-work of that hypothesis ;
and have left us ignorant, not only of their original constitu-
tion, but of the precise distinction between them and the now-
called inns of Chancery. These learned authors seem to have
taken for granted, that the system they found in their own
day had existed from the beginning, that the same connection
had always prevailed, and that the dependence of the one on
the other had experienced no variation. It would, perhaps,
be useless to hope for a recovery of those evidences which
their neglect has tended to destroy ; and it would be certainly
presumptuous wholly to discard the traditions they have
handed down to us ; but it will not be an uninteresting
inquiry to examine how far the proofs that remain support
the traditions we have received.

1 Sec vol. ii. ]>. 201,
1! l$ 4

376 INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY. Edw. III.

Fortescue, in his work " De Laudibus Legum Angliae,"
gives the earliest definite account of the schools for the study
of the law. He says, there were " ten lesser inns, and
sometimes more, which are called inns of Chancery, where
the students study the very first principles of the law ; and
after they have made some progress there, they are admitted
into the inns of Court, properly so called, of which there are
four in number." ! He then speaks in eulogistic terms of the
exercises in these schools ; but is wholly silent as to their
history, constitution, or even their names.

We have thus a certain proof of the existence of these
seminaries, distinguished as inns of Court and Chancery, in
Fortescue's time ; and as his work was written between the
years 1460 and 1470, an interval of nearly 150 years had
then elapsed since the accession of Edward III., in whose
reign tradition fixes their establishment ; with a further
period of something less than 100 years since the prohibition,
in 1235, of law schools in the city of London.

Whatever was the real object of that prohibition, with
regard to which writers differ, its operation, if intended to be
general, was not likely to be of long continuance. The study
of that science which was in daily exercise, a proficiency in
which was not to be attained without considerable labour,
and for the professors of which there was a continual demand,
was a matter of absolute necessity. No royal mandate could
prevent individuals from pursuing it, nor put an effectual
check on their associating together for the purpose. If the
prohibition was intended to be general, the probability is that
it was silently allowed to become a dead letter ; but the result
would seem rather to prove that the interpretation was con-
fined to its literal language ; since not one of the inns of Court
or Chancery which were subsequently established was situ-

Chap. xlix.

1327—1377. INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY. 377

ated within the city of London, but beyond the walls, as they
then existed. The traditionary inns of Court mentioned by
Dugdale, in Dowgate, Fewter Lane, and Paternoster Row,
may probably have been among those which were suppressed
by the prohibitory mandate.

That during the hundred years before the accession of
Edward III. there were some establishments for the reception
of law students, no one will venture to dispute. They were
probably of gradual formation ; and as it is admitted that they
were all voluntary societies, they were not likely at first to
be ruled by any very defined system of laws. The term
apprenticii, introduced into the mandate of Edward I., and
the reference to that class in the Year Book of 1 Ed-
ward III., plainly presuppose both a place and a means of
learning, as well as a degree recognised in the courts. An
inference that these apprentices were congregated in hostels
or inns, and that they discussed legal questions there, may be
also drawn from the fact that Wilughby and Skipwith, who
were judges in the argument of a case in 29 Edward III.,
stated that they had heard a certain exception taken " amongst
the apprentices in hostels."1

It must not be supposed, however, that the French word
hostel, nor the English word inn, nor the Latin word
hospitium, was confined in its meaning to a place at which
the study of the law was pursued. Its simple signification
was, the mansion or residence of an individual or a family ;
and in that sense the word was used at that time in each
language, both in common parlance, and in the records of the
country. In France we find the same meaning still attached
to the word ; and in most of the English inns of Court and
Chancery, the name of the family to whom they belonged is
still perpetuated : Lincoln's Inn ; Gray's Inn ; Clifford's Inn ;
Tliavie's Inn; Furnival's Inn; Barnard's Inn.

1 Year Book, Mich. 29 Edw. III., 17 b.

378 INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY. Er>w. III.

The four inns of Court referred to by Fortescue all writers
agree to be the same as those now existing ; viz. Lincoln's Inn,
the two Temples, and Gray's Inn ; but, notwithstanding the
tradition, there is no proof of their establishment in the reign
of Edward III. ; while some evidence does exist that two of
the smaller inns were then inhabited by students of the law.

The ten smaller inns Fortescue explicitly states to be
" between London and Westminster," " in the suburbs ; " and
Dugdale, who wrote 200 years after him, thinks that only two
of these remained in his time, viz. Clifford's Inn and Thavie's
Inn, out of the eight which then existed. The other six
enumerated by Dugdale are Clement's Inn, Lyon's Inn, New
Inn, Furnival's Inn, Staple Inn, and Barnard's Inn ; but his
own account of some of them would seem to contradict the
exclusion from those referred to by Fortescue.

Thus it is certain that two of the lesser inns, existing in
Fortescue's time, no longer remain ; and it appears from his
description, that the number of these establishments was not
subject to any limitation, as he says there were " sometimes
more" than the ten to which he refers. It may therefore
be presumed that the number of inns depended upon the
fluctuation in the number of students; and that when one
establishment was full, new accommodation for those resorting
to the study was found in another locality. Fortescue enables
us to approach the number of students in his time. He says,
that there were two hundred in the least frequented of the
four inns of Court, and in each of the ten lesser inns "an
hundred students at the least," making an aggregate, therefore,
of little less than 2000 students.

In the absence of any definite explanation as to the origin
of the distinction between the four greater and the ten lesser
inns, and of the assumption of authority by the former over
the latter, we may very reasonably suppose that it arose from
the fact, that each of the four greater inns, occupying a far

1327—1377. INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY. 379

more extensive area, and accommodating a far greater number
of students, than any of the lesser inns, would gradually ac-
quire an ascendancy over them. Incipient candidates for
legal honours would thus naturally seek admission into these
more popular societies ; and, being for a time excluded by
their crowded state, would be compelled to resort to some of
the lesser inns, until space was afforded for their admission
into the principal house. Thus, those smaller inns, which
were in the immediate neighbourhood of the several larger
inns, may be easily supposed to have become connected with
them ; — acting as a sort of nursery, before an advance to the
greater school. Thus, Furnival's Inn, and Thavie's Inn,
were in connection with Lincoln's Inn ; Clifford's Inn, Lyon's
Inn, and Clement's Inn, with the Inner Temple ; New Inn,
with the Middle Temple ; and Staple Inn, and Barnard's Inn,
with Gray's Inn.

It is not difficult, then, to see that the granting of the
different degrees in law would be gradually assumed by, and
recognised in, the four greater houses. The precise time
when this occurred, it is now impossible to fix ; but that it
was not always so, we have some evidence in the fact, that in
the reign of Henry IV. a member of Clifford's Inn was called
to the degree of serjeant from that inn, in which he must, of
course, have been previously an apprentice, or what is now
called a barrister.1

The ultimate establishment of this separation between the
two classes of houses, — this division, as it were, between
school and college, — rendered some distinctive appellation
necessary to each class : and the adoption of the name of inns
of Court for one class, and of inns of Chancery for the other,
was probably the consequence. The latter were so called,
not, as Dugdale suggests, " because they were antiently

1 l\uic<A Inns of Court, 261.

380

LINCOLN'S INN.

Edw. III.

hospicia for the clerks of the Chancery, " for that appears by
no means to have been the fact, but on account of the studies
pursued there. These, Fortescue says, were " Originalia, et
quasi legis elementa." Now all the original and judicial writs
were prepared in the Chancery, and as they formed the
elements of the study, it was but natural that the place in
which those elements were taught should be called from the
department in which they were concocted. The title, inns
of Court, in contradistinction to inns of Chancery, was, no
doubt, assumed as a superior one ; as in process of time from
them only were selected the advocates who were authorised
to plead in the several courts of justice.

There is no evidence, however, tending to show that this
distinction between the two classes of houses had any exist-
ence in the reign of Edward III. ; and in giving an account of
the only two establishments which are proved by document-
ary testimony to have been founded during the fifty years of
its continuance; viz., Clifford's Inn and Thavie's Inn, the
former now dependant upon the Inner Temple, and the latter
till lately upon Lincoln's Inn ; it will be found that the
institution of neither exhibits any symptom of an original
connection with the larger bodies, or as being subordinate to
any of them.

Deferring the history of each house until the reign in which
we have indisputable evidence of its existence as a receptacle
for students, we shall content ourselves under this and the
intervening reigns with noticing the traditions which attach
to the other establishments, and the proofs that have been
adduced with reference to them.

Lincoln's Inn is considered the most ancient of our legal
seminaries, and is supposed to have been so occupied even
previous to this reign. Dugdale says, that " the tradition is
still current among the antients here, that Henry, Earl of
Lincoln, about the beginning of Edward the Second's time,

1327—1377. THE TEMPLE. — GRAY'S INN. 381

being a person well affected to the knowledge of the laws,
first brought in the professors of that honourable and neces-
sary study to settle in this place." This being all we have
relative to this inn as an inn of Court, till the reign of
Henry VI., — an interval of more than 100 years, — we may
be excused for not wholly relying on such an authority ; the
more especially, when we know that the property belonged to
the bishops of Chichester, that the Earl of Lincoln was only a
tenant of it, that he died in the mansion in 1312, the fifth
year of the reign of Edward II., and that no other of his
name ever afterwards resided in it ; and when we have some
evidence also to show that the bishops, after the earl's death,
resumed their occupation of the mansion.

The Temple was granted by King Edward III. to the
Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who, says
Dugdale, "soon after (as the tradition is) demised the same,
for the rent of 10/. per annum, unto divers professors of the
Common Law, that came from Thavye's Inne in Holburne."
He admits, that for this " there is nothing but tradition left
to us ;" but " that they were here seated in King Edward the
Third's time is out of all doubt," he broadly asserts, adducing,
as testimony, Chaucer's description of the Manciple. This,
however, having more probably been written in the time
of Richard II., we shall reserve our remarks on it till that
reign.

In Dugdale's account, it will be seen that no definite date
is given for the entry of law students into the Temple ; and
to the tradition as to their having removed from Thavie's
Inn, there seems a sufficient contradiction in the fact, that
the latter had students of its own long after the time sua-
gested, and that the inn of Court with which it was con-
nected was not either of the Temples, but Lincoln's Inn.

( i ray's Inn is the fourth inn of Court, but " when it be-
came a mansion for students of the law," Dugdale saj 8, " is a

382 gray's INN. Edw. hi.

question that I cannot directly resolve." To this he adds,
that " there is not only a tradition amongst the antients of
this society, but a positive assertion by John Stow * * that
the students of the law held this house by lease from the
Lord Grays of Wilton, in King Edward the Third's time."
Now, the positive assertion even of Stow, living nearly 200
years after the time, though aided by that of his con-
temporary Mr. St. Low Kniveton, can only be received as
evidence of tradition, unless they produce some document to
support it. Not only is such a record wanting, but the
earliest adduced by Dugdale, that has the slightest semblance
of an application to the point, is dated as late as the reign of
Henry VII. The evidence of Fortescue, however, although
he does not name the four inns of Court, — and of some
further facts which we shall advance in their proper place,
may be taken as demonstrative of Gray's Inn having been
occupied by students of the law, certainly as early as the
reign of Henry VI., and probably before.

There is, indeed, a manuscript in the British Museum
(Harl. Coll., No. 1912.), which carries back the origin of this
house, as a legal establishment, to the time of Edward III.,
the writer supporting his assertion by an argument founded
on the difference between the words " messuagium " and
" hospitium " applied to it at two different periods, which it
is not necessary here to refute. This manuscript was written
by a butler of the house in 1676 ; and as far as it collects the
authentic records connected with it, and details its docu-
mentary history from its books, is a very valuable com-
pendium. But, not satisfied with this, although none of those
books commence earlier than the reign of Henry VIII., and
though he gives no prior date to any of the other officers of
the establishment, he introduces a list of Readers for nearly
two hundred previous years ; or, rather, a selection of fourteen
of them to cover the whole of that period, bearing such

1327—1377. Clifford's inn. 383

palpable proofs of invention, that an apocryphal character is
thrown over the whole composition.

Clifford's Inn is the first house of which we have any
distinct memorial, as occupied by students of the law ; the
lease to them having been granted in 1344, 18 Edward II L

It derives the name from the noble family to which it at
that time belonged, and is situate on the north side of Fleet
Street, being described in the records as " Messuagium illud
cum pertinentiis juxta ecclesiam Sancti Dunstani West, in
suburbio Londini."

At the death of Malcolm de Harley the property had been
seized into the hands of Edward I., on account of certain
debts due to the crown during the time he was escheator
south of Trent. John de Britannia, Earl of Richmond, after-
wards held it at the king's pleasure : but on February 24,
1310, Edward II. made a grant of it to Robert de Clifford, to
be held by him and his heirs by the service of one penny
annually; with a proviso, that if the king or his successors
should restore the premises to Malcolm de Harley, or his
heirs, the said Clifford and his heirs should be indemnified.1
This Robert de Clifford died in 1314, and his eldest son,
Roger, in 1321. Another son, Robert, then succeeded, and
died in 1344, 18 Edward III. It appears by the inquisition
taken after his death, that Robert's widow, Isabella, demised
it in the same year to the apprentices of the bench, " appren-
tices de banco," at an annual rent of 10/. 2 : and it is a curious
fact that in the following year, November 27, 1345, the
custody of this messuage, " vocati Hospicium de ClyfFord,"
was granted by the king to David de Wollore, to hold during
the minority of the heir.3

As David de Wollore was then or soon afterwards keeper

1 Rot. Pat. 3 Edw. II., m. 19. 8 Inquis. p. m. ii. 118.

3 Rot. Pat. 19 Edw. III., p. 3. m. 3. I am indebted to Mr. Thoma
Dull'iis Hardy for the obliging communication of this record.

384 Clifford's inn. Edw. hi.

of the Rolls, and, as such, the head of the clerks of the
Chancery, it might be inferred that this grant was in the
nature of a confirmation of the demise of Isabella de Clifford
to the apprentices of the bench, or in some way connected
with it. The language of the grant, however, does not justify
the supposition, nor does a word occur in it showing that it
had any relation whatever to his office ; his official character,
if he then had one, not being even mentioned. It appears
rather to have been a mere personal gift, in precisely the
same form as those which in that age were ordinarily made
by the sovereign to his favourites and courtiers, for services
rendered or expected, by which the issues and profits of the
lands of the king's tenants, dying with infant heirs, were en-
trusted to the grantees pending the minority. Here the
consideration is distinctly stated to be " pro bono et gratuitu
servicio quod dilectus clericus noster David de Wollore nobis
impendit." The grantee's power over the property ceased
as soon as the heir, on attaining his majority, was admitted
into possession.

That this was so with regard to Clifford's Inn appears
from a release to Roger 'de Clifford, the son of Robert and
Isabella, by Sir Robert de Herle, of all his right and claim in
the premises. Robert de Herle was a descendant from Mal-
colm de Harley (the name was spelt both ways); and the
instrument had no doubt a reference to the proviso in the
original grant, and gave up all right to redeem the property
as heir of the escheator. It must have been dated between
1357, when Roger came of age, and J390, when he died.

The term of Isabella de Clifford's demise to the students
is not mentioned ; but the tenancy was continued by subse-
quent leases until March 29, 1618, when the Cliffords, for
a consideration of 600/., granted the property in fee farm
to Nicholas Sulyard, the principal of the house, and other
members, at a rent of 41. per annum.

1327—1377. THAVIE'S INK. 38<5

This house is now what is called an inn of Chancery ; but
how soon after its first institution it received that designa-
tion, or why it was given, is by no means clear, especially
adverting to the fact that the earliest legal tenants were ap-
prentices of the bench. Its connection with the Inner Tem-
ple must have commenced at a later date than the reign
of Edward III. How it originated, and what was its ex-
tent, is still to be discovered ; but that it had reference
rather to the course of study pursued, than to any control
over its government, appears probable from the result of an
application made by Mr. Jessopp to the Court of King's
Bench in Hilary Term, 1834. He complained of the election
of Mr. Allen as principal of this inn, and applied for a man-
damus commanding that gentleman to attend before the
masters of the bench of the Inner Temple, to enable them to
decide upon the validity of his election. Mr. Allen denied
that that body had any jurisdiction over Clifford's Inn, and
swore to his belief that the latter was of earlier origin than,
and had never been subservient to, the former ; and that the
Inner Temple claimed no such jurisdiction. Lord Denman
and the rest of the court refused the application on the
express ground that no single instance had been brought
forward in which the benchers of the Inner Temple had
exercised such an authority.1

Thavie's Inn is another house, the establishment of
which, as a legal seminary, belongs undoubtedly to the reign
of Edward III. Its history affords a curious example of the
careless manner in which Dugdale sometimes compiled his
works. In p. 143. of his Origincs Juridiciales he gives an
extract from the Fine liolls of 11 Edward III., recording a
grant made by the king to Thomas de Elingham and Robert
de Ivettleseye, two clerks of his Chancery, of certain houses
in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, in the suburbs of

1 Hex t>. Allen, 5 B. & A. 984. ; Legal Observer, vii.
VOL. III. C C

386 thavie's INK. Edw. III.

London, late of John Travels, deceased ; and he then goes on
to remark, " And if that inne of Chancery, situate near St.
Andrew's Church, in Holburne, now called Davie's or Thavie's
Inne, be the same which is mentioned in the Fine Rolls of
1 1 Edward III. (as some judicious persons do think it is), con-
sidering the little difference betwixt Travers and Thavye in
pronunciation, it [viz., the reason why they are called Innes
of Chancery] will then be out of doubt."

In p. 271. of the same work, however, without any re-
ference to the above suggestion, he states that students of
law were resident in this (Thavie's) inn, in the time of
Edward III. ; and that it took its name from John Tavie,
to wThom it belonged, and who by his will (23 Edward III.)
gave all his tenements " in parte australi," in the parish of
St. Andrew's, to his wife Alicia for life ; and after her death,
" totum illud Hospicium, in quo apprenticii ad legem habitare
solebant" to be sold, and to endow a chaplain for his and his
wife's souls with the proceeds.

Now here Dugdale gives two contradictory origins to the
house, and overturns, by the latter significant fact, the
former suggested etymology of the name. It is impossible
not to admire the labours of that indefatigable writer. Look-
ing at the extent and the nature of his wrorks, his unwearied
industry is most surprising, and the utility of his voluminous
collections no one can deny. It is scarcely to be expected,
where documents so multitudinous come under his treatment,
that the most careful attention will always avoid mistakes ;
and the grateful reader will be ready to make allowances for
those oversights, which he must be conscious he is himself
so likely to commit.

Although, therefore, we cannot but adopt the derivation
of the name of Thavie's Inn from John Tavie, and discard
that from John Travers, it does not follow that the houses of
the latter did not form part of the premises comprehended in

1327—1377. Clement's inn. 387

the inn. The grant to the clerks of the Chancery in 1 1 Ed-
ward III. may or may not have been for the use of students
of the law ; it is wholly silent on the subject ; but its term
was only " while the houses remained in the king's hands, on
account of the debts of John Travers." These debts his ex-
ecutors may have paid, and thus redeemed the houses ; and
then they may have sold them to John Tavie, who may have
accepted the tenancy of the apprentices of the law, to whose
use the Chancery clerks may possibly have previously de-
voted them. However this may be, it is manifest that
" apprenticii ad legem " were accustomed to dwell there
before the twenty-third year of Edward III. We have no
record of what was actually done with the " Hospicium " on
the death of Alicia, the widow of John Tavie ; but whatever
became of the freehold, there is no doubt that the apprentices
continued the occupation. The purchase of the premises by
the benchers of Lincoln's Inn will be noticed in the reign of
Edward VI.

If we were to accept Shakspeare as an historical authority,
we should be bound to place Clement's Inn also as a
receptacle for students of the law in the reign of Ed-
ward III. In the second part of the play of Henry IV.,
Justice Shallow says —

" I was once of Clement's Inn ; where, I think, they will talk of mad
Shallow yet;"

and Cousin Silence afterwards reminds him, —
" That's fifty-five year ago."

This would fix the period in Edward's reign ; but, as we
have no other evidence of the fact, we can only receive the
bard's description of the "mad days" of the "swinge-bucklers"
and the " bona-robas," and his allusion to " Sir Dagonet in
Arthur's Show," as pictures of his own age, illustrating the

388

REPORTERS.

Edw. III.

practices and manners which lie himself bad witnessed among
the young students.

The Year Books of this reign are in four parts : the first
comprehends the ten earliest years ; the second extends from
the seventeenth to the thirty-ninth, omitting the nineteenth,
twentieth, and thirty-first to thirty-seventh inclusive ; the
third proceeds from the fortieth to the last year of the
reign ; each of them wanting some terms ; and the fourth
is called " Le Liver dcs Assises et Plees del Corone moves
et dependaunt devant les Justices, ci bien en lour Circuits
come aylours ; " including the whole of the reign.

In the second and third centuries of David Jenkins's
Reports are to be found cases in most of the years up to the
forty-seventh ; omitting, however, those of fourteen of those
years; viz., 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 25, 31, 32, 37,
and 38 Edward III.

To Keilway's Reports of the times of Henry VII.,
Henry VIII., and Elizabeth, are added fifty-five cases in
Itinere of this reign, which were dated between the 1st and
47th years.

William Benloe reports a case in 32 Edward III. before
the justices of assize in Suffolk.

The " State Trials " contain the proceedings against
Roger Mortimer, Earl of March ; Thomas de Berkele ; and
John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury ; principally
extracted from the Rolls of Parliament.

A remarkable trial occurred in the thirtieth year of this
reign, in which Thomas Lyld, Bishop of Ely, was charged
with the murder of a servant of Blanche Wake, the daughter
of the Earl of Lancaster. Of this he was acquitted, but
was found guilty of knowingly receiving the murderer after
the crime. Solemnly denying the charge, the bishop ap-
pealed to the pope, who summoned his judges William de
Shareshull, William de Thorpe, Henry Green, William

1327—1377. REPORTERS. 389

Notton, and Simon Drayton1, to appear at the papal court;
and, on their disobeying the citation, pronounced sentence of
excommunication against them, followed by an interdict over
their property. The king, though greatly annoyed, was
obliged to take measures to satisfy the pontiff. The timely
death of the bishop, however, facilitated the accommodation.2

1 Probably a Serjeant added to tbe commission.
* Godwin de Praesiil. 263. ; Angl. Sac. i. 44

e c s

390

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

THE JUDGES UNDER THE REIGN OF EDWARD III.

ALDEBURGH, RICHARD DE.

Just. C. P. 1332.

Aldeburgh (Aldborough), in Yorkshire, was the place from
which Richard de Aldeburgh derived his name. He had a
grant of lands there in 12 Edw. II., and seven years after-
wards purchased the manor of Hundeburton and property
in Mildeby, both in the same county.1 In 14 Edward II.
he was one of the commissioners to inquire as to the men of
Ripon having refused to raise 1000 marks which they had
promised to pay to the Scots for the preservation of their
city, and having allowed the hostages who were security for
the money to remain unredeemed in prison.2

Richard de Aldeburgh is frequently mentioned as a
counsel in the Year Books of Edward II., and the first five
years of Edward III. In the third year of the latter reign
he acted as the king's attorney in the pleas of quo warranto
at Northampton; and in the same year he is noticed as
one of the king's Serjeants. In the fifth year he was a
commissioner for preserving the peace between England
and Scotland3; and on February 3, 1332, 6 Edward III.,
he was constituted a judge of the Common Pleas. Dugdale

Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 245. 293.
Ibid. ii. 809.

N. Focdera, ii. 437.

1327—1377.

ALAN DE ASHE.

391

introduces two other patents, conferring on him the same
office, dated November 19, 1333, and January 8, 1341 ] ; but
I presume, that as on these days new chiefs of the court were
appointed, these were merely formal re-nominations without
any intervening retirement ; especially as Dugdale docs not
record any break in the fines levied before him. These are
stated to terminate at Michaelmas, 14 Edward III., 1340;
in which year he had a licence to enclose one hundred acres
of land in Rigton in Whernedale.-

He received the order of knighthood when he was raised
to the bench in 6 Edward III.3 No document remains
showing the date of his death ; but he is mentioned as the
head of a judicial commission in Yorkshire as late as
May 20, 1343.4

ALLERTHORPE, LAURENCE.
B. E. 1375.

See under the Reign of Richard II.
ASHE, ALAN DE.

B. E. 1346.

An advocate of this name is noticed in the Year Books of
the early part of the reign. He was made a baron of the
Exchequer on July 2, 1346, 18 Edward III., and he had his
robes in 21 Edward III.5; but beyond that date all the pub-
lished records are silent about him.

An Adam do Assh appears connected with the Exchequer
in 44 Edward III.6

1 Cal. Rot. Tat. 114. 117. 119. 138.
» Dugdale's Orig. 45. 102.
■ Abbrev. Hot. Orig. ii. 192.

Ibid. 137.

N. Fcedera, ii. 1225.

Issue Roll, 44 Eihv. III.

c c 4

392

HOBERT DE AYLESTON.

Edw. III.

ASTY, HENRY DE.

Ch. 13. E. 1375.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

AUNGERVILLE. See R. de Bury.

AYLESTON, ROBERT DE, Archdeacon of Berks.

B. E. 1330.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

In the parliament held at York in November, 1322, 16
Edward II., Master Robert de Ayleston, then canon of
Salisbury, was one of the procurators for the bishop of that
see. In the following year he was keeper of the Privy Seal,
and was employed in various counties to try the sheriffs and
others accused of malversation and oppression. On May 21,
1323, he was nominated a baron of the Exchequer; and on
July 18, 1326, was sworn in as chancellor of the Exchequer,
by which he seems to have vacated his former seat on the
bench, as he was not among the barons appointed in the
following January on the accession of Edward III.

In the fourth year of that reign, however, he resumed his
place as a baron, on December 20, 1330, having in the
preceding August been collated to the archdeaconry of
Berks. He ao-ain vacated his seat on the bench on beino;
constituted treasurer on March 29, 1332; and while he held
that office the king made an unsuccessful application to the
pope to procure his nomination to the vacant bishoprick of
St. Andrew's. He continued treasurer till February 3, 1334.
There is no other trace of his death than is afforded by the
appointment of his successor in the archdeaconry in Septem-
ber, 1338, 12 Edward III.1

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 428.; Dugdal<
847. 866.

Le Neve, 279. ; N. Focdera,

1327—1377. ROGER DE BANKWELL. 393

BACON, THOMAS.

Just. C. P. 1329. Just. K. B. 1332.

That Thomas Bacon was of tiie same family as that from
which Sir Nicholas Bacon and Lord Verulam sprang, there
can be little doubt, although it is not in our power to trace
the pedigree distinctly. In 9 Edward II., 1316, he was cer-
tified, as holding property in Stiffkey, Baconsthorpe, and
other places in Norfolk, which formed part of the posses-
sions of those eminent individuals. He was perhaps the
Thomas Bacon, son of Sir Roger Bacon of Baconsthorpe, on
whom that knight settled lands in Isbenham, &c. on his mar-
riage with Johanna, daughter of Roger de Antringham, in
8 Edward III. ; but the Bacons were even then so numerous,
that the different branches can scarcely be distinguished.

Thomas is named in the Year Books of Edward HI. both
before and after he was a judge. He was raised to that
dignity in the Common Pleas on September 30, 1329, 3 Ed-
ward III., and received the honour of knighthood. He
was removed into the King's Bench on January 28, 1332,
in the sixth year, in the parliament of which he was one of
the triers of petitions ; being also appointed to tallage his
native county. We do not find any entry of his exercising
his judicial functions after 10 Edward III., 1336; but if he
were the son of Sir Roger, as above suggested, he was still
alive in 1359.1

BANKWELL or B AUK WELL, ROGER DE.

Just. K. B. 1341.

This name is spelled both these ways ; and Roger dc
Bank well was most probably of the family, perhaps a

1 Pari. Writ*, ii. P. ii. 303. ; Dugdalc's Orig. I0'2.; and Chron. Sei
Rot. Pari. ii. C«. 447.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig ii. 99. 109. I am Indebted
to Thomas Bond, Esq., of tbe Inner Temple, for valuable facts most kindly
communicated on the subject of this and otber families.

394 WILLIAM BASSET. Edw. III.

younger son, of John do Bankwell, baron of the Exchequer
under Edward II. Roger is noticed as an advocate in the
early part of the reign of Edward III. In the sixth year
he was employed to tallage the counties of Nottingham and
Derby1 ; and from his being assigned in 14 Edward III. to
inquire into a conflagration at Spondon in the latter county 2,
it would seem probable that he was settled there ; the more
especially as Sir Godfrey Foljambe, one of his associates in
that inquiry, many years afterwards gave a messuage and
land to a clergyman named Roger de Bankwell 3, who, it
may be presumed, was this Roger's son.

He was constituted a judge of the King's Bench before
Easter in 15 Edward III., 1341, and was a trier of petitions
in the parliaments held from that date till Hilary in the
twenty-first year.4 He is mentioned in the Year Books as
late as 23 Edward III.

BARNSTAPLE, Archdeacon of. See W. de Melton.

BASSET, WILLIAM.

Just. C. P. 1337. Just. K. B. 1341.

I DO not know to which of the numerous branches of the
family of Basset this William Basset belongs, but he was
apparently a native of Staffordshire. He was an advocate in
the reign of Edward II., and in the first ten years of that
of Edward III. In the latter of these or the beginning of
the eleventh year, 1337, he was raised to the bench of the
Common Pleas, and fines began to be levied before him on
the octave of St. Hilary in that year. When the king, in
December, 1340, dismissed some of his brethren for mal-
practices, he escaped, and was comprehended in the new
patent issued on January 8, 1341. On October 28 he ex-

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 447. - N. Fcedera, ii. 1133.

3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 286. 4 Rot. Pari. ii. 126—164.

1327—1377. ROBERT BAYNARD. 395

changed his court for that of the King's Bench, where he
remained certainly till Hilary, 21 Edward III., he being one
of the triers of petitions in the parliament then assembled,
and probably till 24 Edward III., his name occurring up
to that date in the Year Book and book of assizes of that

BAUKWELL. See R. de Bankwell.
BAUMBURGH, THOMAS DE.

? Keeper, 1332.

Among the clerks or masters in Chancery mentioned from
1 to 14 Edward III., is Thomas de Baumburgh (Bambo-
rough), so named from that place in Northumberland, Avhere
he had property. He seems to have been an especial
favourite with the king, who presented him with the
church of Emildon, and made him various beneficial grants
of lands in that county.2 He acted as keeper of the Great
Seal on several occasions; — during the chancellorship of
John de Stratford, from April 1 to June 23, 1332, and
from January 13 to February 17, 1334; during that of
Richard de Bynteworth, Bishop of London, from July 6 to
19, 1336; and, on the death of that prelate, from Decem-
ber 8, 1339, to February 16, 1340, while there was no
chancellor.3 In the latter year, 14 Edward III., he was one
of the receivers of the petitions to parliament4, and probably
died soon after, as he is not subsequently named.

BAYNARD, ROBERT.

Just. K. B. 1328.

Robert Baynard was the son of Fulco Baynard, a justice
itinerant in the reign of Henry III., who died at a very

1 Cent's Mag., Aug. 181:3.; Dugdale's Orig. 4 5. ; Rot Pari. ii. 164.
- Rot. Pari. ii. 22. ; Cal. Inqnis. p. in., ii. 5:5.; Abbrev. Rot Orig. ii. 27.
75. 79. ; Cal. Rot. Pat 118.

3 Hardy's fatal. 31- ' Rot Pari. ii. OS. U2.

396 BOBEBT RAYNAUD. Edw. III.

advanced age in 1305, 33 Edward I.1 Kobert, so early as
18 Edward L, was returned as knight of the shire for
Norfolk, and represented that county in the parliaments of
2, 8, 9, 14, 15, 19, and 20 Edward II.2 In 5 Edward. II.
the custody of Norfolk was committed to him3, and in the
two following years he was among the magnates who were
specially summoned to parliament. Several of these were
not barons, and were never afterwards summoned ; and he, in
all the subsequent entries, is merely called " Miles." He
was one of the conservators of the peace for the county, and
was employed as a commissioner of array, and in assessing
the various grants made by the parliament. To him also
was intrusted the custody of the bishoprick of Durham, in
1311, on the death of Anthony Bek ; but we do not find that
during that reign he was engaged in any other legal duties
than those which usually devolved on country gentlemen in
their own districts; nor does his name appear at all in the
Year Books.

On the accession, however, of Edward III., he was ap-
pointed, according to Dugdale, a judge of the King's Bench4 ;
and it is curious that the writ directing the payment of his
expenses as knight of the shire, in the parliament of the
preceding January, is dated on March 9, 1327, the same day
on which he was raised to the judicial bench. He died, in
4 Edward III., in possession of Hautboys, Whatacre, and
five other manors in Norfolk, leaving a wife named Matilda,
who lived till 1349, and a son named Fulk, among whose
three daughters the inheritance was afterwards divided.5

BEALKNAP, ROBERT.

Ch. C. P. 1374.

See under the Reign of Richard II.

1 See Vol. II. 228. - Pari. Writs, i. 441., ii. P. ii. 470.

3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 1 86. 4 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

5 Blomcfield's Norfolk, i. 577. ; Cal. Inquis. \\ m., ii. 30. 148.

1327—1377. THOMAS DE BLASTON. 397

HEREFORD, RALPH DE.

Just. Itix. 1329.

How nearly Ralph de Bereford was connected with William
de Bereford, the chief justice of the last reign, no pedigree
explains ; but that it was not very distantly is most probable.
According to the certificate in 9 Edward II., he possessed
property in the townships of Bourton, Milcome, and Bere-
ford, or Barford, in the county of Oxford. In the same year
he was appointed one of the custodes of the vacant bishoprick
of Winchester ; and on several occasions, during the re-
mainder of that reign, was employed on commissions of Oyer
and Terminer in various counties. In 1329, the third year
of the reign of Edward III., he wa3 the second of five justices
itinerant into Nottinghamshire, and was named in a similar
commission for five other counties.1

BERKS, Archdeacon of. See R. de Ayleston.
BEVERLEY, Provost of. See W. de Melton.

BLASTON, THOMAS DE.

B. E. 1332.

THOMAS de Blaston was probably of Leicestershire, where
there is a hamlet of that name. The custody of the honor of
Peverell, in that and two other counties, wTas committed to a
Thomas de Blaston in the reign of Edward I. ; and he may
have been the father of the baron of the Exchequer. The
latter I find first mentioned in 3 Edward III., when, under
the title of Clericus Regis, he was constituted the king's
chamberlain in Chester, lie was raised to the Exchequer
bench on November 2, 1332, 6 Edward III. In the eleventh
year, he had an allowance of twenty marks for his expenses in

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 526. ; Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 227. '277., ii. 24.; N. Feeder*,
ii. 537. 574. ; Dugdale.

398 JOHN DE BLOCKLEY. Edw. III.

going to divers places, to religious persons and others, to obtain
aid to marry the king's sister, Eleanor : he acted, also, as a
commissioner of array in Yorkshire. A new patent, as baron
of the Exchequer, was granted to him on January 20, 1341,
14 Edward III., when the king had weeded the court, on his
return from Tournay, of those whom he considered to have
failed in their duty.

He held the rectory of Solihull, in Warwickshire.1

BLOCKLEY, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1377.

The parish of this name, in Worcestershire, was probably the
native place of John de Blockley, who endowed the chantry
of the church of St. Mary there with some of his lands in
30 Edward III. and subsequent years. He was an auditor
of the Exchequer, in 44 Edward III., with a salary of 10/. a
year ; and he at the same time received an annual pension of
twenty marks for certain good services he had performed to
the king and the late queen Philippa ; besides which, he had
a grant of the custody of the manor of Exhulne, in Warwick-
shire, during the minority of the heir. Like most of the other
officers, he was in holy orders. He was raised to the bench
as a baron of the Exchequer in 47 Edward III., and so con-
tinued till the last year of the king's reign, as appears by a
liberate quoted by Dugdale. He was not re-appointed on
the accession of Richard II. ; nor is there any further record
of his career.2

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 39., ii. 17.; Dugdale; Issue Roll, Mich. 11 Edw.
III.; Rot. Pari. ii. 105.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 85.

2 Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 194. 263. 352. ; Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 49. 92. ;
Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 310.; Cal. Rot. Pat. 189.

1327—1877. JOnN DE BOUSSER. 399

BOUDON, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1327.

William de Boudon was of a Northamptonshire family.
He was appointed second baron of the Exchequer on Feb-
ruary 4, 1327, a few days after the commencement of the
reign of Edward III. But as there is no subsequent entry
whatever concerning him, he probably died within a few
months, Robert de Nottingham succeeding him as second
baron on October 15 following.1

BOUSSER, or BOURCHIER, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1327.
See under the Reign of Edward IT.

The first mention that occurs of John de Bousser, is his
appointment, as one of the attornies of the Earl of Oxford,
to appear in his place at the parliament held in May, 34
Edward L, 1306. 2 In 6 Edward II. he was excused, on a
fine of one hundred shillings, from bearing arms — de armis
militaribus suscipiendis — for the space of three years. Al-
though his name is not introduced in the Year Book of
Edward II. before he was raised to the bench at West-
minster, it may be inferred that he practised as an advocate,
as he was one of the justices of assize in the counties of Kent,
Surrey, and Sussex in 8 Edward II.3, and was named in
several other judicial commissions from that time till May 31,
1321, in the fourteenth year; when he was constituted a
judge of the Common Pleas, in the place of Gilbert de Rou-
bury.4 In this court he continued to act for the remainder of
that reign ; but some short delay seems to have taken place
in his re-appointment on the accession of Edward III. ; his

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 527. ; Dllgdale's Chron. Scries.

. irl. Writs, i. 166. [lot. Pari. i. Ml>.

1 Rot, Pat l l Edw. II., p. 'J. in. <;.

400 EGBERT DE BOUSSEtt. Edw. III.

patent not being dated till March 24, 1 327, two months after-
wards ; while those to his brethren were immediately granted.

He was the son of Robert de Bousser, and Emma, his wife;
and by his own marriage with Helen, the daughter and
heiress of Walter de Colchester, became possessed of Stan-
sted in Halsted, and other manors in Essex. The last fine
levied before him was dated on the morrow of the Ascension,
3 Edward III., 1329. l Dying soon after, he left two sons,
Robert and John, the former of whom became chancellor in
this reign.2

He was the head of a curious commission in 19 Edward II.
to hear and determine a charge made by the Bishop, and
Dean and Chapter of London against certain persons for
taking and carrying away a great fish, "qui dicitur Cete,"
found on their manor of Walton ; the prosecutors alleging
that King Henry III. had, by his charter, granted them
"totum crassum piscem," which should be taken on their
land, "except the tongue, which the said king retained to
himself."3

BOUSSER, or BOURCIIIER, ROBERT DE.

Chancellor, 1340.

Robert de Bousser was the eldest son of the above-men-
tioned John de Bousser, for so the name was spelled in the
whole of the father's time and in the early part of the son's.
It was afterwards varied to Bourser, Burghcher, Bourghchier,
and eventually Bourchier.

In 17 Edward II. he began his career as a man-at-arms,
and was returned in that character by the sheriff of Essex,
as summoned to attend by general proclamation4; and in
2 Edward III., before his father's death, he was one of the

1 Dugdale's Orig. 45. 2 Morant's Essex, i. 253.

3 N. Fcedera, ii. 619. * Pari. Writs, ii. P. i. 652.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE BOUSSER. 401

knights returned to parliament for that county, and received
for his attendance at the rate of four shillings a day.1

In July, 1334, 8 Edward III., he was appointed chief
justice of the King's Bench in Ireland ; Thomas de Louther
being named to the same office, in case he was unwilling to
go.2 Whether he accepted the place, or how long he re-
mained in it, does not appear. At the commencement, how-
ever, of Edward's claim to the crown of France, we find him
engaged, in 1337, in the battle of Cadsant, where Guy, the
brother of the Earl of Flanders, was taken prisoner ; and we
next meet with him attending at the parliament held in Lent,
1340.3

When the king hurriedly returned from Tournay, at the
end of November in that year, and dismissed Robert de Strat-
ford, the chancellor, whom he was prevented from imprisoning
by his fear of invading the ecclesiastical privileges, he resolved
to appoint a lay-chancellor ; and accordingly selected Robert
de Bourchier, who was sworn in on December 14, 13404,
with a grant of 500/. a year beyond the accustomed fees.5
That this appointment was very distasteful to all parties, is
evident from the petitions in the next parliament, praying,
that in consequence of the evils arising from bad counsellors,
the king should in future make the chancellor, chief justices,
and other officers in full parliament, and that they should
there be openly sworn to observe the laws. To this the king
gave what appeared to be a consent, and his answer was con-
firmed as a statute.6 Immediately after the parliament had
closed its sittings, he revoked the enactment as improperly
forced upon him ; but he soon found it expedient to part with
his military chancellor, who gave up the Seal on October 29,
1341, and was succeeded by Sir Robert Parning.7

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 441. 2 N. Feeder*, ii. 890.

:i Hot. Pari. ii. 113. ' Rot. (laus. 11 Edw. III., p. 'J. m. 10.

5 Cal. Rot Pat. 138. 6 Rot. Pari. ii. 128. [31.

7 Rot. Claus. 15 Edw. III., p. 3. m. 22.
VOL. III. 1) 1>

402

THOMAS DE BRAYTON.

Edw. III.

From this time Bourchier joined the king's army with so
large an array, that his allowance amounted to 40 \l. 10s.
He distinguished himself at the battle of Cressi, and was
engaged as one of the ambassadors to treat for the subsequent
peace. He was summoned to parliament as a peer from
16 Edward III.

He fell a sacrifice to the plague that raged in 1349, and
was buried in Halsted church, where his monument still re-
mains.

By his wife, Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas
de Preyers, he had three sons. The eldest, named Robert,
brought up to the priesthood, and in whose favour the king
applied to the pope in October, 1340 *, stating him to be then
twenty-two years old, died before his father. The two others
were John, who was twenty years old at his father's death,
and William.

The male branch of John's family terminated with his son,
Bartholomew, in 1409 ; but the barony survived at first in
his daughter, and then in Henry, the grandson of William,
Sir Robert's youngest son, who will be noticed as keeper of
the Great Seal to Edward IV., under the title of Earl of
Essex.2

BRAYTON, or DRAYTON, THOMAS DE.

? Keeper, 1340.

Thomas de Brayton had a grant of the prebend of
Fynglas, in the church of Glasgow, from Edward II., in the
thirteenth year of his reign ; and was, therefore, probably at
that time in his service. In 3 Edward III. he accompanied
the king to France, and was engaged in various missions of

1 N. Foedera, ii. 1 1 39.

2 Dugdale's Baron, ii. 127.; Morant's Essex, i. 380., ii. 253.; Nicolas':
Synopsis.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE BROCLESBY. 403

trust for several of the following years.1 His appointment as
a clerk in the Chancery, it would appear, occurred about
6 Edward III., as in the parliament of that year he was a
receiver of the petitions.'2 From 14 to 27 Edward III. he
was frequently one of those entrusted with the custody of the
Great Seal, either during the absence of the chancellors, or in
the intervals of vacancy in the office. Under Sir Robert
Bourchier, his name appears as holding it from December 16,
1340, to the end of the year3; and from February 14 to
March 3, 1341 4 : on the death of Sir Robert Parning, from
August 27 to September 29, 13435: on the death of John
de Offord, from May 28 to June 16, 1349 6; and under
John de Thoresby, from September 2 to October 8, 1351 7;
and from August 4, 1353, for a time not stated.8 He con-
tinued to act as a clerk of the Chancery till 33 Edward III.,
13599 ; after which his name is not mentioned.

He is frequently called Thomas de Drayton, in the Rolls of
parliament ,0 ; and this, I am inclined to think, was his right
name, and that he was of a Norfolk family having possessions
at Great Yarmouth.11

BROCLESBY, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1341.

William de Broclesby had land at the place of that name
in Lincolnshire. He was an ecclesiastic, and devoted much
of his property, both in that county and in Yorkshire, to pious
purposes. It does not appear what office he held about the
court before he was appointed a baron of the Exchequer on

1 N. Fcedera, ii. 401. 764. 840. 872. 1005. - Rot. rail. ii. 68.

3 Rot. Claus. 14 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 10.

4 Ibid. 15 Edw. III., p. 1. in. 44.

5 Ibid. 17 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 20. 24.

■ [bid. 2:5 Edw. III., P. 1. au h. 10. 7 Ibid. 25 Edw. III., m. 11, 12.

H [bid. 27 Edw. III., m. 6. '■> N. Fcedera, in.

"' Rot. 1'arl. ii. 146—264. » Abb. Kot. Ori- ii. 103,

404 ROBERT BUUNDISH. E»w. III.

January 20, 1341, 14 Edward III. He remained in the
court for several years, and is mentioned as being alive in
25 Edward III,1

BROME, ADAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1329.

Adam de Brome was a clerk or master in Chancery, but
is introduced here as having filled the office of a justice
itinerant in the county of Nottingham, in 3 Edward III.,
1330. He probably was of the family settled at the manor
of Brome Hall, in Norfolk ; and is first mentioned in 6 Ed-
ward II., 1312, when he was assigned to talliate Warwick-
shire and other counties. From that time up to 3 Edward III.,
besides being frequently mentioned in connection with his
duties in Chancery, he was several times employed in judicial
commissions, and in the collection of the aid imposed by the
parliament.2 In 17 Edward II. he had a licence to erect a
school in Oxford, by the name of " Rectoris Domus Schola-
rium beata3 Marias Oxon." 3

BRUNDISH, ROBERT.

Just. K. B. 1338.

The name of Brandish was probably derived from a parish
in the county of Suffolk, and is frequently called Burnedish.
A John de Burndish acquired the manor of Morton, near
Ongar, in Essex, in the reign of Edward I., and died in
9 Edward III. ; when he was succeeded by Nicholas, of
wThom it is probable that this Robert Brundish was either a
younger son or brother. Of Robert we can find no other
mention than that he was constituted a judge of the King's
Bench on April 4, 1338, 12 Edward III.4

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 91. 192. 205. 219. ; Rot. Pari. li. 453.

2 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 602. ; Abbrev. Placit. 337. ; Dugdale.

3 Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 94.

4 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. HI., ii. 98. 129.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 70. 159.
184. ; Dugdale.

1327—1377. JOHN DE BUKYNGHAM. 405

BUCKINGHAM, Archdeacon of. See W. of Wykeham.

BUKYNGHAM, JOHN DE, Archdeacon of North-
ampton, Dean of Lichfield, Bishop of Lincoln.

B. E. 1357.

John de Bukyngham, or Bokyngham, a native pro-
bably of the town of Buckingham, was educated at Oxford,
in which university he took the degree of Doctor in Divinity.
He was collated Archdeacon of Northampton on February 28,
1350. Nothing is related of his official career until 24 Ed-
ward III., 1351, when he was appointed keeper of the king's
Great Wardrobe.1 In 1357, 31 Edward III., he was a baron
of the Exchequer ; but it may be presumed that he resigned
his seat on that bench on his becoming keeper of the Privy
Seal two years afterwards, an office which he retained till
the middle of the thirty -seventh year.2 On January 1, 1360,
Robert de Herle and he were constituted the king's lieu-
tenants and captains of the Duchy of Britanny ; and he re-
ceived a quittance for the monies which had come into his
hands in that character in the year 1365.3

In the mean time he had been advanced successively to
the deanery of Lichfield, about 1361, and to the bishoprick
of Lincoln on April 5, 1363.4 After ruling that diocese for
thirty -four years, Pope Boniface IX., in revenge for certain
contests between them, thought proper to remove him from
it in 1397, offering him the see of Lichfield instead. The
offended prelate, however, refused to accept what he justly
considered as a degradation, but chose rather to retire to the
cloisters of Canterbury, where, in less than six months, he
died on March 10, 1398.5 His works are mentioned by Bale

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 211. - Kal. Excb. i. 189— 200.

1 N. Feeders, iii. 466. 777. ' Le Neve, 127. 140. 162.

5 Godwin lie l'nesul. 2'JJ.

D D 3

406 HENRY DE BURGHERSH. Edw. III.

and Pits, and prove him to have been an able disputant and
profound scholar.

A person of the same name was the king's minstrel in the
latter part of the reign of Edward III., and had an allow-
ance of 7 \d. a day for his life.1

BURGHERSH, HENRY DE, Bishop of Lincoln.

Chancellor, 1328.

The family of Burghersh derived its name from a manor so
called in the county of Sussex. Its possessor in the reign of
Edward I. was Robert de Burghersh, who was constable of
Dover Castle, and warden of the Cinque Ports. On his
death in 1306, 34 Edward I., his eldest son, Stephen, suc-
ceeded him, being then twenty-three years of age. Stephen
died in 1309 2; and as his successor, Bartholomew de Burg-
hersh, was in the Scottish wars in 1317, I take him to have
been the brother of Stephen, and not the son, as is generally
represented. Bartholomew, indeed, calls Henry de Burghersh
his brother 3 ; and Henry is described in the statutes of Oriel
College, Oxford, as the son of Robert de Burghasse, knight,
and Matilda, his wife.

If, as it is said, he were only thirty years of age when he
was elected to the prelacy, he must have been born about the
year 1290. He was educated at the University of Oxford ;
and owed to his connection with Bartholomew de Badlesmere,
of Ledes Castle, Kent, his uncle, that favour which produced
the king's intercession with the pope to raise him to the
vacant see of Lincoln. In one of the royal letters he is
called Canon of York.4 The necessary bull having been
procured, he was consecrated bishop on July 20, 1320, 14 Ed-

1 Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 56. 2 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 207. 237.

3 N. Fcedera, i. 1074.

4 Pari. Writs, ii., P. i. 405, 406. 411. 414. 418.

1327—1377.

HENRY DE BURGHERSH.

407

ward II. In the next year his brother and his uncle were
both in arms on the side of the Earl of Lancaster ; and it is
evident that he was suspected of adhering to the same party,
as there is a memorandum on the Roll ', that he is not to be
requested to raise men-at-arms to march against the rebels
and adherents of the earl. The strong terms of vituperation
which the king uses in his letter to the pope on that occasion,
praying for the bishop's expulsion, form a curious contrast with
the laudatory expressions in his five letters of recommendation
two years before.2 The temporalities of his bishoprick were
however, seized into the king's hands ; as we find by his
petition to the first parliament of Edward III., in which he
attributes the injury he sustained, to the extent of 3000Z., to
the "abetment and procurement of Hugh Despencer the
son, and Robert Baldocke." The council intimated, in their
answer, that the taking was wrongful and without cause 3 ;
and the treasurer and barons were commanded to exonerate
the bishop from all amerciaments remaining unsatisfied.4

Though it is said he was restored to his possessions by
Edward II., he held no office during the remainder of that
reign ; but soon after the accession of Edward III. he was
placed in that of treasurer 5, which he filled till, in the next
year, on May 12, 1328, he was appointed chancellor.6 In
1329 he accompanied the king to France, to do homage to
King Philip for the lands held of that crown ; and is said to
have received some hint of an intention to surprise and seize
the person of Edward, who thereupon lost no time in escaping.
He retained the Great Seal till the downfall of Mortimer and
Queen Isabella, when the king, on November 28, 1330,
4 Edward III., placed it in the hands of John de Stratford,

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P. i. 550. * N. Fcedera, i. 464.

3 Rot. Pari. ii. 438. 4 N. Fcedera, i. 697.

5 Rot. Pat. 1 Edw. III., p. 1. in. 9. ,: Ret. Clam. 2 Edw. III.

D D 4

408 HENRY DE BURGHERSH. Edw. III.

Bishop of Winchester l ; but gave Burghersh a general
pardon.2

We find him, however, again in the royal confidence, as
treasurer, in the eighth, ninth, and tenth years of the reign ;
and from the eleventh till the end of his life he was en-
gaged in various negotiations as to Edward's claim to the
crown of France, accompanying the king in his expeditions,
and becoming bound for him for a loan of 10,000/. 3

The bishop died at Ghent in December, 1340, 14 Ed-
ward III., and his body was removed to England for burial
in his own cathedral.

He is reputed to have possessed great natural abilities and
extensive learning. His political character must have been
high, since for ten years after the king had released himself
from his mother's domination, he was employed, although one
of her party, in embassies requiring skill and prudence as
well as confidence and trust. Walsingham describes him as
covetous and worldly ; and relates an absurd story of his
appearance after death, to induce the canons of his church to
re-open certain lands to his poor tenants, which to their
great injury he had enclosed in his park at Tynghurst. The
only recorded complaint I find against him is, that while
chancellor, he gave to his own clerks the benefices, in the
king's gift, which his predecessor had been accustomed to pre-
sent to the clerks of the Chancery.4 On the other hand, it
appears that he and his brother founded a grammar-school in
Lincoln, to which he left maintenance for five poor priests
and as many poor scholars for ever.

Bartholomew, his brother, was the ancestor of the present
Earl of Westmoreland and the Baroness le Despencer and
Burghersh.5

1 Rot. Claus. 4 Edw. III., m. 16. 2 Cal. Rot. Pat. 109.

3 N. Foedera, i. 893—1134. 4 Rot. Pari. ii. 41.

5 Godwin de PrEesul. 294. ; Barnes's Edward III., 36 — 210.

1327—1377. RICHARD DE BURY. 409

BURSTALL, WILLIAM DE.

? Keeper, 1371. M. R. 1371.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

BURY, RICHARD DE, or DE AUNGERVILLE, Arch

DEACON I

Durham.

deacon of Northampton, Dean of Wells, Bishop of

Chancellor, 1334.

The real name of this learned and eminent prelate was
Richard de Aungerville ; but he assumed that of de Bury
from the place where he was born, Bury St. Edmund's, in
Suffolk. Angerville is a town in Normandy, where part of
the family had property so late as the reign of King John.1
About the same time it was established in Leicestershire ;
and one member of it, Sir John de Aungerville, was re-
turned knight of that shire to several parliaments in the
reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. He probably was the
elder son of Sir Richard de Aungerville, the father of the
bishop ; and if so, judging from the commencement of Sir
John's career, Sir Richard died before 1294 2; so that as de
Bury was born in 1281, he must have been of very tender
years when he was left an orphan.

The care of his education devolved on his uncle, John de
Willoughby, a priest, by whom his youthful studies were well
directed ; and in due time he was removed to Oxford 3, where
he pursued them with so much diligence, that he became dis-
tinguished for his learning ; and at the same time acquired
the higher character of a man pure in his life and manners.

On leaving Oxford, he entered the convent of Durham
as a monk. From this seclusion he was withdrawn by
being selected as the tutor of the king's eldest son ; but as

1 Madox's Exch. i. 518. Pari. Writs, i. 437., ii. 460.

3 According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, at University College.

410 RICHARD DE BURY. Edw, III.

the prince was not born till 1312, this event could scarcely
have occurred before the year 1319 or 1320, when our monk
would have been nearly forty years old. His conduct in his
new position was so exemplary, that he was rewarded with
the treasurership of Griiienne, where he was established when
Queen Isabella, and his pupil, the prince, went to France in
1325. The asylum he gave them there, and the pecuniary
aid he afforded out of the royal treasures in his keeping, had
nearly proved fatal to him. Although the latter rightly
belonged to the prince, as his father had transferred the
duchy to him, he was pursued by the emissaries of the De-
spencers; and, escaping to Paris, was compelled to conceal
himself for seven days in the belfry of the church of the
Friars Minors in that city.

On the accession of his princely pupil to the throne, his
services were not forgotten. He was retained near the
person of the king, then little more than fourteen years of
age, and was rewarded successively with the offices of cofferer,
treasurer of the Wardrobe, and keeper of the Privy Seal.
Nor was his clerical preferment overlooked. He held at first
a small prebend in the church of Chichester, which the king
declares his readiness to give up in a letter he addressed to
the pope on December 26, 1330, on de Bury's behalf. In
this he calls him " his secretary ; " and speaking of his
services, " a pueritia nostra," uses these strong expressions :
" quod novimus ipsum virum in consiliis providum, conversa-
tionis et vita3 munditia decorum, literarum scientia prasditum,
et in agendis quibuslibet circumspectum." The object of this
letter was to induce the pope to reserve for de Bury the pre-
bends in the churches of Hereford, London, and Chichester,
with the other benefices which Gilbert de Middleton, Arch-
deacon of Northampton, lately deceased, had possessed.
Before an answer could have been received to this applica-
tion, de Bury was collated to the vacant archdeaconry on

1327—1377. RICHARD DE BURY. 411

January 6, 1330-1 l; but the pope, according to the too
common practice of the day, usurped the appointment ; and,
on the 1st of the following March, granted the dignity to
Peter, one of his cardinals. Whether he was regardless of
the remainder of the prayer does not appear ; but prebends
in the cathedrals of Lincoln, Sarum, and Lichfield, were
among the grants soon after made to de Bury.

In October, 1331, he went with Anthony de Pesaigne on a
mission to the pope at Avignon2, where he formed an intimacy
with Petrarch ; among his conversations with whom is one
relative to the Island of Thule, on which, however, Petrarch
complains that the learned ambassador was either unable or
unwilling to offer any elucidation. On his return from this
embassy, he was sent, with two others, to Cambridge, with a
commission to inquire into the conduct and claims of such
scholars as were supported in that university by the king's
bounty. It was probably during this visit that he became
one of the gild of St. Mary's there ; to the union of which
with that of Corpus Christi the college of the latter name
owed its foundation.3

On February 20, 1332, he was admitted Dean of Wells4 ;
and in the next year was sent again as ambassador to the
pope, by whom he was appointed one of his chaplains.
While he was absent on this mission, Lewis Beaumont,
Bishop of Durham, died ; and the pope used the opportunity
at once of exercising his owm power, and of gratifying King
Edward, by setting aside an election made by the monks
of Durham, and placing Richard de Bury in the vacant
seat. He received the announcement of his elevation on his
journey from Avignon through France, and was consecrated
at Chertsey on December 19, 1333 ; the ceremony being

1 Le Neve, 161. 8 N. Fcctlera, ii. 827.

8 Master's Corp. Christ. Coll. p, 9. 4 Le Neve, 35.

412 RICHARD DE BURY. Edw. III.

attended by the kings of England and Scotland, and a crowd
of nobles and prelates, desirous to do him honour.

The kino; was not satisfied with his obtaining this eccle-
siastical dignity : he estimated his ability and his prudence
so highly, that he fixed on him to fill the most important
offices in the state. He was accordingly constituted trea-
surer on February 3, 1334, and raised to the chancellorship
on September 28 in the same year.1 Whether he found
that he was unqualified for its cares and responsibilities, or
that they withdrew him more than he wished from those of
his diocese, he resigned the latter office, after holding it less
than nine months, on June 6, 1335, when John de Stratford
was re-appointed.2 That his retirement was caused by no
change of favour with his sovereign, is evident from his being
employed in the following and several subsequent years in
frequent embassies to France on the subject of the king's
claims, — an occupation to which his learning and talents
were probably more peculiarly fitted. His allowance on these
missions was at the rate of five marks a day.3

Though frequently absent, he neglected none of the re-
quirements of his diocese. He had the habit of turning all
his time to account, and neither his meals nor his travels were
spent idly. During the former he was read to by his
chaplains, among whom were numbered some of the most
celebrated men of the day ; and afterwards he discussed with
them the various subjects suggested by the reading. During
the latter he occupied himself in forming what became the
largest library in Europe, the possession of which was one of
his greatest glories, as its accumulation formed his chief
delight. He spared no expense in securing the most curious
and valuable manuscripts, and speaks with evident glee of
the motives which influenced the donors of some, and of the

1 Rot. Claus. 8 Edw. III., m. 23. - Ibid, 9 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 29.

3 N. Foedera, ii. 950.

1327—1377. RICHARD DE BURY. 413

difficulties he had to overcome in obtaining others. The
stores he had thus collected he bequeathed to the students of
Durham (since called Trinity) College, in Oxford ; being the
first public library that was founded in that university ; and
in his work called " Philobiblon" 1 he not only gives in-
structions for its management, but endeavours to excite a
love of literature, and a taste for the liberal arts.

His own devotion to books may be estimated by the lan-
guage he uses regarding them : — "Hi sunt magistri qui nos
instruunt sine virgis et ferula, sine verbis et colera, sine pane
et pecuniii. Si accedis non dormiunt, si inquiris non se abs-
cond unt, non remurmurant si oberres, cachinos nesciunt si
ignores."

His ardour in their pursuit did not end with their attain-
ment. He read and used them ; and he relates that the first
Greek and Hebrew grammars that ever appeared in England
were derived from his labours. He encouraged the acquaint-
ance and assisted the inquiries of all learned and intelligent
men, and never enjoyed himself so fully as in the pleasures of
their conversation : and his understanding was so cultivated,
his wit so piercing, and his spirit of inquiry so eager, that
few subjects were beyond his genius and penetration.

His virtues and his charities were equal to his talents and
learning. He was beloved by his neighbours, with whom he
lived on terms of reciprocal affection ; to his clergy he was an
indulgent superior; to his tenants and domestics a considerate
master. He was most bountiful to the poor, distributing
eight quarters of wheat every week for the relief of those
around him, and never omitting in his journeys to appropriate
large sums for the indigent, in those places through which he
passed.

1 This work is by some attributed to his chaplain, Robert Ilolcot ; but the
history of the bishop's private life, in the eighth chapter, makes it more probable
that it was his own composition.

414 RICHARD DE BYNTEWORTH. Edw. III.

The memory of few names, and of none in that age, is
more endeared than that of Richard de Bury. He closed
his useful life, in the 54th year of his age, at his palace
of Auckland, on April 24, 1345, and was interred in
his cathedral. His income was so much exhausted by his
liberality that his representatives at his death found little to
divide.

His Philobiblon has been several times printed ; the first
time in 1473, the last in 1703 : an English translation was
published by the late Mr. Rodd in 1832.

An engraving of his seal, which is an interesting specimen
of art in that age, may be seen in the Archseologia, xxvii.
402.

BYNTEWORTH, RICHARD DE, Bishop of London.

Chancellor, 1338.

Bynteworth, now called Bentworth, is a parish in Hamp-
shire, the manor of which, with the advowson of its church,
was granted by the Archbishop of Rouen, in 9 Edward III.,
to Master Richard de Bynteworth2, who probably was a
native of the place. He was employed in the previous year
as one of the ambassadors to negotiate the marriage of the
king's brother, John, Earl of Cornwall, with Maria, daughter
of Ferdinand of Spain ; and in several subsequent years on
other missions ; in all of which he is called "juris civilis
professor." In 11 Edward III. he was keeper of the king's
Privy Seal 3 ; and he appears to have been a canon of
St. Paul's at the time of the decease of Stephen de Gravesend,
Bishop of London. By his conduct in these employments

1 Godwin de Praesul. 747. ; Barnes' Edw. III. 328. ; Dobson's Life of
Petrarch ; Surtees' Durham, i. xlv.

- Abhrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 94. It is thus clear that his name was not de
Wentworth, as some have supposed.

3 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 13.

1327—1377. JOHN DE CANTEBRIG. 415

his character had been so firmly established that he was
immediately called upon to fill the vacant see, his election to
which took place on May 4, 1338, 12 Edward III., within a
month from his predecessor's death. Soon after his confirma-
tion the king appointed him his chancellor in the place of
Robert de Stratford ; and, having taken the accustomed oath
on July 6 *, he immediately proceeded to the ceremony of his
consecration, which was performed six days afterwards. His
sudden death put an end to his tenure of both these offices on
December 8, 1339 2, before he had illustrated either by any
memorable act.3

CANTEBRIG, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1331.

Although John de Cantebrig (Cambridge) could scarcely
be the son of Thomas de Cantebrig, the baron of the Ex-
chequer in the last reign, as Masters suggests, the latter
being a clergyman, he was probably nearly related to him.
From the fourth year of Edward II. he was continually
employed in the judicial commissions in that county ; and
was returned member for it to several of the parliaments
from the 14th to the 19th year. He is mentioned as a
counsel in the Year Book of that reign, and also in the first
three years of Edward III. ; in the latter of which he was
one of the king's Serjeants, and as such was joined in the
commission into Northamptonshire, &c. On October 22 in
that year he was made a knight, tanquam Banerettus, and
had robes for his investiture granted to him from the king's
wardrobe.

On January 18, 1331, 4 Edward III., he was raised to the
bench of the Common Pleas ; and, for some reason that does
not appear, had a new patent on January 30, 1334. The

1 Rot. Glaus. 12 Edw. HI., p. 3. m. 23.

■ (bid. IS Edw. [II., p. S. m. 11. ■ Godwin de Prswul. 185.

416 JOHN CLAVER. Edw. III.

fines levied before him do not extend beyond Michaelmas
term of the latter year; and his death occurred in 1335.
He is mentioned as seneschal of the Abbot of St. Alban's
in 1331.

His property was very extensive in the town and neigh-
bourhood of Cambridge ; and both during his life, and by his
will, he devoted a great part of it to the gild of St. Mary, in
that town (afterwards Corpus Christi College), of which he
was a member, and twice alderman.1

CANTERBURY, Archbishop of. See J. de Stratford,

J. de Offord, S. de Langham.
CANTERBURY, Archdeacon of. See R. de Stratford.

CAVENDISH, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1371. Ch. K. B. 1372.

See under the Reign of Richard II.

CHICHESTER, Bishop of. See R. de Stratford.

CLAVER, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1333.

The Year Books introduce John Claver among the ad-
vocates in the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III. He
was a native of Norfolk, and was employed in several ju-
dicial commissions in that county. He acted also as custos
of the see of Norwich during its vacancy in both reigns,
and tallaged that county and Suffolk in 6 Edward III. In
the following year, 1333, he was added to the commission of
justices itinerant into Kent. We find no mention of him after

1 Masters' Corp. Christi Coll. p. 8. ; Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 630. ; Dugdale's
Orig. 45. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. 95. ; Newcome's St. Alban's, 223.

1327—1377. HENRY DE CLIFF. 117

10 Edward III., but believe he had a son named "Walter,
who held a third part of the manor of Kunham.1

CLIFF, HENRY DE.

M. It. 1327. Keeper, 1328.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

There were two clerks or masters in Chancery of the name
of Cliff or Clyff, in the reign of Edward II., who probably
were brothers. The earliest notice of Henry de Cliff is
that he accompanied the king abroad in May, 1313.2 He is
first mentioned in connection with the Chancery in May, 1317,
when Edward II. having ordered that the Great Seal should
be placed in the custody of William de Ayremynne and
Robert de Bardelby to do the business of that department
during a short absence of the chancellor, John de Sandale,
Bishop of Winchester, the same was left in the bishop's house
in Southwark, under their seals, in the charge of Master Henry
de Cliff.3 From this time till the year 1324 he was usually
one of the two or three clerks in Chancery under whose
seals the Great Seal was secured during the occasional ab-
sences of the Chancellors Sandale, Hotham, Bishop of Ely,
Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, and Baldock, Archdeacon of
Middlesex. In the latter year, being then a canon of York,
he was one of the procurators for the dean and chapter of
York in the parliament then assembled at Westminster, and
also acted in the same character for the Bishop of St. Asaph.1
He was raised to the office of keeper or master of the
Rolls on July 4, 1325 5; and after the virtual abdication of
Edward II., in the following year, he was commanded, on
December 17, 1326, to add his seal to that of the Bishop

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 679.; Rot. Pari. ii. 20. 447. ; Dugdale ; Abbrev.
Rot. Orig. ii. 103. 106. 121.

'-' N. Fcedera, ii. 212. • Rot. Claus. ]0 Edw. II., no. 8.

nl. Writs, ii., I\ i. 293-4. 5 Hot. Clans. IS Edw. II., m. I.

VOL. III. E E

418 WILLIAM DE COSSALE. Ebw. III.

of Norwich for the custody of the Great Seal, and they
together transacted the business till the appointment of John
dc Hotham, Bishop of Ely, as chancellor, a few days after the
accession of Edward III.1

About this time he appears to have been under sentence
of excommunication for some fancied offence relative to the
presentation to the prebend of Blebury in the church of
Salisbury : as Edward III., in the month after his accession,
addressed a letter of remonstrance to the pope ; and repeated
his application in the following March.2

He continued in the office of master of the Rolls for the
first seven years of this reign, during which the Great Seal
was frequently intrusted to his custody. From March 1 to
May 12, 1328, he and William de Herlaston held it between
the resignation of John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely, and the
appointment of Henry de Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln ; and
from July 1 to 30, and August 17 to 26, 1328; and from
May 31 to June 11, 1329 ; during the absence of the latter
chancellor. Under the next chancellor, John de Stratford,
Bishop of Winchester, also, he had similar possession of it in
the months of April and November, 1331, and April and
December, 1332.

He died about the beginning of January, 1334; and wras
succeeded as master of the Rolls by Michael de Wath on the
20th of that month.3

CORNWALL, Archdeacon of. See J. de St. Paul.
COSSALE, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1330.

Cossale was a manor in Nottinghamshire which belonged
and gave name to William de Cossale. He was a benefactor

1 Rot. Claus. 20 Edw. II., m. 3. 2 N. Fcedera, ii. 714. 732.

3 Rot. Claus. 8 Edw. III., m. 35,

1327—1377. HUGn DE COURTENETE. 419

of Newstead Abbey in that county, endowing it with eighty
acres of waste land in the forest of Shire wood for the main-
tenance of three chaplains. He was appointed a baron of
the Exchequer in 3 Edward III. ; but is not mentioned after
the fourteenth year.1

COTYNGHAM, THOMAS DE.

? Kkeper, 1349.

On the death of the chancellor, John de Offord, Archbishop
of Canterbury, the Great Seal was placed in the custody of
David de Wollore, the master of the Rolls, of John de St.
Paul, Thomas de Brayton, and Thomas de Cotyngham ; and
they held it from May 28 till June 16, 1349, when John
de Thoresby was appointed chancellor.2 This is the only
occasion on which Cotyngham is mentioned as keeper of the
Seal; although he was one of the clerks in Chancery for
nearly thirty years from 143 to 43 Edward III, 1340— 1369.4
During part of this period, however, he went to Ireland as
master of the Rolls there, to which office he was appointed in
30 Edward III., 1356.5 He was no doubt brought up in
the Chancery, as we find him presented by the king so early
as 13 Edward II., 1319, with the church of Wygeton ; and
acting as the attorney of William de Herlaston, a clerk in
the Chancery, in 1325.6

COURTENEYE, HUGH DE, afterwards Earl of Devon.

Just. Itin. 1330.

Although Hugh de Courteneye was at the head of the
commission of justices itinerant into Bedfordshire in 4 Ed-
ward III., 13307, he seems to have been placed there as one

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 10G. ; Rot. Orig. ii. 78. 81. ; Inquis. p. m., ii. 97.
■ Rot. Claiu. 23 Edw. TIL, p. 1. m. 8. 10. :i N. Fcedera, ii. 1142.

* Rot. Pari. ii. 157—299. » Cal. Rot. Pat, p. I

e N. Foedera, ii. 401. 606. T Dugdale's Chron, Serial.

E 1.

420

JOHN DE DELVES.

Edw. III.

of the principal barons of that county, and not as in any-
other way connected with the law. The practice of putting
noblemen into these commissions, though common in the
earlier reigns, was at this time seldom adopted, and was after-
wards entirely discontinued. We find him, however, at the
head of another commission, for the trial of offenders in the
forests, in the same year.1

He was the eldest son of Hugh de Courteneye, Baron of
Oakhampton, and Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Despencer the
elder, Earl of Winchester. His father died in 1291, when he
was sixteen years of age. He had no sooner attained his
majority, than he joined in various expeditions under Ed-
ward I., by whom he was knighted. He was summoned,
also, to all the parliaments as a baron, both under that king
and his two successors, until 8 Edward III., 1334 ; and on
February 22, in the following year, he was created Earl of
Devon, as the lineal descendant of Baldwin de Ripariis, the
seventh earl. He died in 1340, 14 Edward III., and was
buried at Cowick, near Exeter.

By his wife Agnes, daughter of John, Lord St. John, of
Basing, he had six children. The eldest, Hugh, succeeded
him ; and, notwithstanding two forfeitures, the title still re-
mains in one of his descendants, the present earl. The
eighteenth earl was created Marquis of Exeter in 1553 ; but,
dying without issue three years afterwards, this additional
honour became extinct.2

DELVES, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1364.

John de Delves was the son of Richard de Delves, of
Delves Hall, near Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, who was con-
stable of Heleigh Hall, in that county. James de Audley,

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 24.

2 Dugdale's Baron, i. 638. ; Nicolas's Synopsis.

1327—1377. JOHN DE DELVES. 421

Baron of Heleigh, took John, as one of his four esquires, to
the wars in France. At the battle of Poictiers, on Sep-
tember 19, 1356, 30 Edward III., the Lord Audley, having
leave of Prince Edward, " went to the formast front of all
the batayles, all onely acompanyed with four squyers, who
promysed nat to fayle hym ; " " and there dyd maruels in
armes." And " the lorde James Awdeley, with the ayde of
his foure squyers, fought alwayes in the chyefe of the
batayle ; he was soore hurte in the body, and in the vysage ;
as longe as his breth serued hym, he fought ; at laste, at the
ende of the batayle, his foure squyers tooke and brought hym
oute of the felde, and layed hym vncler a hedge syde, for to
refresshe hym ; and they vnarmed hym, and bounde vp hys
woundes as well as they coulde." The prince, for his prowess
on that day, granted to the Lord Audley, on the field, " fyue
hundred markes of yerely reuenewes," which the generous
knight immediately, in the presence of his companions in
arms, resigned to his four squires, saying, that they had
" alwayes serued me truely, and specially this day ; that
honour that I haue is by their valyantnesse." And each
of them was allowed to add a part of their lord's arms to
his own.

John de Delves was soon afterwards knighted, and retained
in the service of the Black Prince. In 36 Edward III. he is
called his " valettus," in an order to the sheriffs of London to
supply him with as many bows and arrows as the prince
should require ; and he was intrusted with the wardship of
the Duchess of Britanny.

However natural it was that the royal good- will should be
extended to him, it seems strange that a place on the judicial
bench should be selected as a reward for his military services,
since there is no evidence in the Year Books, or otherwise,
that he had been ever previously connected with the law.
Yet so it was, and on February 3, 1364, 38 Edward III., lie

X E S

422 WILLIAM DE DENUM. Edw. III.

was constituted a judge of the Common Pleas ; and appears
to have had fines acknowledged before him in the same term.
There is evidence, however, that he accompanied the Black
Prince to Gascony two months afterwards, so that he did
not devote himself much to his legal avocation. Fines,
however, appear to have been levied before him till the
middle of the following year. As his name was not after-
wards inserted among the judges who received their salaries,
he probably then retired from the bench. He was lucky
enough, at this time, to announce to the king the birth of his
grandson Edward, the son of the Prince of Wales, for which
he had a grant of 40/. a year.1

He lived till 43 Edward III., 1369; and in pursuance of
the directions in his will, dated August 16 in that year, he
was buried at Audley, in Staffordshire. By his wife Isabella,
the daughter and coheir of Philip de Malpas, he left a
daughter, Joan, the widow of Henry de Kymes, and be-
queathed to her most of his manors ; but eventually he was
succeeded in his estates by his brother Henry ; one of whose
descendants, Thomas Delves, of Dodington, in the county of
Chester, was created a baronet in 1621 ; but the title
became extinct in 1725. The estates then passed to Sir
Brian Broughton, Bart., a grandson, who assumed, and the
present baronet still bears, the name of Delves.'2

DENUM, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1332. ? K. B. 1332.

The family of Denum, or Denom, was established in the
county of Durham. Robert de Denum had two sons, John
and William, both of them engaged in legal pursuits, and
both serjeants-at-law. They were, not improbably, the

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 1 80. This son died soon afterwards.

2 Froissart (1812), i. 197. 205.; Dugdale's Orig. 45., and Chron. Series;
Hasted's Kent, viii. 213. ; N. Foedera, Hi. 671. 729. ; Cal. Tnquis. p. m., ii. 296 ;
Burke; Testam. Vet. i. 83.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE DENUM. 423

persons who are generally called J. and W. Devom in the
Year Books of Edward II. and III. William, on the death
of John without issue, succeeded to the manor of Herdwyk-
juxta-Hesilden, and other large estates in that county, and is
stated to have been then sixty years of age. Surtees must
be mistaken in saying that John's death took place in 1327;
as in 6 Edward III., 1332, he was a commisioner of array in
Lancashire, and, two years afterwards, had the custody of
the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed committed to him.

William de Denum, in the early part of the reign of
Edward III., was frequently employed in conducting the
negotiations with Scotland. In 1329, the third year of that
reign, he was the last of five itinerant judges into Notting-
hamshire ; and by writ dated February 8, 1331 was consti-
tuted one of the king's Serjeants. On the 24th of Sep-
tember, 1332, he was made a baron of the Exchequer; and a
little later in the same year Dugdale introduces him among
the justices of the King's Bench, on the authority of a
liberate. But it is most probable that this document was
nothing more than the order for his salary as a baron,
the titles not being always clearly distinguished. No entry
occurs relative to him after this date, so that it is not unlikely
that he retired from the bench when he succeeded to the
family estates on the death of his brother.

He died in 1350, leaving his wife, Isabella, who was
alive ten years afterwards. His son Edmund dying before
him, his possessions descended to his four daughters. l

DEVON, Earl of. See II. de Courteneye.
DRAYTON, NICHOLAS DE.

B. E. 1376.
See under the Reigu of Richard II.

1 Surtees's Durham, i. 51. 192. ; N. Foedera, ii. 704—849.; Abbrcv. Hot.
Ori#. ii. 91. 261.; Dugdale's Chron. S

B S 4

424 GEOFFREY DE EDENIIAM. Edw. III.

DRAYTON, THOMAS DE. See Brayton.
DUBLIN, Archbishop of. See J. de St. Paul.
DURHAM, Bishop of. See R. de Bury.

EDENESTOWE, HENRY DE.

? Keeper, 1332.

Henry de Edenestowe was so called from a place of that
name in the county of Nottingham, now Edwinstowe, where
he had possessions.1 He was a clerk in the Chancery in
18 Edward II., 1325, and so continued for a number of
years. In 4 and 6 Edward III. he acted as clerk of the
parliament2; and in the latter year the Great Seal was
placed in the custody of the master of the Rolls, in the
absence of the chancellor, under the seals of two of the clerks,
of whom Henry de Edenestowe was one, from April 1 to
June 23, 1332; and from December 17 to January 8, 1333;
and again from January 13 to February 17, and from April 6
to September 28, 13343; John de Stratford being chancellor
during the whole time. He is not mentioned afterwards in
connection with the Great Seal ; but in 20 Edward III.,
1346, he is named for a loan to the king of 1007.4

EDENHAM, GEOFFREY DE.

Just. K. B. 1331.

Geoffrey de Eden ham was of the county of Lincoln,
where he had property, and in which there is a parish of that
name. We find nothing relative to him before he was made a
judge of the King's Bench on January 18, 1331, 4 Ed-
ward III. He was appointed to tallage his own county and
those of Rutland and Northampton two years afterwards ;

1 Cal. Inquis. p. ra., ii. 102. 2 Rot. Pari. i. 420., ii. 52. 68.

3 Hardy's Catal. 31, 32. 4 N. Foedera, iii. 69.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE EDINGTON. 425

and is last mentioned, with Thomas de Longevillers, as pos-
sessing the manor of Aykle, in Lincolnshire, in 15 Ed-
ward III.1

EDINGTON, WILLIAM DE, Bishop of Winchester.

Chancellor, 1356.

Edington, a parish in "Wiltshire, was the birth-place of
William de Edington, who, when he became Bishop of Win-
chester, built a church there, and founded a large chantry for
a dean and twelve ministers, who were afterwards, at the
desire of the Black Prince, changed into that class of friars of
the order of St. Augustin who were called Bonnes Hommes.2

He was educated at Oxford ; and, entering into the priest-
hood, was presented in 1335 to the living of Cheriton, in
Hampshire, by Adam de Orlton, Bishop of Winchester. He
also had a canonry in Salisbury cathedral.

We do not find him in any official position till 1341, 15 Ed-
ward III., when he is mentioned as receiver of the ninth
granted by parliament.3 In 17 Edward III., 1343, he was
keeper of the king's wardrobe ; and on April 10 in the follow-
ing year he was appointed chancellor of the Exchequer, from
which he was raised, at the end of two years, to the high and
responsible office of treasurer.4 This he held for no less than
ten years, and then only exchanged it for the higher post
of chancellor.

On the death of Adam de Orlton he was placed in the
vacant see of Winchester, by papal provision in his favour
dated December 9, 1345 ; but he was wise enough to renounce
the pope's nomination as prejudicial to the rights of the
crown ; and the king " of his special favour, and not by

1 Dugdale; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 110. 138.; Rot. Pari. ii. 446.; Cal.
[nquis. p. m., ii. 102.

Monasticon, vi. 535. 3 N. Foedera, ii. 1154.

4 Cal. Rot. Tat. 147. 154.

426 WILLIAM DE EDINGTON. Edw. III.

virtue of the said bulls," accepted his fealty, and restored the
temporalities to him on the 15th of the following February.1

His treasurership was illustrated by the unfortunate intro-
duction of two new coins called a groat and half-groat, the
real worth of which was so much less than their nominal
value as to produce a corresponding increase in the price of
all articles of consumption throughout the kingdom.

On the institution of the order of the Garter in 1349,
Edward constituted him the prelate of it, perpetuating the
dignity in his successors of the see of Winchester. In 1355
he was left one of the custodes of the kingdom in the absence
of the king on his renewed invasion of France.

The Great Seal was placed in his hands, with the title of
chancellor, on November 27, 1356, 30 Edward III., on the
resignation of John de Thoresby, Archbishop of York 2 ; and
he retained it for more than six years, during which he pre-
served the royal favour without losing the confidence of the
people. He was, as the record says, "gratefully absolved"
from its duties on February 19, 1363, when Simon de Lang-
ham, Bishop of Ely, succeeded him.3

He survived little more than three years, still continuing
high in the confidence of his sovereign. Shortly before his
death the monks of Canterbury elected him archbishop on
the decease of Simon Islip ; but he refused the proffered dig-
nity, humorously saying, that though Canterbury was the
higher rack, Winchester was the better manger.

William of Wykeham was brought forward under his
auspices, and employed by him in the reconstruction of the
nave, which the bishop not only commenced but provided by
his will for its completion. He died on October 7, 1366, and
was buried at Edington.4

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 153. ; N. Fcedera, iii. 39. 64. 69.; Devon's Issue Roll, p. 150.

2 Rot. Claus. 30 Edw. III., m. 4. 3 Ibid. 37 Edw. III., m. 39.
4 Godwin de PrEesul. 225.; Duthie's Hampshire, 47. ; Angl. Sac. i. 317.

1327—1377. THOMAS DE EVESHAM, 427

ELY, Archdeacon of. See J. de Offord.

ELY, Bishop of. See J. de Hot ham ; S. de Langham.

EVERDON, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1327.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

It may be presumed that William de Everdon was either
brother or son of John de Everdon, who became a baron of
the Exchequer in 1 Edward II. In the fifth year of that
reign, October 11, 1311, William was appointed treasurer's
remembrancer in that court, and had a fee of forty marks
per annum for himself and his clerks; and in 10 Edward II.,
he had an additional grant of 20/. a year de dono, for his
good service, until the king should provide him with an
ecclesiastical benefice suitable to his degree. From that
time we find no entry relative to him till July 18, 1324,
17 Edward II., when he was raised to the bench as a baron ;
in which office he continued till the end of the reign ; and
was retained in it on the accession of Edward III. The
date of his death is not recorded ; but he was employed in
1 1 Edward III. to assist in levying money from the clergy of
York for carrying on the French war.1

EVESHAM, THOMAS DE.

? Kkeper, 1340. M. R. 1341.

Thomas de Evesham held some place in one of the de-
partments of the court as early as 1313, 6 Edward II., when
he accompanied the king abroad. In 1319 he was appointed
one of the attorneys for Rigand de Asserio, the pope's
nuncio 2, and appeared as proxy for the Abbot of Evesham
in the parliaments of the sixteenth and eighteenth years of

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 267 — 269. ; Dugdale ; N. Foedera, ii. 1005.
8 N. Foedera, ii. 21 2. 399.

428

NICHOLAS FASTOLF.

Er>w. III.

that reign,1 In all these appointments he is designated as
belonging to the clerical profession.

He is first mentioned as a clerk in the Chancery in July,
1328, 2 Edward III.2 On the appointment of Sir Robert
Bourchier as chancellor, the Great Seal was placed in his
hands under the seals of two of the other clerks, and so re-
mained from December 16, 1340, to the 1st of January fol-
lowing. On the 10th of that month he was raised to the
office of master of the Rolls, then vacant by the dismissal
of John de St. Paul.3 It would seem, however, that this was
a mere temporary appointment; for he was superseded by
John de Thoresby on February 214, after only six weeks'
enjoyment of the place. He immediately resumed his duties
as a clerk in the Chancery 5, which he continued to perform
during the remainder of his life. He was named as a trier
of petitions in the parliaments of 6, 14, 15, and 17 Ed-
ward III6, and died in the latter year, 1343, possessed of
land at Weston Underegge, in Gloucestershire. His London
residence was in " Fay tour Lane." 7

FASTOLF, NICHOLAS.

Just. Itin. 1330.

The family of Fastolf was of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk,
for which town Nicholas Fastolf was returned as one of the
burgesses to parliament in 2 and 7 Edward II. He was
certified two years afterwards as one of the lords of the
townships of Wickampton, Reedham, and Freethorpe in
that county. In 18 Edward II., October 30, 1324, he was
appointed chief justice of the King's Bench in Ireland ; and
was still mentioned in that character on July 12, 1327, 1 Ed-

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 828.

3 Rot. Claus. 14 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 10.

3 N. Foedera, ii. 1172.

7 Cal, Inquis. p. m., ii. 108.

8 N. Foedera, ii. 745.

* Ibid. 15 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 34.

6 Rot. Pari ii. 68. 112. 126. 135.

1327—1377. THOMAS DE FENCOTES. 420

ward III. The patent of his successor in the office being
elated in 1333, 7 Edward III., it may be presumed that
Fastolf enjoyed it till that time. If so, he must have been on
a visit to England when he was added to the commission of
justices itinerant into Derbyshire in 4 Edward III., 1330.1

FAUNT, WILLIAM.

Just. K. B. 1338.

Neither in the Year Books nor in any other records is the
name of William Faunt to be found. Dugdale inserts him as a
justice of the King's Bench on April 4, 1338 ; and H. Phi-
lipps mentions two persons as his descendants in 1684 ; one
residing at Foston, in Lincolnshire, and the other at Kings-
thorpe, in the county of Northampton.2

FENCOTES, THOMAS DE.

Just. C. P. 1348.

Thomas de Fencotes, who was of a Yorkshire family, was
an adherent of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in the reign of Ed-
ward II. ; and obtained his release from prison by a payment
of 207.3 When John de Britannia, Earl of Richmond, was
taken by the Scots in 16 Edward II., Thomas de Fencotes
was appointed one of his attorneys in England ; and on the
death of the earl in 8 Edward III., he still represented him,
and acted as custos of the estate till the death of the earl's
successor, John, Duke of Britanny, in the fifteenth year4,
having received, a short time before, a grant from the earl of
his capital messuage and land at Aldborough.5 From the
Year Books it appears that he acted as an advocate in York-

1 Pari. Writs, Li., P. ii. 838. ; N. Foedera, ii. 709. ; Smyth's Law Officers of
Ireland, 97. ; Dugdale's Cliron. Ser.

- ( lu-oii. Series; Grandeur of the Law ( 1G84), 220. 252.

■ Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 208. 4 N. Fadera, ii. 88. 524. 1 159.

• Cal. Hot. Pat. 139.

430

WALTER DE FRISKENEY.

Edw. III.

shire as early as 2 Edward III., and as a justice of assize in the
seventeenth year. He was appointed a judge of the Common
Pleas on January 14, 1348, 21 Edward III.; and the fines ac-
knowledged before him extend to Hilary Term in the twenty-
eighth year, 1354 1 ; soon after which it would seem that he
resigned, since his name is not included in the list of the
judges of the court, as given in the Year Book in Hilary
Term, 29 Edward III. He received the order of knighthood
when or soon after he was raised to the bench. In 24 Ed-
ward III. he gave certain tenements to the priory of the order
of Mary of Mount Carmel to enlarge their house in Fleet
Street ; and in 31 Edward III., he and his wife Beatrice
endowed the convent of Egleston with the advowson of the
church of Bentham in Yorkshire ; at which time that manor
and the manor of Ingleton are stated to remain in his pos-
session.2

There is very little doubt that John de Fencotes, who is
mentioned in the Year Books as a serjeant-at-law in 40 Ed-
ward III., and who in that character was added to the
commission of assize in the forty-fourth year 3, was his son.
His practice in the courts did not extend beyond the two
subsequent years.

FRISKENEY, WALTER DE.

Just. C. P. 1327. Just. K. B. 1327.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

The name of Walter de Friskeney was derived from a parish
so called in the county of Lincoln. He is mentioned as a
counsel in the Year Book of Edward. II., before he was
raised to the bench ; and so early as the fourth year of that
reign he was summoned, with six others, as an assistant to the
parliament then held. He was probably a serjeant at the

Dugdale's Orig. 45.

Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 354.

2 Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 168. 203.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE FULBURN. 431

time, as some of the others certainly were. We next find
him added to several judicial commissions in his own county
in 7, 8, and 11 Edward IT.

He was constituted a baron of the Exchequer on August 6,
1320, 14 Edward II., in addition to the duties of which he
was frequently employed as a justice in the country, and was
one of those wTho were empowered to pronounce the judgment
upon the Mortimers in 16 Edward II. On the second day
of the next regnal year, July 9, 1323, he was removed from
the Exchequer and appointed a judge of the Common Pleas.
Dugdale refers to a liberate of 18 Edward II. to prove that
he was then removed into the King's Bench ; but the desig-
nation given to the parties in whose favour these writs are
granted is seldom very distinct ; and the term Justiciarius
Regis is commonly used forjudges of both courts. We are in-
clined, therefore, to think that he remained in the Common
Pleas till the end of the reign, as he is mentioned in the Year
Book as of that court in 1 9 Edward II. ; besides which he re-
ceived a patent in the same court six days after the accession
of Edward III., viz., on January 31, 1327. On March 6
following, however, he was placed in the King's Bench ;
where he sat till Trinity Term in the second year, when
the last notice of him occurs in the Year Book.1

FULBURN, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1327.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

William de Fulburn was no doubt a native of the place
of that name, in Cambridgeshire. He held an office in the
court at the commencement of the reign of Edward II., and
was sent into that county, and Huntingdonshire, as others
Avere to the rest of England, to instruct and assist the sheriffs

1 5Tear I3ooks, Edw. II. & III.; Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 897.; Dugdale.

432

WILLIAM DE FYNCHEDEN.

Ebw. III.

in arresting the Knights Templars. He was engaged in
fixing the tallage of those and other counties in 6 Edward
II., and was subsequently employed in special commissions
for the trial of offenders.

On June 1, 1323, 16 Edward II., he was constituted a
baron of the Exchequer, and having filled that office during
the remainder of the reign, was re-appointed on the accession
of Edward III. The latest occurrence of his name is in a
commission dated May 11, 1328, 2 Edward III.1

FULTHORPE, ROGER DE.

Just. C. P. 1374.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

FYNCHEDEN, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1365. Ch. C. P. 1371.

No other trace of the locality of this family occurs than the
appointment of a Richard de Fyncheden as a commissioner
of array in Yorkshire in 33 Edward III.2 The name of
William de Fyncheden is mentioned as an advocate in the
Year Books from the twenty-fourth year of that reign, and
he was made a king's serjeant in the thirty-sixth year, being
also employed as a justice of assize two years after. On
October 29, 1365, 39 Edward III., he was raised to the
bench of the Common Pleas ; and was advanced to its head
on April 14, 1371, 45 Edward III., in the room of Robert
de Thorpe. Robert Bealknap, his successor as chief justice,
was appointed on October 10, 1374; but whether the vacancy
was occasioned by the death or retirement of Fyncheden does
not appear.3

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 900. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 25. 208.

8 N. Foedera, iii. 458. * Cal. Rot. Pat. 180. 186.; Dugdale.

1327—1377. HENEY QUE ION. 433

GARTON, THOMAS DE.

B. E. 1331.

Thomas db Gartox was a member of the clerical pro-
fession, and was one of those appointed in 18 Edward II. to
assist the bishops in removing foreign priests, the counties
of Cambridge and Huntingdon being assigned to him. He
held the office of comptroller of the king's household in
3 Edward III., and, in the following year, that of keeper of
the wardrobe. On October 10, 1331, 5 Edward III., he
was placed on the bench of the Exchequer, as second baron,
in the room of Robert de Wodehouse ; but no subsequent
entry of his name is to be found. l

GREEN, HENRY.

Just. C. P. 1354. Ch. K. B. 1361.

Queen Isabella having granted to Henry Green, probably
for some services as an advocate, the manor of Briggestoke,
in Northamptonshire, her son Edward III., in the twenty-
second year of his reign, confirmed it to him for life, in case
he should survive the queen. He had been appointed one of
the king's serjeants-at-law three years before ; and his argu-
ments in court, with his proceedings as a justice of assize, are
frequently recorded in the Year Books up to the period of
his being called to the bench. This occurred on February G,
1354, 28 Edward III., when he was made a justice of
the Common Pleas, and afterwards received the honour of
knighthood.

In the year 1358, having been cited before the pope for
pronouncing a judgment against the Bishop of Ely for
harbouring one of his men who had burnt a manor of Lady
Wake's, and slain one of her servants, he was excom-

1 N. Feeders, ii. 574. 769. 785.; Issue Roll, Easter, l Edsr, III.; Dugdsle.
VOL. III. F F

434 HENRY GREEN. Edw. III.

municated for his non-appearance. It is not related how he
cleared himself from this sentence ; but it did not prevent his
being raised to the office of chief justice of the King's Bench
on May 24, 1361, 35 Edward III. He opened the par-
liaments in the two following years, and was present in the
next ; but he was removed from his place, and succeeded by
John Knyvet, on October 29, 1365, 39 Edward III.

Joshua Barnes says that he and Sir William Skipwith in
that year were " arrested and imprisoned for many enormities
against law and justice, and were not redeemed without re-
funding large sums which by injustice they had got from
others ; and were for ever after excluded from their places
and the king's favour." Skipwith was at that time chief
baron, and lost his place on the same day, but he was after-
wards restored to the bench ; and it is somewhat curious,
if this charge were made (of which no evidence, however,
appears on the records), that in the warrant to Sir Henry
Green, directing him to give over the Rolls, &c. to his
successor, the king should call him " delectus et fidelis." He
is referred to as the " wise justice " in one of the cases
reported by Richard Bellewe.

That he was not much damnified by any fine imposed upon
him is apparent from the numerous manors and other lands
in the counties of Northampton, Leicester, York, Hertford,
Bedford, Buckingham, and Nottingham, together with a
mansion in Silver Street, Cripplegate, London, which he
possessed at the time of his death. That event occurred in
43 Edward III., 1369; and his son Thomas enjoyed the
same property till his death in 1391-2.

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 195.; Dugdale's Chron. Series; Rot. Pari. ii. 268.
275. 283.; Barnes' Edward III., 624. 667.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 206., iii.
136. ; R. Bellewe's Rep. 142.

1327—1377. II UN 11 Y DE GliEYSTOKE. 435

GREYSTOKK, HENRY DE.

B. E. 1356.

The baronial family of Greystoke, in Cumberland, flourished
at this period ; but we do not find the name of Henry de
Greystoke among its members. He may therefore have
been so called from his being born in that place. He was
connected with the king's household or Exchequer in the
reign of Edward I. ; in the twenty-seventh year of which, as
well as several times afterwards under Edward II., he acted
as paymaster of the forces in Nottingham and Derby, and
was appointed by the latter king to assist the sheriff of
Cumberland in arresting the Knights Templars. From the
sixteenth year of Edward III. he held the office of custos of
the lands and tenements which were reserved for the use of
the king's chamber, receiving a salary of fifty pounds a year.
In this character various manors, &c. were placed under his
charge ; and in the parliaments of 25 and 28 Edward III.
he was ordered to be present on the hearing of petitions
touching these lands, to give information "pur le Roi et au
le Roi." Dugdale introduces him in the twenty-seventh
year as attorney-general ; but it is probably in reference to
these matters only, as he does not appear to have been other-
wise connected with the law. Though he is described as a
"clericus," he could not have taken that grade in holy orders
which prevented him from marrying; for his widow Jane,
the daughter of Sir William Pickering, is said to have
married Chief Justice Gascoigne.

He had a grant of the French portion of the church of
Mapcldurham, and of a messuage and lands in Rcsceby, in
Yorkshire, for his good services; and he was made a baron
of the Exchequer on October 6, 1356, 30 Edward III.,
beyond which no trace of him remains.1

1 Pari. Writs, i. 956., ii. P. ii. 648. v. ; N. Focdera, ii. 1214, ; Abbrev. Rot.
Orig. ii. 1.79. 173,174.208.; Rot. Pari, ii ; Wotton'a

Baronetage, v. 336.

436 NICHOLAS HAGHMAN. Edw. III.

GRYMESBY, EDMUND DE.

? Keeper, 1340.

Edmund de Gkymesby was of the town of that name in
Lincolnshire, where he had considerable property.1 He was
probably the son of Simon de Grymesby, escheator to the
king, and is mentioned as one of the procurators to appear
for the Abbot of Thornton in the parliaments of 17 and 18
Edward II.2 In the next year he was parson of the church
of Preston.3 In 7 Edward III., 1333, he received the
appointment of keeper of the Rolls in the Irish Chancery 4 ;
but two years afterwards we find him sent to various parties
in England to obtain loans for the kino; to enable him to
carry on the war with Scotland.5 He was no doubt then a
master or clerk in the English Chancery ; in which office he
continued to act till the 25th, and perhaps the 27th, year
of the reign, being a receiver of petitions in all the parlia-
ments assembled in that interval.6 During this period the
Great Seal was twice placed under his seal ; the first time
from December 16, 1340, to the end of the year, in the
absence of the Chancellor Bourchier ; raid the last time from
September 2 to October 8, 1351, while John de Thoresby
was chancellor.7

GUNTHORP, WILLIAM.

B. E. 1377.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

HAGHMAN, NICHOLAS.

B. E. 1336.

Nicholas Haghman, or Hawman, was probably the son
of Alan de Haghman and Amicia his wife ; as in 6 Ed-

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 155. 176. 2 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 958.

■ Rot. Pari. i. 437. 4 Cal. Rot. Pat. 117.

5 N. Foedera, ii. 912. 6 Rot. Pari. ii. 126—236.
7 Hardy's Catal. 34. 39.

1327—1377. HENBY DE HAMBURY. 437

ward II., 1313, he was parson of the parish of Eversley, in
Hampshire, of the manor and advowson of which Alan and
Amicia became possessed in 5 Edward I.

He was constituted a baron of the Exchequer on October 3,
1336, 10 Edward III. ; but though, from his being one of
those who undertook to raise wool for the king's aid in the
parliament of July, 1340, 14 Edward III., he seems to have
been then in office, his name was not included in the new
patent for the barons of the Exchequer on January 20,
1341.'

HAMBURY, HENRY DE.

Just. K. B. 1308.

Hambury, or Hanbury, is a parish in Worcestershire,
where the father and grandfather of Henry de Hambury,
both named Geoffrey, resided. It is parcel of the forest of
Feckenham, of which Nicholas de Hambury, Henry's elder
brother, was appointed custos in 17 Edward II. In the
same year a licence was granted to Henry to receive the
manor of Holeweye in that county from the Abbot of
Bordesley 2 ; and both he and his next brother Robert were
soon after connected with Wales, as Henry was one of the
manucaptors for the members returned to parliament for
Beaumaris in 20 Edward II.3 ; and Robert was the king's
chamberlain for North Wales at the beginning of the next
reign.4

I do not find Henry's name as an advocate in the Year
Books ; but he was made one of the judges of the King's
Bench in Ireland in 17 Edward II., and was raised to the
office of chief justice of the Common Pleas there in the

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 198.; Abbrev. Placit. 191.; Dugdale ; Rot. Pail,
ii. 1 19.

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 278. 281. 3 Pail. Writs, ii., P. i. 864.

4 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. -18. 53. 71.

r f 3

438 THOMAS DE HEPPE6COTES. Edw. III.

following year.1 He was soon afterwards removed from that
country, being appointed a judge of the King's Bench in
England in 2 Edward III., 1328, acting in the same year
among the justices assigned to try felonies in Gloucestershire
and four other counties.2 The cause of his elevation to the
bench may have been his connection with Thomas, Earl of
Lancaster; for his adherence to whom he had received a pardon
in 12 Edward IL, and in the sixteenth year was a surety
for the payment of a fine by another person who had been
imprisoned for the same cause.3 In 19 Edward III. he
endowed a chaplain with some land at Dovebrygg, in Derby-
shire, reserving to himself ten librates of land at Snelleston in
the same county4; and he is mentioned as being alive in the
twenty-sixth year in the herald's visitation of Worcestershire.5
He must, however, have long retired from the bench, as the
Liberate Roll does not name him among the judges in 12
Edward III.

His lineal descendants are divided into several opulent
branches, two of which have been recently ennobled ; one
having been created Baron Bateman, of Shobden, in the
county of Hereford, on January 30, 1837; and the other,
Baron Sudely, of Toddington, in the county of Gloucester, on
July 12, 1838.

HEPPESCOTES, THOMAS DE.

Just. C. P. 1341.

Thomas de Heppescotes was one of those who were
appointed to supply the places of the judges removed on the
king's return from Tournay. His patent is dated January 8,
1341, 14 Edward III.; but his continuance in the court
did not last beyond the end of the year, when his death

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 94. 96. ; Smyth's Law Off. of Ireland, 114.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 24. 3 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 130. 205.
4 Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 126. 5 Family Pedigree.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE HERLASTON. 439

may be presumed to have occurred, as no further mention
is made of him. He was probably a native of Northumber-
land, where there is a hamlet called Hepscott in the parish
of Morpeth. His name appears both as advocate and judge
in the Year Books, but not later than the above period.1

HERLASTON, WILLIAM DE.

Keeper, 1328. Just. Itin. 1333.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

William de Herlaston no doubt came from the place
of that name in Staffordshire. He was connected with
the court in the early part of the reign of Edward II., ac-
companying that king abroad in the sixth year in the train
of Ingelard de Warlee, keeper of the wardrobe.2 He soon
afterwards became a clerk in the Chancery, and was parson
of the church of " Estwode near Reylegh," in which character
he presented a petition in 1315, 8 Edward II., praying to
have the tithe "Pullanorum" restored to him, which he
alleged that his predecessors had received until the park
came into the king's hands.3 In July, 1319, 13 Edward II.,
he had a grant of the prebend of Carnwyth in the church of
Glasgow.4

According to the practice of the time, the Great Seal was
placed in the custody of some of the clerks of the Chancery
during the occasional absence of the chancellor, and they
transacted the business appertaining to it. William de
Herlaston was frequently one of those intrusted with this
duty. In the reign of Edward II. he held it from April 18
to May 3, 1321 ; from December 15, 1321, to March 3, 1322 ;
and from June 5 to August 20, 1323, under the chancellor,

1 Dugdale'fl Orig. 45.; Rot. Pari. ii. 126. * N. Fwder*, ii. BIS.

Rot. Rati. i. 343. * N. Fader* ii. 40!,

r F 4

440

WILLIAM DE IIERLE.

Edw. III.

John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich ; and from August 8 to
a day not named; and from November 16 to December 12,
1324, under the chancellor, Robert de Baldock, Archdeacon
of Middlesex.1 He was also in the latter part of this reign
keeper of the king's Privy Seal.2

In 2 Edward III. he and Henry de Cliff, the master of
the Rolls, were appointed keepers of the Great Seal from
March 1 to May 12, 1328, during the vacancy in the office
of chancellor3: and under Henry de Burghersh, Bishop
of Lincoln, then made chancellor, he acted in the same
character several times during that and the following year ;
viz., from July 1 to 30; from August 17 to 26, 1328; from
January 15 to 19; and from May 31 to June 11, 1329,
3 Edward III.4 After this date he does not appear in
connection with the Great Seal, nor is he afterwards ex-
pressly mentioned among the clerks of the Chancery.

His name, however, frequently occurs in the Year Book
as "clerk " from 17 to 27 Edward III., the reports from the
tenth to the seventeenth year being wanting. He is also
noticed as a trier of petitions in the parliament of the twenty
first, and Dugdale introduces him among the justices itinerant
in the twenty-second year.

HERLE, WILLIAM DE.

Ch. C. P. 1327. Just. C. P. 1329. Ch. C. P. 1331.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

Although Fuller, in his Worthies, states that it is probable
that William de Herle was born in Devonshire, because he
was owner of Ilfracombe6, the preponderance of evidence
seems to be in favour of Leicestershire; both Kobert de
Herle, apparently his father, and he having been summoned

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 1001.

8 Rot. Claus. 2 Edw. III., m. 33.

5 Rot. Pari. ii. 164.

2 Rot. Pari. ii. 383.

4 Hardy's Catalogue.

6 Fuller's Worthies (1811), i. 281.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE HERLE. 441

by the sheriff of that county, the former in 1301, 29 Ed-
ward L, to perform military service, and the latter in 1324,
17 Edward II., to attend the Great Council at Westminster.1
The principal part of his property was certainly in that
county.

He was brought up to the law ; and his name frequently
appears in the Year Book of Edward the Second's reign,
before he was a judge. In 4 and 6 Edward II. he was sum-
moned as an assistant to parliament, apparently in the cha-
racter of a serjeant-at-law ; and in the ninth year he was one
of three " qui sequuntur pro Rege " in a suit against the men
of Bristol2; these three and another in the same year having a
grant of 207. per annum each for prosecuting and defending
the king's causes.3 The wardrobe account of 14 Edward II.,
1320, contains the entry of a payment to him of the large
sum of 1337. 6s. Sd. in these words: "To William Herle,
King's Serjeant, who, by the king's order, will shortly
receive the honor of knighthood, of the king's gift, in aid of
his rank, 6th of August."4 He was probably knighted in
preparation for his taking his seat on the bench, to which he
was raised on the 16th of the following October, as a justice
of the Common Pleas, in the room of John de Benstede.

Previously to that year we find him only once employed
in a special commission, in 12 Edward II., for the trial of
sheriffs, &c. : but in all the parliaments, from 10 to 14 Ed-
ward II., he was summoned to assist, his place in the list
showing that his attendance was required as a Serjeant,
although no title is attached to any of the names. On his
becoming a judge, he is placed in a higher position in the
list.5 He was several times employed by Edward II. in
negotiations with the Scots, and had a grant in 1325 often
marks for his services therein.6

1 Pari. Writs, i. 355., ii. 639. - Rot. Pari. i.

3 Dugdale'i Chron. Series. * Arcba?ol. xxvi. 345.

■ Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 1001. a N. Feeder* ii. 594.

442

WILLIAM DE IIEELE.

Edw. III.

He retained his seat in the Common Pleas till the end of
the reign; and, on the accession of Edward III., was imme-
diately made chief justice of that court, his patent being
dated February 4, 1327, with an augmentation of his salary,
according to Fuller, of 240 marks a year. Though he was dis-
placed on September 3, 1329, by John de Stonore, it is evident
he still continued to act as a judge, as he was at the head of
the justices itinerant in Nottinghamshire in the following
December, and also, in the succeeding year, in Derbyshire.
He was restored to his place as chief justice on March 2,
1331, and was again removed on November 18, 1333 ; but
Henry le Scrope, who was then appointed, resumed his seat at
the head of the Exchequer on the next day. The cause of these
changes can only be inferred ; but William de Herle, from
that day, presided till July 3, 1337, 9 Edward III., when, at
his own request, he was allowed to retire from his office, on
account of his age and infirmities. The patent spoke in
eulogistic terms of his approved fidelity, the solidity of his
judgment, the gravity of his manners, and his laudable and
unwearied services to the state ; and required him to remain on
the secret council, and to attend at his pleasure during the
rest of his life.1

He lived nearly twelve years after his retirement from the
bench, the date of his death being 21 Edward III., 1347.

Through his wife Margaret, the daughter and heir of
William Polglas, by Elizabeth, the heir of Sir William
Champernon, the manor of Ilfracombe, and other large pro-
perty in Devonshire, came into his possession. He left a son
named Robert, who died without male issue in 38 Ed-
ward III.2

1 N. Foedera, ii. 913.

2 Cal. Inquis. p. m„ ii. 135. 265.
Leicestershire, 622.

Prince's Worthies of Devon ; Nicholl's

1327—1377. ROGER HILLARY.

HILDESLEY, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1332.

John de Hildesley was parson of the church of Thynden
and canon of Chichester in the reign of Edward II. ; from the
tenth year of which, till the seventh year of the next reign,
he was continually employed in diplomatic missions to various
courts. He was raised to the bench of the Exchequer on
December 18, 1332, 6 Edward III., having evidently been
previously an officer connected with that department, ac-
companying the treasurer, in 3 Edward III., when he went
abroad with the king. He remained in this office somewhat
less than two years, being superseded on September 9, 1334,
by Adam de Lymberg, on his becoming chancellor of the
Exchequer. He is so called in 12 Edward III., and is
named two years afterwards as a trier of petitions in par-
liament.1

HILLARY, ROGER.

Just. C. P. 1337. Ch. C. P. 1341. Just. C. P. 1342. Ch. C. P. 1354.

The family of Hillary is a very ancient one, and in the
reigns of the Edwards possessed large property in the counties
of Lincoln, Warwick, and Stafford. Roger Hillary was the
son of William and Agnes Hillary ; and, pursuing the pro-
fession of the law, is frequently mentioned as an advocate in
the Year Books of Edward II. and Edward III. He and his
brother Richard were procurators for the Abbot of Coventry
in the parliament of 18 Edward II.

He was raised to the Irish bench as chief justice of the
Common Pleas in 3 Edward III., where he remained for
eight years. He was then constituted a judge of the same
court in England on March 18, 1337, 11 Edward III.; to

1 N. Fcedera, ii. 329. 589. GOG. 764 — 875.; Dugdale ; ltot. Pari.
114.; Cal. Itot. Pat. 120.

444

JOHN DE HOTIIAM.

Emv. III.

the head of which he was advanced on January 8, 1341, in
the room of John de Stonore. Dugdale, in his Chronica
Series, makes William Scot supersede him in that office on
April 27 ; but this is evidently an error, as the latter was
then and for some years afterwards chief justice of the King's
Bench. On May 9, 1342, however, Roger Hillary made way
for John de Stonore on his restoration to the chief justiceship ;
receiving himself, on June 4, anew patent as a judge on that
bench. On the death of Stonore in 28 Edward III., Roger
Hillary was, on February 20, 1354, again constituted in his
place, and continued to preside in the court for the short
remainder of his life.

His death occurred before June 27, 1357, when his suc-
cessor was appointed. By his will he desired to be buried in
the church of All Saints, in Staffordshire, in which, and in the
two other counties above named, he left many manors and
extensive property. By his wife Katherine he had, besides
other children, a son Roger, who was probably the serjeant-
at-law mentioned in the Year Books of 40 Edward III.1

HOTHAM, JOHN DE, Bishop of Ely.

Chancellor, 1327.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

The ancestor of John de Hotham was John de Trehouse,
who, for his assistance to the Conqueror at the battle of
Hastings, obtained, with other grants, that of the manor of
Hotham, in Yorkshire, the name of which was eventually
adopted by the family. John de Hotham was a younger son,
and in 14 Edward I. had lands at Crauncewyke, in that
county 2 5 in which he was also assessor of the tenth granted
in the twenty-seventh year of the reign.3

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P. i. 333. ; Cal. Rot. Pat. 106. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 119-254. ;
Cal. Inquis. p. ra , ii. 199. ; Test. Vet. i. 61.; Dugdale.

2 Abbrev. Placit. 209. 3 Pari. Writs, i. 27.

1327—1377. JOHN DE HOTHAM. 445

In the second year of Edward II. he was sent to Ireland
as chancellor of the Exchequer l ; but in the two next
years we find him acting as the king's escheator on both sides
of the Trent.2 In the following year, October 6, 1311, the
king, with high encomiums of his character, addressed a letter
to the pope, earnestly praying a dispensation in his favour ;
and some explanation of the royal countenance he thus re-
ceived is given by the fact that he was " custos domorum"
of Peter de Gaveston in the city of London.3 The termina-
tion of Gaveston's career in June, 1312, did not, however,
interrupt ITotham's advance; for on December 13 he was
made chancellor of the Exchequer in England ; and in May,
1313, being then called Canon of York, was sent on a mission
to the court of France. In August, 1314, and again in Sep-
tember, 1315 4, he went with extraordinary powers to Ireland,
then invaded by Edward Bruce, the king of Scotland's
brother, to effect a reconciliation with the barons, and to
treat with the natives. In this he was only partially success-
ful ; for though he induced the tenants of the crown to asso-
ciate in binding themselves, under the penalties of forfeiture,
to aid each other to the utmost in their efforts against the
common enemy, he made little impression on the chiefs of
the natives.5 It does not appear that while thus employed
he was removed from his office of chancellor of the Exche-
quer, which he certainly held in Easter, 1316 6, and probably
did not retire from it till his election to the bishoprick of
Ely, which took place on July 20, as Hervey dc Staunton
received the appointment two days afterwards.

The new bishop was consecrated on October 3, and soon
after went on a mission to Rome. On May 27, 1317, 10 Ed-
ward II. he was raised to the treasurership of the Exchequer

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 69. - Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. J 68— 174.

: \. Feeders, ii. 147. 157. 4 Ibid. 211. 213. 252. 256. 276.

■ Lingard'a England, Ii i. 306. 8 Madox's Exch. ii. 327.

446

JOHN DE HOTHAM.

Edw. III.

in the place of Walter de Norwich, and held that office till
June 10, 1318, when he was succeeded by John de Wale-
wayn.1 On the following day the Great Seal was delivered
to him as chancellor ; but for the next six or seven weeks he
was obliged to leave the duties of his office to be performed
by deputies, as he was engaged in frequent journeys on the
king's affairs 2 ; probably in promoting that reconciliation with
the barons which was effected in the following October. He
held the Great Seal for about nineteen months, during the
latter part of which period he was engaged in negotiating a
truce with the Scots.3 On his resignation on January 23,
1320, it wTas delivered to John Salmon, Bishop of Nor-
wich4 ; but Hotham still continued to be employed by the
king on several confidential missions.

Three days after the accession of Edward III., viz. on
January 28, 1327, he was again entrusted with the office of
chancellor, and continued to perform its duties till March 1
in the following year.5 He then retired from its labours,
and during the remainder of his life devoted himself to the
administration of his diocese.

Godwin says that he was provost of Queen's College, Ox-
ford, and was chancellor of that university ; but his annotator,
Dr. Richardson, states that the college wras not yet founded,
nor was there at that period any chancellor of the university.

His expenditure for his cathedral was enormous for those
times ; first, in the completion of the presbytery which had
been commenced a century before by Bishop Norwold ; and
next in restoring the campanile of the church, which had
fallen down and been reduced to ruins. His confirmation to
the see of the manor of Oldbourne, in London, was another of
the liberal acts which illustrated his presidency. During the

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 39. 8 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. II., m. 3.

3 N. Foedera, iii. 409, 410. 4 Rot. Claus. 13 Edw. II., m. 9.

5 Ibid. 1 Edw. III., p. i. m. 25., 2 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 11.

1327—1377. JOHN DE HOUGHTON. 447

last two years of his life he was entirely disabled by paralysis,
which terminated in his death, at his palace of Somersham,
on January 25, 1336, leaving behind him a high character
for piety, prudence, and liberality.1

His nephew was summoned to parliament as a baron in
8 Edward II., but not afterwards.2 It was the descendant
of that nobleman who was created a baronet in 1641, and
whose conduct as governor of Hull, in the civil wars, led to
his own and his son's untimely execution. From his grandson
descended Sir Beaumont Hotham, a baron of the Exchequer
in the reign of George III. ; whose elder brother, Admiral
William Hotham, having been raised to the peerage of
Ireland, by the title of Baron Hotham of South Dalton, and
dying without issue, was, under a special remainder, succeeded
by Sir Beaumont, whose grandson is the present peer.3

HOUGHTON, ADAM DE, Bishop of St. David's.

Chancellor, 1377.

See under the Reign of Richard II.

HOUGHTON, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1347.

John de Houghton, or]Houton, who probably was the
father of the above-named Adam, was connected in early life
with the Exchequer. In 19 Edward II. he accompanied
the king to France in that character, and was then the
parson of the church of Post wick, a parish in Norfolk. In
that county he had the manor of Wormegay and considerable
property, with part of which he endowed the priory of the
Holy Cross there. In 1 Edward III. he is called clerk of
John de Wodehouse, keeper of the wardrobe ; and was
advanced to be one of the chamberlains of the Exchequer in

1 Godwin de PrawuL 260. a Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 91.

:* Biographical Peerage, it. 383.

448 JOHN DE IFELD. , Edw. III.

the twelfth year; in which office he continued till he was
called to the bench of that court as a baron on March 8,
1347, 21 Edward III. How long he remained there does
not appear, nor are we told the time of his death.1

HUSE, JAMES.

B. E. 1350.

Although there is nothing positive to show that James
Huse was related to the baronial family of that name which
flourished at this time, it is not improbable that he was a
younger scion of it. He was made a baron of the Exchequer
on April 16, 1350, 24 Edward III., on the elevation of
Gervase de Wilford to the chief seat in that court. We
know little more of him, than that he is mentioned in the
Year Book of 26 Edward III., and that in the thirty-fourth
year he was employed as a commissioner to treat with the
people of the counties of Somerset, Dorset, Wilts, Devon,
and Cornwall, as to raising forces for the defence of the
kingdom.1

IFELD, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1329.

John de Ifeld was born at Ifeld, in the county of Kent,
and was the third son of Thomas de Ifeld, who died in
34 Edward I., when he was thirteen years of age.3 He held
property not only in Kent, but in Surrey and Sussex ; and
during the reign of Edward II. he was actively employed
in the preservation of the peace of those counties, and in
assessing the aids imposed by parliament, and arraying the
men-at-arms within them.4 In 1 Edward III. he was one

1 N. Foedera, ii. 606., iii. 25. 53. ; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 69. ; Devon's Issue
Roll, 139.; Cal. Exch. iii. 166.; Dugdale.

8 Dugdale's Chron. Series ; N. Foedera, iii. 469.

3 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 208.; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 151,

* Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 1037.

L327— 1377. JOHN INGE. 449

of the perambulators of the forests south of Trent l ; and
in the third year, 1329, was named as a justice itinerant into
Nottinghamshire. In the three following years he repre-
sented his native county in parliament, and is mentioned as
late as 13 Edward III. as a commissioner of array for
Surrey.2

INGE, JOHN.

Just. C. P. 1831.

John Inge, though probably of the same family as William
Inge, the chief justice in the last reign, was of a different
branch of it. He was settled in Somersetshire, and, being
no doubt brought up to the law, was employed from 10 Ed-
ward II. in various judicial commissions within that county,
and also acted there as assessor of the aids granted by Par-
liament. In 15 Edward II. he was sheriff of Devonshire ;
and three years afterwards had the castles, towns, and
honors of Roger de Mortimer in Wygeton and Ludlow gom-
mitted to his custody.

On January 18, 1331, 4 Edward III., he was made a judge
of the Common Pleas ; and fines were acknowledged before
him as late as Michaelmas, 1340, 14 Edward III. ; in which
year he is also mentioned as a trier of the petitions to par
liament. He died about 20 Edward III., leaving, by his
wife Alicia, a son named John, at whose death, in the
fortieth year of that reign, the property devolved on Lis
daughter, Johanna.3

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 425.

2 Dugdale; Hasted's Kent, i. 238.; N. Foedera, ii. 1071.

3 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 1039.; Abb. Rot. Orig. i. 25.232., ii. 291.;
Dugdale's Orig. 45. ; Rot. Pari. 37. 78. 114. ; Cal. Intjuis. p. m., ii. ISS. 151.
285.

vol. in. <; G

450 RICHARD DE KELLESHULL. Edw. III.

INGELBY, THOMAS DE.

Just. K. B. 1361.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

KELLESHULL, RICHARD DE.

Just. C. P. 1341.

The pleadings of Richard de Kelleshull as an advocate
appear in the Year Books of the early part of the reign of
Edward III. He was probably the son of Gilbert de
Kelleshull, to whom a pardon was granted in 15 Edward II.,
for all felonies, &c. committed in the " pursuit " of the De-
spencers l ; and who was steward of the household to the chan-
cellor, Richard de Bynteworth, Bishop of London, at the time
of his death in 1339.2 The family no doubt came from Kel-
shull in Hertfordshire.

Richard was appointed to several judicial commissions from
9 Edward III., but was not raised to the bench of the Com-
mon Pleas till May 30, 1341, 15 Edward III. We do not
think that he continued in that court much beyond Hilary,
1354, 28 Edward III., that being the date of the last fine
levied before him ; and his name not occurring among the
judges mentioned in the Year Book in the following year.

He was alive, however, three years afterwards, when he en-
feoffed the parson of the church of Heydon, in Essex, with
that manor and advowson. He had a son named John, who
died in 41 Edward III.3

KIRKETON, ROGER DE.

Just. C. P. 1372.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. J 66. 2 N. Foedera, ii. 1101.

" Abhrev. Rot. Plac. ii. 99. 110. 246. 291.; Dugdale's Orig. 45,

1327 — 1377. JOHN KNYVET. 451

KNYVET, JOHN.

Just. C. P. 1361. Ch. K. B. 1365. Chanc. 1372.

The family of Kny vets was of very ancient descent, having
been settled in England previous to the conquest. In
the reign of Edward II. Richard Knyvet of Southwick, in
Northamptonshire, was appointed custos of the Forest of
Clyve, in that county. He married Johanna, the daughter
and heir of John Wurth, a Lincolnshire knight, and was
alive in 19 Edward III.1 John Knyvet was their eldest
son, and within two years of that date was practising as an
advocate in the courts.2 Ten years afterwards, 31 Ed-
ward III., he was called to the degree of the coif; and we
have Sir Edward Coke's authority that he was " a man
famous in his profession," 3 his subsequent advances in which
give weight to the character.

On September 30, 1361, 35 Edward III., he was consti-
tuted a justice of the Common Pleas ; and in four years was
promoted to the office of chief justice of the King's Bench
in the place of Sir Henry Green, his patent being dated
October 29, 1365, 39 Edward III.4

From the difference of his designation, in the entries on
the parliament Roll, it would appear that he was knighted in
1363.5

The king, in compliance with the petitions of the Com-
mons, determined, in 1371, on placing the Great Seal in the
hands of laymen. Robert de Thorpe, whom he had then
appointed, having died in the following year, it was deemed
advisable to continue the experiment for some time longer.
Sir John Knyvet was accordingly removed from the pre-
sidency of his court, and constituted chancellor on June 30,

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 280., ii. 173. ; Cal. Inqois. p. m., i. 245., ii. :

* Year Book, Edw. III. ■ Fourth Inst. 79.

* N. Fcedera, iii. 777. s Rot. Par), ii 275. 283.

G o 2

452 JOHN KNYVET. Edw. III.

1372.1 During the four years and a half that he retained
the office he acted with great wisdom and discretion; but the
king, being at the termination of that period under the in-
fluence of the Duke of Lancaster, was induced to revert to
the old practice of having ecclesiastical chancellors ; and
Adam de Houghton, Bishop of St. David's, was substituted
for Sir John on January 11, 1377.2 We have a proof in the
Year Book of 48 Edward III., fol. 32, pi. 21, that Knyvet,
wide chancellor, used to visit his old court. It is there
stated, "Et puis Knivet le Chanc. vyent en le place, et le
case luy fuit monstre par les Justices, et il assenty," &c.
The king survived about five months, and Sir John Knyvet
was one of the executors of his will, which was dated Octo-
ber 7, 1376. He was also executor of the wills of Sir Robert
Thorpe, his predecessor in the chancellorship, and of Mary,
Countess of Pembroke 3 ; from which we may fairly deduce
that he had exhibited a character worthy of confidence.

He lived several years after ; and, although he did not re-
sume under Richard II. either of his former posts, he was
present in each of the first four parliaments of that reign,
and was always named among the triers of petitions, imme-
diately above the two chief justices. It shows the considera-
tion in which he was still held, that to him, in conjunction
with these two learned persons, an important question be-
tween the Earl of Pembroke and William la Zouch of
Haryngworth was submitted.4

The inquisition at his death, in 4 Richard II., details a vast
extent of property in Northampton, Cambridge, and several
other counties. By his wife Alianora, the elder daughter of
Ralph Lord Basset of Weldon, who survived him for eight
years 5, he left a son of the same name as his own, whose
descendants flourished till the end of the seventeenth cen-

1 Rot. Claus. 46 Edw. III., m. 20. - Ibid. 50 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 7.

3 Testam. Vetust. pp. 11. 88. 100. 4 Rot. Pari. iii. 4 89. 79.

5 Cal. Inquis. p. m., iii. 30. 101.

1327—1377. SIMON DE LANGIIAM. 153

tury, and by various intermarriages acquired large additions
to their possessions. The principal branch was established
at the castle and manor of Buckenhain, in Norfolk, in 1461 ;
and Philip, its representative, was created a baronet at the
first institution of that order in 1611. The title, however,
became extinct by the death of his son in 1699 without issue.
Other branches made themselves eminent in various ways ;
and one of them, Sir Thomas Knyvet, having been of the
bedchamber of Queen Elizabeth and of the Privy Council of
James L, was instrumental in the discovery of the Gun-
powder Plot, and was raised to the peerage by the title of
Lord Knyvet of Escrick in Yorkshire, on July 4, 1607 ; but
dying without children in 1622, the barony became extinct.

The barony of Clifton is supposed to be in abeyance in
this family ; and that of Berners, after an abeyance of nearly
one hundred years, was restored to, and is now held by, one
of its representatives.1

LANGHAM, SIMON DE, Abbot of Westminster, Bishop
of Ely, Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal.

Chancellor, 1363.

The monks of Westminster had reason to rejoice when
Simon de Langham entered their fraternity. From the
time of his becoming a monk there in 1335 till his death,
forty years afterwards, he was a devoted friend to their
house. Appointed prior in April, 1349, he, on the death of
Simon de Burcheston at the end of the next month, was
elected abbot. He then applied his early savings to the
discharge of the engagements of the monastery ; he suppressed
its abuses, regulated its discipline, and gained the esteem of
the brotherhood by his kind and equitable sway. When,
after presiding with singular credit for thirteen years, he was

1 Dugdale's Baron, ii. 4*24. ; Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 257. ; Burke's Extinct
Baronetage; Nicola .'s Synop

454 SIMON DE LANGHAM. Edw. III.

raised by his merits to the treasurership and chancellorship of
the realm, and was advanced in the church to the bishoprick
and the primacy, he still proved his regard for his first refuge,
by purchasing additional estates for the establishment ; and
even in his last«hours, and after eight years absence from his
country, his lasting affection to the house was still further
evidenced by a splendid bequest of books, vestments, and
money, and a direction that his body should be deposited in
one of its chapels.1

Nothing remains by which to explain the origin of the
name he went by ; and we cannot expect to trace a family
descent for an inhabitant of the cloister. His sagacious
management of the monastic revenues pointed him out as
well fitted for the office of treasurer of the kingdom, to
which he was raised on November 21, 1360, 34 Edward III.;
and his piety and learning caused his election, two years after-
wards, to two bishopricks, London and Ely, both of which
happened to be then vacant. He was appointed, by his own
selection, to the latter on January 10, 1262, and the tempo-
ralities were restored on March 19.

He continued treasurer till February, 1363; when he
succeeded William de Edington, Bishop of Winchester, as
chancellor. It is curious that by the latter title he attests
the confirmation of the treaty with the king of Castile, dated
the 1st of that month, although the Great Seal was not
delivered to him, nor did he take the oath, till the 19th.2
On July 22, 1366, he was translated to Canterbury by
papal provision, and about the same time must have resigned
the Great Seal, though the record of this proceeding does
not exist. William of Wykeham is, however, mentioned as
chancellor on the 16th of the following September.

During his primacy he greatly exerted himself in the cor-

1 Monast. i. 275.

2 N. Fcedera, iii. 687. 689.; Rot. Claus. 37 Edw. III., m. 39.

1327—1377. MMON DE LANGIIAM. 455

rection of tlie abuse of the privilege of pluralities, and settled
the dispute between the London clergy and their parishioners
by fixing the rate of tithe at one halfpenny in the pound.
The archbishop, however, incurred some censure by the
removal of John Wickliffe from the headship of Canterbury
Hall in Oxford ; but this was in consequence of the appoint-
ment having been contrary to the statutes of Simon Islip,
its founder. And if this Wickliffe be the same man as the
reformer, of which some doubt has been lately raised, there
is evidence in his writings to show that his attacks on the
popish exactions were not occasioned by this quarrel, as he
had commenced them some years earlier.

On September 27, 1368, Pope Urban V. promoted Lang-
ham to the dignity of a cardinal presbyter, by the title of
St. Sixtus. The king taking umbrage at his acceptance of
it, he resigned the archbishoprick on November 27, and
retired to Avignon. Pope Gregory XI. advanced him to
the title of Cardinal Bishop of Preneste, having first em-
ployed him in several negotiations in 1372, to mediate
peace between the kings of England and France and the
Earl of Flanders, during which he revisited his native
country. In these treaties he is styled the Cardinal of
Canterbury, and the king calls him his "dear and faithful
friend."1 It is certain that he retained so much of the royal
favour as to be permitted to hold various preferments at this
time in England. Besides a prebend in the church of York,
he was Treasurer and Archdeacon of Wells, and Dean of
Lincoln; his filling the latter place while a cardinal being
the subject of a complaint to the parliament of April, 1376. 2

It is stated that at this time he had applied for and pro-
cured permission to return to England, and that he projected
the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. But all his plans

1 N. Fcedera. iil 932- 97a - Rot. Pari ii. 339.

456

THOMAS DE LODELOWE.

Edw. III.

were frustrated by a paralytic stroke, which occasioned his
death on July 22, 1376. He was first buried in the church
of the Carthusian monastery which he had founded in Avig-
non, and was three years afterwards removed to St. Benet's
Chapel in Westminster Abbey, where his tomb still remains.
The progress of his advance from the lowest position to
the highest posts in the state and the church ; the confidence
reposed in him by a sovereign by no means deficient in
judgment; his conduct in his various offices, whether lay or
ecclesiastical ; all tend to add credit to the character that is
given him as a man of great capacity, wise, affable, temperate,
and humble. Of his munificence we have evidence in his
benefactions to Westminster, which are said to have extended
to the large sum of 10,000/. ; so that we are inclined to
consider the "railing hexameters" on his translation from
Ely to Canterbury —

Laetentur cceli, quia Simon transit ab Ely ;
Cujus in adventuin flent in Kent millia centum,

rather as the malicious effusion of an individual enemy than
as the expression of popular feeling.1

LICHFIELD, Dean of. See J. de Bukyngham.
LINCOLN, Archdeacon of. See J. de Stratford ;

W. of Wykeham ; R. de Ravenser.
LINCOLN, Bishop of. See H. de Burghersh ; J. de

BUKYNGHAM.

LINCOLN, Dean of. See J. de Offord.

LODELOWE, THOMAS DE.

Ch. B. E. 1365.

Three families of the name of Lodelowe (Ludlow) flourished
in the reign of Edward II., two of which sent members to

1 Godwin de Prassul. 115. 261.; Weever, 479.; Le Neve, 6. 39. 44. 69.
145.; Angl. Sac. i. 46.; Dugdale's Monast. i. 275. ; Chalmers's Biog. Diet.

1327—1377. THOMAS DE LOUTHER. 457

parliament respectively for Shropshire and Surrey ; one
possessing the manor of Hodnet in the former county, and
the other that of Walton in the latter. The third held the
manor of Campedene, in Gloucestershire.1 To which of
these families Thomas de Lodelowe belonged it is not easy
to determine with any certainty; but he himself appears to
have been established in Kent, as in 33 Edward III., he was
one of the commissioners for keeping the peace in that county,
and in 46 Edward III. was among the custodes of the sea-
shore there.2

He was constituted chief baron of the Exchequer on
October 29, 1365, 39 Edward III., in the place of Sir
William de Skipwith, and acted as a trier of petitions in all
the subsequent parliaments till the 47th year.3 During this
period he is several times mentioned in the Year Books as
a justice of assize ; for which he received a fee of 201. yearly,
in addition to his salary of forty marks as chief baron.4 On
February 3, 1374, 48 Edward III., William Tanks was
appointed his successor.; but from the difficulty of ascertaining
to which family he belonged, we know not whether he died at
that time.

LONDON, Bishop of. See R. de Byntewoeth.
LOUTHER, THOMAS DE.

Just. K. B. 1330.

Thomas de Louther was the second son of Hugh de
Louther, of Westmoreland, the attorney-general of Edward I.,
and a justice itinerant in that and the following reign.5 He
was constituted a judge of the King's Bench on December 15,
1330, 4 Edward III., and in the same year was joined in

1 Pari. Writs, ii., P ii. 1126. ; Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 123. 255. 2S3.

2 N. Foedera, iii. 464. 952. s Rot. Pari. ii. 289-
1 Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 83. 280. s See ante, p. 275.

458 ADAM DE LYMBERGH. Edw. III.

the commission for the county of Bedford. He remained in
that court only till the following year, when he was ap-
pointed chief justice of the King's Bench in Ireland, re-
taining the office in 8 Edward III., when the king granted
to him, in that character, the first custody of all the heirs and
lands in Ireland which devolved to the crown.1 But in the
course of the same year he was superseded by Robert de
Bourchier on July 16, 1334, being, however, at the same time,
directed to proceed to Dublin to take upon himself the office
of chief justice, in case Robert de Bourchier declined to go,
with a mandate to act as second judge if Bourchier went.2
It seems probable that he took the second place accordingly ;
for we find him again raised to the chiefship in 1338, 12 Ed-
ward III.3 How long he remained there afterwards, or
when he died, does not appear ; but in 33 Edward III. a
commission was issued to inquire into a charge made against
a Thomas de Louther, and John de Louther the son of his
brother, for a breach of the law of arms in forcing a Scottish
knight, made prisoner, to pay a second ransom for his
release.4

He is said to have left issue, but no account of them
remains.5

LYMBERGH, ADAM DE.

B. E. 1334.

Adam de Lymbergh, who was of a Lincolnshire family,
was in constant employment in offices of trust and respon-
sibility, under both Edward II. and III. In the fifth year
of the former reign, October 8, 1311, he was appointed one
of the remembrancers of the Exchequer, and frequent entries
occur, showing his active engagement in its duties till

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 113. 120. '-' N. Foedera, ii. S91.

3 Cal. Rot. Pat. 133. 4 N. Foedera, Hi. 418.

5 Colli ns's Peerage, v. 696.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE MALBERTHORP. 459

15 Edward II. He was then made constable of Bordeaux,
where he remained three or four years ; and afterwards, on
the accession of Edward III., became keeper of the Privy
Seal. From 5 to 8 Edward III., he was chancellor of
Ireland, in which character he is mentioned in the latter year,
so late as July 16, 1334.

From this office he was transferred to the English court of
Exchequer, in which he became a baron on November 9,
1334 ; and probably sat there till his death in 13 Edward III.,
when his manor of Severbege, and his lands in Torkeseye
and Navenbye, all in Lincolnshire, descended, he being an
ecclesiastic, to his sister Matilda.1

MALBERTHORP, ROBERT DE.

Just. K. B. 1327. Ch. K. B. 1329.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

Robert de Malberthorp was so called from a manor of
that name in Lincolnshire. In the sixth and eighth years of
the reign of Edward II., he is mentioned in connection with
property in that county 2 ; but we find nothing to show his
proceedings as a lawyer, except his occasional employment in
commissions there, from 10 Edward II. till he was raised to
the bench. This event occurred some time in the fourteenth
year, probably after August 6, 1320, when Lambert de
Trikingham was removed into the Exchequer, and Robert de
Malberthorp appears to have taken his place in the King's
Bench. From that time till the end of the reign, he was
actively engaged in the performance of his judicial duties,
principally in the country.

His re-appointment on the accession of Edward III. was

1 Madox's Exch. ii. 267. ; Pari. Writs, ii., P. ii. 1096.; N. Fcedera, ii. 519—
596. 812. 891.; Dugdale ; Cal. In<|iiis. p. in., ii. 89. ; Abbrev. Hot. Orig. ii.
49. 130.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 198. 216.

460

ROBERT DE MALBERTHORP.

Emv. III.

delayed on account of Queen Isabella's indignation against
him, in consequence of his being concerned in the judgment
pronounced, five years before, upon Thomas, Earl of Lan-
caster. But he obtained his pardon on March 7, 1327, on
the testimony of the prelates and peers that he gave that
judgment by command of the king, whom he did not dare
to disobey, and to avoid danger to himself. Such is the
disgraceful entry on the patent of pardon.1 It may be
presumed, therefore, that he was then permitted to resume
his judicial functions. We accordingly find him acting as a
justice of assize in this first year, and sitting in court in Hilary
Term of the second.2

In the third year, he was named in the commission issued
on February 2, 1329, to try certain malefactors in the city
of London 3 ; and on May 1 following had so entirely
recovered favour, as to be promoted to the office of chief
justice of the King's Bench, during the temporary absence of
Geoffrey le Scrope. This lasted till October 28 in the same
year, when Geoffrey resumed his seat ; and Robert de Mal-
berthorp returned to his place among the puisne judges. He
remained in that court till January 18, 1331, 4 Edward III.,
when he was removed into the Common Pleas. The fines
levied before him do not extend beyond Martinmas in the
same year ; and his death occurred some time either at the
end of that or the beginning of the following year.

A son of his, named William, is named as early as 6 Ed-
ward II.4

1 N. Foedera, ii. 696.

3 N. Foedera, ii. 755.

4 Rot. Pari. ii. 25. 208. ; Pari. Writs, ii.
Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 198., ii. 59.

Year Book, Edward III.

P. ii. 1131.; Duffdale's Orig. 45.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE MELTON. 4G1

MELTON, WILLIAM DE, Dean of St. Martin's, London;
Archdeacon of Barnstaple ; Provost of Beverley ; Arch-
bishop of York.

Keeper, 1333.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

The parentage of William de Melton cannot be traced with
any certainty ; but he seems to have been principally con-
nected with the county of York, and is supposed to have been
a native of Melton, in Holderness. In 28 Edward I., 1300,
Melton was parson of the parish of Repham, in Lincolnshire l ;
and in the next year, under the title of "our beloved clerk,"
he was employed to pay the foot soldiers raised in Wales.2 It
appears probable, also, that he had been employed in the
education of the king's son, who at this time was about sixteen
years of age ; for in the letter which that prince addressed to
the Pope, on his behalf, in the third year of his reign, he uses
these expressions, "qui a nostras aetatis primordiis nostris
insistebat obsequiis."3

On the accession of the young king, he was appointed comp-
troller of the royal wardrobe, and was afterwards advanced to
be the keeper of that department. In the former character,
the Great Seal was delivered to him, on January 21, 1308,
to be carried abroad with the king, who was proceeding to
France to marry Isabella, the daughter of Philip le Bel.4
Another seal was given to John de Langton, the chan-
cellor, to be used in England ; which, after the king's
return, was, in the following March, carried to the Ex-
chequer by William de Melton, then bearing the additional
title of " Secretarius Regis."5 Again, on the resignation of
John de Langton, May 11, 1310, the Great Seal was placed

1 Cal. Inquis. p. m., i. 165. -' Tar], Writs, i. 359.

Feeders, ii. 107. 4 Rot. Claus. 1 Edw. II., m. 11.

5 Ibid. m. 7. ; Madox's Exch. i. 75.

462 WILLIAM DE MELTON. Edw. III.

in the wardrobe, under the seals of Melton and of two of the
clerks of the Chancery 1 ; but on July 6, it is stated to be in
the custody of the master of the Rolls, under the seals of the
same two clerks.2 The king's confidence in him is apparent,
from numerous royal mandates, countersigned " nunciante
W. de Melton ;" from his being employed on an embassy to
France ; and from his being raised to the office of keeper of
the wardrobe.

During this time ecclesiastical honours flowed rapidly upon
him. He was made a canon of York ; on August 27, 1308,
he was invested with the deanery of St. Martin's, London 3,
and, on October 13, in the same year, with the archdeaconry
of Barnstaple4; in 1310, he became provost of Beverley5 ; and
was elected archbishop of York, on January 21, 1316, as the
successor of William de Greenfield, but was obliged to wait
more than two years for his consecration 6, notwithstanding
the king's numerous and urgent applications to the Pope.

On July 3, 1325, 18 Edward II,, he was constituted
treasurer of the Exchequer7 ; but, as the king's friend, was
displaced, on the transfer of the crown to his son, in January,
1327. During the troubles in the previous year, his chapel
was broken into, and his episcopal ornaments, including his
pall, were stolen ; and messengers were sent to the Pope,
with the king's request for a new one.8

The new government, however, showed no ill will to the
archbishop. On the contrary, in the first year of the reign
of Edward III., they restored to him the rights which his
predecessors had in the port of Hull, under a charter of king
Athelstan, and which had been for some time invaded ; and
employed him also in treating for peace with the Scots.9

1 Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. II., m. 6. 2 Rot. Claus. 4 Edw. II., m. 26.

3 Monast. vi. 1323. 4 Le Neve, 98.

5 Allen's Yorkshire, iii. 234. 6 Godwin de PrEesul. 685.

7 Rot. Pat. 18 Edw. II., p. 2. m. 5. 8 N. Fcedera, ii. 624.

9 Ibid. 704. 797.

1327—1377. ROGER DE MERES. 463

In 4 Edward III. he was indicted, as an adherent of the Earl
of Kent, and, being fully acquitted, obtained a writ of
conspiracy against his accusers.1 That his accusation was
not credited appears from his restoration to the treasurer-
ship in the same year. This office he held from Novem-
ber 28, 1330, to April 1, 1331 2; and on August 10, 1333 3,
he was appointed sole keeper of the Great Seal during the
temporary absence of John de Stratford, the chancellor.
He acted in that character till January 13, when he delivered
up the seal to three clerks of the Chancery, by the king's
direction. It would seem that his removal was occasioned by
his having confirmed and consecrated Robert de Graystanes,
as Bishop of Durham, without first obtaining the king's
approval ; for on March 30th following, there is an entry of
a grant of the royal pardon to the archbishop for that
offence.4

Pie lived for five years more, and died at Cawood, on
April 22, 1340, after presiding over his province for about
four-and-twenty years,, and expending considerable sums on
his cathedral; in which his remains were deposited. The
character that is given to him speaks as highly of his private
as of his public life ; representing him as pious, charitable,
lenient, and hospitable in the former, and zealous, faithful,
and energetic in the latter. In his property he was succeeded
by his nephew, who died about thirty years afterwards,
leaving a son ; both of the same names as the archbishop.5

. MERES, ROGER DE.

Just. C. P. 1371.

Roger de Meres was of a Lincolnshire family, established
at Kirketon in the district of Holand.6 In 12 Edward III.,

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 31. 54. " Dugdale's Chron. Series.

1 Rot Claus. 7 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 3. * N. Fcedera, ii. 882.

s Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. ii. 136. 302. a Ibid. ii. 318.

464 ROGER DE MERES. Edw. III.

one of his name, probably his father, was assigned as the
attorney of John, Duke of Brittany, and Earl of Richmond.1
Roger, the son, was appointed one of the king's Serjeants in
40 Edward III., receiving the annual allowance of 20/. for
his services in prosecuting and defending suits. He was also
employed while a serjeant to hold assizes in the country, for
which he had a further salary of 201. a year.2 On November
27, 1371, 45 Edward III., he was raised to the bench of the
Common Pleas; but there is no record of any fines being
levied before a judge of that name, nor of his attending the
parliament beyond November in the next year.

There are, however, some circumstances which raise a
suspicion that this Roger de Meres was the same with Roger
de Kirketon, and that he used both names indifferently.
We know that he had property at Kirketon, and it was quite
a common practice for a man to call himself after his estate.
The name of Meres does not at all occur in the Year Book,
which is somewhat extraordinary for one who was clearly a ser-
jeant ; but that of Kirketon is continually introduced, and the
period within which the latter is mentioned not only tallies
with the career of Meres, but notices him as serjeant in the
right year, and terminates at the precise date required, viz.
Trinity Term, 45 Edward III., 1371. Meres was constituted
a justice of the Common Pleas on November 27, following;
and Dugdale, while he records no fines as levied before him,
introduces Kirketon, without giving the date of his appoint-
ment, from a fine acknowledged before him in February, 1372.
The name of Roger de Meres appears as a trier of petitions
in the parliament of that year, and then stops ; but in the
next and following parliaments of the reign, Roger de Kirke-
ton is named instead of him.3

Roger de Kirketon is not mentioned as a serjeant or in

1 N. Fcedera, ii. 1024. 2 Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 346. 354.

3 Rot. Pari. ii. 309. 317.

IS27— 1377. TETER DE MIDDLETON. 465

any other way in the Issue Roll of 44 Edward III., while
payments are made to Roger de Meres, both as a Serjeant
and a judge of assize.

The death of Roger de Meres is not noticed among the
inquisitions post mortem, while that of Roger de Kirketon
is in 9 Richard II.

And lastly, in 15 Richard II., John de Meres, apparently
the son, in the inquisition on his death, has the addition of
Si de Kirketon " to his name, while a subsequent page notices
a Robert de Meres de Soterton l ; affording positive proof that
the name of Kirketon was sometimes used, and, by the fact
of two families of the same name existing in Lincolnshire,
sufficiently accounting for the assumption by one of them of
the name of his estate.

As the question, however, is disputable, I have treated
them separately as two individuals, leaving it to the curious
to pursue the investigation.

MIDDLESEX, Archdeacon of. See A. de Offord.

MIDDLETON, PETER DE.

Just. Itin. 1330.

Peter de Middleton was one of the sons of Adam de
Middleton noticed in the last reign as a justice itinerant.
He was appointed to the same duty in the county of Bed-
ford, in 4 Edward III., 1330; and in the eighth year was
made a justice of the forests in Yorkshire, In 9 Edw. III.,
the latter county was entrusted to his custody as sheriif ;
but in the following year he died in possession of the manors
of Stobbum and Stolkeld in Yorkshire, and of Irreby in
Cumberland, and also of his father's cow pasture, called
Hcselspring, in the forest of Inglewood, to which his son
Thomas succeeded.2

1 Cal. Inquis. p. m., iii. 75. 142. 165. '

8 Dugdale; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 88. 94. 106. ; Cal. Inquis. p, in., ii. 70.

VOL. III. H II

46 G JOHN DE MOUBRAY. Edw. III.

MIRFIELD, WILLIAM DE.

? Keeper, 1371.

William de Mirfield was of a Yorkshire family, and
purchased the manors of Fersleye and Shell in that county
in 22 Edward III. He held the rectory of Bradford, and
was a clerk or master in Chancery from the thirty- sixth to
the forty-ninth year of the reign, 1362 — 1375, when he died.
He is mentioned as residing in Holborn. On March 18,
1371, he was one of the four of those officers to whom the
Great Seal was entrusted during the absence of Sir Robert
de Thorpe, the chancellor; but it is not stated how long
they held it. His property, on his death, was divided among
his sisters, one of whom was named Johanna.1

MOTELOW, HENRY DE.

Just. C. P. 1357.

So few remains have been collected of Henry de Motelow,
that nothing more can be recorded of him than that his name
appears among the advocates in the Year Books from 18
Edward III. ; that he was raised to the bench of the Common
Pleas, on July 4, 1357, 31 Edward III. ; that he had 20Z. a
year allowed him to support the order of knighthood ; and
that fines were not acknowledged before him later than
Easter, 1361, 35 Edward III.2

MOUBRAY, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1359.

The connection of John de Moubray with the noble family
of Moubray, of which there were three of the same name
who were contemporaneous with the judge, we have not been

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 198. 342.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 329. 346.; Rot.
Pari. ii. 268—317. 34C*. ; Rot. Claus. 45 Edw. III., in. 35.

2 Dugdale's Orig. 45., and Chron. Series.

1327—1377. JOHN DE MUTFORD. 467

able to trace. He had evidently very extensive practice as
an advocate from 17 Edward III. ; and was one of the king's
serjeants-at-law in the 28th year. His name frequently
appears as a judge of assize till he was raised to the bench
at Westminster. This event occurred on July 11, 1359,
33 Edward III., when he was appointed a justice of the
Court of Common Pleas ; and was soon after made a knight
of the Bath. His continuance there may be traced by the
reports in the Year Books and the fines acknowledged before
him, which extend till 47 Edward III., 1373 ; in which year,
on November 27, he delivered into the treasury the Rolls of
his assizes in the northern counties.1

MUTFORD, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1327.
See under the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward IT.

John de Mutford was of a knightly family, settled in the
parish of that name in the county of Suffolk. In pursuing
the profession of the law, he arrived at that eminence to be
engaged in conducting the king's causes in 22 Edw. I., 1294,
in which year he acted in that character in Middlesex, and is
again named in Cornwall in 30 Edward I.2 Although it
does not appear that the office of attorney-general was then
established in a separate individual, an entry on the Rolls of
parliament in 35 Edward I., in which John de Mutford is
directed to be called before the treasurer and barons of the
Exchequer, to inform them of the king's right in the matter
of a petition then presented 3, seems to show that his duties
were very similar to those now performed by that officer.
In that same year (the last of the king), he was appointed

1 Dugdale's Orig. 45. 103. ; and Chron. Ser. ; Kal. Exch. i. 235.

2 Dugdale's Chron. Series. < Rot. Pari. i. 197.

a ij 2

468 JOHN DE MUTFORD. Edw. III.

one of the justices of Trailbaston to act in Cornwall and nine
other counties.1

From the commencement of Edward II.'s reign, he at-
tended the parliament among the judges, and we find him
on various occasions acting as a justice itinerant, and com-
manded to cause his proceedings to be estreated into the
Exchequer. In 5 Edward II., he was sent to Ireland as
one of the commissioners to quiet the discontents and dis-
turbances there, and two years afterwards was summoned to
appear before the council ready to proceed on the king's
service to parts beyond the seas.

After being in continual and active employment as a jus-
tice of assize, he was raised to the bench at Westminster,
being constituted a judge of the Common Pleas by patent,
dated April 20, 1316, 9 Edward II. In this court he con-
tinued to act during the remainder of the reign, and for the
first three years of that of Edward III. ; the last fine acknow-
ledged before him being dated in Hilary, 3 Edward III.,
1329; and the last record of his sitting in court being
Michaelmas in that year.2

His death occurred in the same year, and he was buried in
Norwich Cathedral,3

NEWENHAM, THOMAS DE.

? Keeper, 1S77.

See under the Reign of Richard II.
NORTHAMPTON, Archdeacons of. See R. de Bury;

J. DE BUKYNGHAM ; W. OP WrKEHAM.

1 Rot. Pari. i. 218.

2 Pari. Writs, ii. 1213. ; Rot. Pari. i. 341—350. ; Year Book, Part I.
8 Blomefield's Norwich, ii. 39.

1327—1377. WALTER DE NORWICH. 469

NORTHWELL, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1340.

That William de Northwell held the office of clerk of the
kitchen in the household of Edward II., appears by two writs,
dated October 3, 1314, by which certain victuals, purveyed
in various counties, are ordered to be delivered to him.1 In
them he is designated " dilectns clericus noster," showing that
he was in holy orders, and that the office was considered of
some importance. He was gradually advanced in his position,
and we afterwards find him in 11 Edward III. clerk or
keeper of the wardrobe.2 He is so called as late as March 2,
1340, 14 Edward III.3; and doubtless still held the office
when he was constituted a baron of the Exchequer in the
place of William de la Pole on June 2 1 in the same year.
He did not remain there long, as certain bills dated in August,
September, and November, 1340, are mentioned as being
under his seal as treasurer of the king's household 4 ; and
there is no doubt that on receiving this last appointment he
retired from his seat as baron ; his name not being among
those constituting the court in the following January.5

NORWICH, WALTER DE.

Ch. B. E. 1327.
See under the Reign of Edward IT.

BlomefielD says that Walter de Norwich was the son of
Geoifrey de Norwich. He was possessed of very large estates
in Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, and Hertford, over which he
obtained a charter of free warren, together with a fair at
Ling, in Norfolk. No mention is made of the commence-
ment of his career in the Exchequer ; but he had probably

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 82. 2 Issue Roll, Mich. 11 Etlw. III.

3 N. Feeders, ii. 1116. * Kal. Exch. i. 165.
•'' Dugdale'a Cbron. S

B n 3

470 WALTER DE NORWICH. Edw. lit

been long an officer there before 35 Edward I., when he
was remembrancer. In this office he acted in the first years
of the next reign ; and was raised to the bench as a baron
of the Exchequer on August 29, 1311, 5 Edward IL, on the
death of Walter de Gloucester. On the 23rd of the following
October, he was appointed locum tenens of the treasurer of
the Exchequer; and on March 3, 1312, was again named
baron in the place of Roger de Scotre deceased.

As he still continued to act as treasurer's lieutenant, we can
no otherwise account for these two nominations as baron,
than by supposing that Roger de Scotre, though not so
described in his patent, held the highest place in the court,
and that Walter de Norwich's second patent advanced him to
fill it. It is, however, precisely the same in form as his first
patent, and as those of the other barons ; but the suggestion
derives support from the fact that only five days afterwards
John Abel was made a baron in the place of Walter de
Norwich, who is described in that patent as " nunc capitalis
baro," which is the first occasion on which that title is used.

The interval between this and the eighth year of the reign
was devoted to the performance of the double duties of baron
and of treasurer's lieutenant ; but in the latter year, on being
raised to the office of treasurer on September 26, 1314, he
vacated his seat on the bench.

He retained the treasurership till May 30, 1317, 10 Ed-
ward IL, when he was relieved from tho office on account of
illness, and not only received the honourable appointment of
chief baron, but was also commanded to assist at the privy
councils of his sovereign, whenever he was able. He is
called by this title in 13 Edward IL, as present on the de-
livery of the Great Seal ; but it is remarkable that on three
several occasions in 15, 16, 17 Edward IL, when he was de-
puted to perform the duties of the treasurer in his absence, in
neither of the commissions is he described as chief baron, and
in two of them is called simply "unus baro de scaccario nostro."

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE NOTION. 471

He was immediately re-appointed chief baron of the Ex-
chequer on the accession of Edward III., and kept his seat in
the court till his death in the third year of that reign.

By his wife Margaret he had three sons, John, Roger, and
Thomas ; the elder of whom was summoned as a baron to
parliament, but the title became extinct before the end of
the reign by failure of his issue.1

NOTTINGHAM, ROBERT DE.

B. E. 1327.

Two persons so called have been already noticed in the reio-n
of Henry III. ; but the surname being taken from so exten-
sive a place, there is nothing to prove that this Robert de
Nottingham was connected with them. It is possible that
he was the son of William de Nottingham, who is mentioned
as acting for the king in 5 Edward II., but we have not been
able to trace the relationship. Robert was appointed remem-
brancer of the Exchequer on June 21, 1322, 15 Edward II. ;
and on October 15, 1327, 1 Edward III., he was raised to
the office of baron of that court in the place of the second
baron, William de Boudon ; but on April 16, 1329, Robert
de Wodehouse was made second baron. Whether this arose
from the death or retirement of Robert de Nottingham does
not appear ; and though there are several subsequent entries
of the name, some clearly belong to another person, and others
have nothing to identify them with the baron.2

NOTTON, WILLIAM DE.

Just. K. B. 1355.

William de Notton was of a Yorkshire family, and pro-
bably a native of the place of that name. He became an ad-

1 Madox's Exeb. i. 75., ii. 49. 84. ; Dllgdale'fl Baron, ii. 90. ; and Chron.
Scries; N. Fccdera, ii. 42B. ; Blomcfield's Norwich, i. 76. ; Norfolk, i. 719.

2 Dugdale's Chron. Scr. ; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 19 1.

II H I

472 ANDREW DE OFFORD. Edw. III.

vocate of considerable eminence, to judge from the frequent
recurrence of his arguments in the Year Books. In 20 Ed-
ward III. he had a confirmation from the king of a messuage
and above 200 acres of land, part of the manor of Fishlake,
in Yorkshire, by the service of one rose. In the same year
he was one of the king's Serjeants, and was appointed on
various judicial commissions for several subsequent years.
On October 12, 1355, 29 Edward III., he was constituted
a judge of the King's Bench. He was subjected, in 1358,
to excommunication for neglecting to appear to the pope's
citation to answer for the sentence he had pronounced against
the Bishop of Ely, for harbouring the man who had slain one
of Lady Wake's servants.

His period of service in the King's Bench was terminated
in 35 Edward III., when he is mentioned as a judge of assize
in the Year Books. In that year he was constituted chief
justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland ; and two years after-
wards he is noticed as one of the council of the king's son,
Lionel, Earl of Ulster, then lieutenant of that county.

He had large property at Fishlake, with the manors of
Boston and Wolveley, in Yorkshire; and he and his wife
Isabella were benefactors to the priory of Bretton, in that
county, and of Royston, in Hertfordshire.1

OFFORD, ANDREW DE, Archdeacon of Middlesex.

? Keeper, 1353.

Andrew de Offord was a brother of the undermentioned
John de Offord, and, like him, was employed in diplomatic
missions for many years of his life. From 17 to 29 Ed-
ward III., 1343 — 1355, we find him continually named on

1 Cal. Rot. Tat 153. 174.; N. Fcedera, iii. 101. 297.622.; Abbrev. Rot.
Orig. 212.; Rot. Pari. ii. 455.; Barnes's Edward III , 551. ; Cal. Inquis.
p. m., ii. 168. 190.

1327— 1377. JOHN DE OFFORD. 473

embassies to Rome, Castile, Portugal, Flanders and France.1
It was, probably, during the chancellorship of his brother,
that he was made a clerk or master of the Chancery, although
he is not distinctly named among those officers till a later
period. On August 4, 1353, when the chancellor, John de
Thoresby, went to York, of which he had recently been
elected archbishop, he left the seal in the hands of David de
Wollore, M. II,, Thomas de Bray ton, and Andrew de Offord 2 ;
but how long he remained absent does not appear. OfFord
was a receiver of petitions in the parliaments of 28 and 29 Ed-
ward III.8; and died in 1358.

He was at first described as juris chilis professor; after-
wards as Canon of York ; and lastly as Archdeacon of Middle-
sex, to which he was admitted in 1349.4

OFFORD, JOHN DE, Archdeacon of Ely,
Dean of Lincoln, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Chancellor, J 345.

The name of this chancellor is generally spelled Offord, but
on some few occasions Ufford ; and it is the fashion to call him
one of the sons of Robert de Ufford, the first Earl of Suffolk.
We are satisfied, however, that he was not so, and doubt very
much whether he was in any way connected with the family.
Kobert de Ufford, who was created Earl of Suffolk, in 1 337,
had, according to Dugdale, only two sons, Robert, who died
in the life of his father, and William, who succeeded to the
title. The records show two other sons, named Richard and
Edmund le Frere5; and Blomcfield calls a John de Ufford,
who was rector of Kingham, in Norfolk, in 1359, and who died
in 1375, a son of the earlG; but that may be questionable,

1 N. Foedora, ii. 1224., iii. 308. ■ Rot. Claus. 27 Edw. III., ni. &

:< Rot. Pari. ii. 254. 264. 4 Le Neve, !!».!.

6 Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. ii. 134. 146. 336. 6 Blomdield's Norfolk, i. 667.

474 JOHN DE OFFORD, Ebw. III.

as he is not mentioned in the earl's will.1 There was,
however, a John de Ufford, who was contemporary with the
chancellor. He was the son of Ralph de Ufford, the
brother of Robert, the first earl ; but he is in every way
distinguished from the chancellor. He is always called a
knight, and was summoned to parliament as a baron in 1360,
eleven years after the death of the chancellor, and his own
death occurred in the following year. The discrepancies in
these dates appear to settle the question ; but if any doubt
remained it would seem to be extinguished by the following
fact. The first earl's grandfather, whose name was Robert
de Peyton, assumed that of Ufford, from a place in
Suffolk, where he had his residence ; while there remains
curious evidence to prove that the chancellor's family derived
its name from the manor of Offord, in Huntingdonshire. We
find that in 4 Edward I., 1275-6, there was a John de Offord
who had property at Offord-Dameys in that county ; and,
further, that in 5 Edward III., 1331, the custody of that
manor was given to Magister John de Offord (our chancellor)
till the legitimate age of the heir2 : so that he probably was a
younger son of the first-named John, and uncle to the infant
heir. However this may be, it i3 clear that the two families
were distinct.

In the early part of the reign of Edward III., John de
Offord was Dean of the Arches3 ; and from the eighth to the
eighteenth years he was continually engaged in important
foreign embassies to the courts of France, Scotland, and
Avignon. At first he is described as juris civilis professor,
and as Canon of St. Paul's ; in 12 Edward III., as Archdeacon
of Ely ; and on August 3, 1344, 18 Edward III., as Dean of
Lincoln. From October 4, 1342, he is mentioned as keeper

1 Nicolas's Testam. Vetust. 73. 114. See, however, Anglo. Sac. i. 794., note.

2 Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 47. ; Abbrev. Placit. 266 ; Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. ii. 50,

3 Newcome's St. Alban's, 229.

1327—1377. JOHN DE OFFORD. 475

of the privy seal, and on one occasion as the king's secretary.1
To enter into the particulars of these negotiations would be
to give a history of this period of the reign. As they
concern himself, they show the estimation in which he was
regarded by his sovereign ; and they afford evidence that
his conduct of them exhibited so much wisdom and tact, as
to point him out as a fit recipient of the honours with which
he was afterwards invested.

On October 26, 1345, 19 Edward III., he succeeded
Robert de Sadington as chancellor2, and held the Seal till
his death, being the third chancellor during this reign who
died in office. By the death of John de Stratford, on
August 23, 1348, the archbishoprick of Canterbury became
vacant. So soon after as the 25th of the following month,
Pope Clement VI. issued a bull placing John de Offord in
the vacant seat ; the Holy Father and the English king
uniting to set aside the monks' election of Thomas Brad-
ward in. One of his biographers says, that he paid a large
sum ere he procured his appointment ; but these assertions
are easily made, and it is far more probable that the pope's
attention to the king's recommendation was influenced by
the opportunities he himself had had of judging of Offord's
character and abilities, while performing his ambassadorial
functions. The temporalities were restored on December 14,
but he was fated never to obtain full possession of his dignity.
Before his installation he was seized with the mortal disease
which for several months had devastated England, and was
one of the last of its victims, dying at Tottenham, on May 20,
1349.3 lie was buried privately at Canterbury.

His London residence, while chancellor, was in the parish
of St. Clement Danes.1 Both universities claim the honour

1 N. Feeders, ii. 880. 1239., iii. 18. 17G.

* Rot. Claim. 19 Kdw. III., p. 2. m. 10. 3 Ibid. 23 Edw. III., p. 1. DA. 10.

4 Ibid. 22 Kdw. III., p. '_'. m. 8.

476 ROBERT PARNING. Edw. III.

of his education; but that of Cambridge, in which he is
prayed for "in missa Benefactorum," seems to have the
preference.1

PARDISHOWE, THOMAS DE.

? Keeper, 1341.

Although the Great Seal is stated to have been placed by
Sir Robert Bourchier the chancellor, when he left London
on February 14, 1341, in the custody of Thomas de Pardis-
howe, under the seals of Thomas de Evesham, the master of
the Rolls, and Thomas de Brayton, it is clear from the terms
of the record, that the two latter only were appointed to
execute the functions of the office ; which they did till his
return on March 3.2 Pardishowe is called a clerk in the
Chancery, but there is no other entry of his name.

PARNING, ROBERT.

Just. C. P. Ch. K. B. 1340. Chanc. 1341.

Robert Parking was possessed of considerable property in
Cumberland, and was returned to Parliament in the last year
of the reign of Edward II., as one of the representatives of
that county. He was no doubt at. that time pursuing the
legal profession, for though his name does not appear in the
Year Book of that reign, it continually occurs from the first
to the thirteenth year of that of Edward III. He took the
state and degree of a serjeant-at-law in 3 Edward III.3, and
is mentioned as a king's serjeant in the eighth year. From
this time till he was called to the bench he frequently acted
as a judge of assize.

On May 23, 1340, 14 Edward III., he became a justice of
the Common Pleas ; but only remained in that court for two

1 Godwin de Prcesul. 111. ; Angl. Sac. i. 42. 375. 794.

2 Rot. Claus. 15 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 44. 3 Coke, 4th Inst. 79.

1327—1377. ROBERT PARNING. 477

months, being raised on July 24 in the same year to the
office of chief justice of the King's Bench in the place of
Richard de Willoughby. His presidency there, however, did
not continue longer than the 15th of the following December,
when he changed the office of chief justice for that of treasurer. l
Being distinguished, as Coke says, for his profound and
excellent knowledge of the laws, his elevation to the bench
can be well understood ; but the cause of his early removal
from a sphere in which he was so fitted to shine is not so
readily apparent. It arose, probably, from the king having as
high an opinion of his integrity as of his legal attainments ;
and occurred at the time when the royal displeasure was
exhibited by the sudden dismissal of his predecessor, Robert
de Northbury, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, from the
treasurership, and of Robert de Stratford, Bishop of Chichester,
from the office of chancellor.

Sir Robert Parning held his new position for little more
than ten months ; for on October 27, 1341, the Great Seal was
placed in his hands2, when the king was compelled by public
opinion to take it away from his military chancellor, Sir
Robert Bourchier. At this time he lived in Aldermanbury.
He continued chancellor till his death ; and it is remarkable
that, though there is no imputation against him for neglecting
his duties, he was still in the habit of attending the court of
Common Pleas to hear arguments there, and sometimes to
take part in them. Instances of this occur in the 34th and
51st cases in Hilary, 17 Edward III., and in several others in
the two following terms.

He died on August 26, 1348, 17 Edward III.3, leaving, by
his wife Isabella, a son named Adam, who succeeded to eight
manors and other property in the counties of Cumberland
and Northumberland.4

1 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 2 Rot. Claus. 15 Ed v. III., p. S. m

3 Ibid. 17 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 24.

• Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 202.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 110.

478

WILLIAM DE LA POLE.

Edw. III.

PERCEHAY, HENRY DE.

B. E. 1375.
See under the Reijm of Richard II.

PLESTE, ROBERT DE.
B. E. 1362.

No entry occurs in any of the published records relative to
Robert de Pleste, who, according to Dugdale's Chronica
Series, was a baron of the Exchequer in 1362, 36 Ed-
ward III. ; nor can we find any tiling of him or his family,
except that there was a William de Pleste, who, in the same
year, is called " attornatus regis."

POLE, WILLIAM, DE LA.

B. E. 1339.

In the newly rising port of Kingston-upon-Hull, was
established a rich merchant named William de la Pole. He
was the father of two sons, Richard and William, both of
whom rendered valuable pecuniary assistance to Edward II.
and Edward III. In the fifteenth year of the former reign,
Richard was appointed collector of the customs on wools in
that town ; and in 1 Edward III., 1327, was made the king's
chief butler, and gauger of wines. Two years afterwards, he
and his brother William received the manor of Miton, in
Holdernesse, from the king, in exchange for their half of the
manor of Lindeby, in Nottinghamshire, in consideration of
their " good services," the nature of which, with regard to
Richard, may be inferred from a royal undertaking, in 14 Ed-
ward III., to repay 13847. 35. 4d. he had advanced. Richard
died in the nineteenth year, leaving a son, William *, who
must not be confounded with the subject of the present notice.
William de la Pole, the brother of Richard, was born at

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 261., ii. 6. 35. 140. 174.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE LA POLE. 479

Ravenser, in the neighbourhood of Kingston-upon-Hull, to
which he ultimately removed. In the very first year of the
reign of Edward III., he had a grant of 4000/., out of the first
issues of the customs of that port, in payment of an advance
he had made to meet the royal necessities l ; and in the sixth
year, 1332, he sumptuously entertained the king when he
visited Kingston on his way to Scotland. On this occasion
he is said to have received the honour of knighthood, and to
have procured the title of mayor for the principal officer of
the town, being himself the first who bore it. The next
year he was one of those employed in a mission to Flanders,
and was several times engaged in similar duties during the six
following years.2 In 9 Edward III. he was constituted custos
of the exchanges of England, and receiver of the old and new
customs of Hull and Boston. The immediate consideration of
the last appointment was his undertaking to pay the expenses
of the king's household at the rate of 10/. a day.3 He was the
general agent for the crown with the trading interest, and was
commonly denominated the king's merchant. In the twelfth
year, Edward III. gave him a royal acknowledgment for
10,000/. advanced, and for 7500/. for which he had become
bound4; and, in the same year, in consideration of monies
paid by him in aid of the royal expenses, and for the defence
of the kingdom, the king granted him various manors in
Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, and afterwards invested
him with the order of knight banneret, adding other rents
for the support of the honour, together with a reversionary
assignment of 1000 marks of rent in France, when the king
recovered his rights there. Besides this, houses in Lombard
Street, London, which had belonged to the " Societas Bar-
dorum," were appended to the royal donation.5

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 11. 2 N. Fcedera, ii. 8G2— 908. 1085.

3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 97. 109. 4 N. Fcedera, ii. 1065.

8 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 123. 128. 142.

480 WILLIAM DE LA POLE. Edw. III.

Dugdale, in his Chronica Series, omits the appointment
of William de la Pole as a baron of the Exchequer, noticing
only his removal from the office ; but he supplies the omission
in his Baronage, by stating that he was constituted second
baron, on September 26, 1339, 13 Edw. III. There are two
other patents dated the same day, at Markoyn in France,
in which, though De la Pole has not this official desigation,
he is one of eight high officers to whom extensive powers
are granted for the purpose of raising funds to pay the royal
debts incurred in the French war.1 In the parliaments held
in the following October and April, he was present as one
of the judges2 ; but he was removed, or retired from his seat
on the bench, on June 21.

When Edward III. returned from Tournay, in November,
1340, grievously disappointed by the ill-success of his mi-
nisters in the collection of funds, William de la Pole was
among the sufferers from his indignation.3 He was im-
prisoned, and all his estates were taken into the king's hands.
The particular charge against him arose from a commission
which he and Reginald de Conductu, or Atte Conduit,
had received, as to the purchase and sale of wools for the
king's use.4 A judgment was given against them in the
Exchequer, but the whole process was annulled in the par-
liament of July, 1344, 18 Edward III.5

He lived for more than twenty years afterwards, highly
in the king's favour. The remainder of his life is principally
illustrated by his founding and liberally endowing an hospital
at Kingston-upon-Hull, which, in the last year of his life, he
obtained a license to convent into a religious house of nuns,
of the order of St. Clare.6 He died on April 21, 1366,

1 N. Foedera, ii. 1091. 8 Rot. Pari. ii. 103. 112.

3 Barnes's Edw. III., 212. * N. Foedera, ii. 988.

6 Rot. Pari. ii. 154. 6 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 286.

1327—1377. THOMAS DE RADECLYVE. 481

40 Edward III.1 By his wife Catherine, the daughter of
Sir John Norwich, who died in 5 Richard II., he had several
sons; Michael, afterwards Earl of Suffolk, who will be
noticed as chancellor in the next reign, Thomas, Edmund,
and Walter. His daughter, Blanche, was married to Richard
le Scrope, who was twice chancellor to Richard II.2

POWER, WALTER.

? Keeper, 1371.

Walter Power, clerk, who was one of the commissioners
of array for the counties of Bedford and Buckingham in
20 Edward III., held the manor of Brereby and other pro-
perty in Yorkshire, part of which he gave to the prior of the
convent of Monk Bretton. He was a clerk or master in
Chancery from 25 to 47 Edward III., 1351 — 1373; and in
that character was at the head of four in whose custody the
Great Seal was left on March 18, 1371, during the temporary
absence of the chancellor, Sir Robert de Thorpe.

He is noticed as holding the office of attorney-general to
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1366.3

RADECLYVE, THOMAS DE.

Just. Itin. 1330.

We take this Thomas de Radeclyve to have been a native of
Radcliff on Sore, in the county of Nottingham. As he was
summoned among the judges to the great council at West-
minster in 17 Edward II., he was probably of the legal
profession. He was the last named of six justices itinerant
into Bedfordshire in 4 Edward III., 1330; and was sub-

1 Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 274.

2 Dugdale's Baron, ii. 182.; Monast. vi. 20.; Burgon's Gresham, i. 56. ;
Allen's Yorkshire, iii. 12.

* N. Foedera, iii. 78. 483. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 220. ; Cal. Inquis. j>. m.,
ii. 172. ; Rot. Claus. 45 Edw. III., m. 35. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 225—317.

VOL. III. 1 1

482 JOHN RANDOJ/F. Edw. III.

sheriff of the county of Nottingham in the same year, as
appears by a complaint made against him in parliament, the
result of which is not recorded. In 8 Edward III. he granted
part of his lands at Radcliff for the support of the vicar of
Lokyngton, at which time he had a house and land at
Kynston, in the same county.1

RADENHALE, JOHN DE.

Just. Itin. 1329.

The parish of Radenhale, or Redenhale, in Norfolk, gave
name to this family, which also possessed property in Suffolk.
A Henry Redenhale was in the king's household, and was
paid 20/. to provide small pike, and ten marks to obtain
lampreys, from Gloucester for the coronation of Edward II.
John, who was perhaps his son, was employed in judicial
investigations in those counties in the latter years of that
monarch, and his name occurs in the Year Books as an
advocate in the first three years of Edward III. In the
last of these, 1329, he was appointed a justice itinerant,
and was sent into Northamptonshire; and he continued to
act in other counties till 7 Edward III.

Robert de Radenhale, parson of the parish of Eye, in
Suffolk, who gave the manor of Baventishalle, in that county,
for the support of a chaplain in 28 Edward III., was probably
his son.2

RANDOLF, JOHN.

Just. Itin. 1329.
See under the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II.

There were at this period two families named Randolf ;
one settled in Shropshire, and the other in Hampshire. This

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 1319.; Dugdale ; Rot. Pari. ii. 411.; Cal. Inquis. p. m.,
ii. 63.

2 Issue Roll, 1 Edw. II., 120, 121. ; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1319. ; Dugdale;
Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 190.

1327—1377. JOHN RANDOLF. 483

John Randolf belonged to the latter, and is first mentioned
in 13 Edward I., 1285, as one of the executors of William
de Braboef, the justice itinerant noticed in that reign. He
was connected with the Exchequer, and in 26 Edward I. was
appointed one of the commissioners to visit the sea-ports, and
enquire into the concealment of the customs on wool, &c.!
The only time his name appears in Dugdale's Chronica Series,
is as the third of five justices itinerant into Cornwall in 30
Edward I. ; but a document contained in the Rolls of parlia-
ment of 8 Edward II. proves not only that he acted for four
years as a justice of assize, as well as a justice itinerant in
the last circuit into Cornwall, but also that his salary for
these services then remained unpaid. This, however, pro-
bably arose from his being a debtor to the king for the issues
of the castle of Christchurch, and of the manors of Lyming-
ton, Edbrighton, and Bronmore, in the county of Hants,
which were in his custody, and from his being expected to
deduct his fee from them. On making up his account, it
appeared that he was indebted in the sum of 17/. Os. 4Jd.,
which he prayed to retain in part of his fee as justice, and
to have the remainder paid to him ; and he had an order to
obtain a writ of liberate from the Chancery, and then to
apply to the treasurer.2

In the first two years of the reign of Edward II. he had
been summoned to parliament among the judges, and was
employed in a variety of ways in a judicial character as late
as the thirteenth year, when he was commanded to cause his
proceedings as a justice of assize, or otherwise, to be estreated
into the Exchequer.3

Although we do not find him judicially mentioned for the
next seven years, there are several entries relative to him in
the interval; and in 2 Edward III. he was named on a

1 Madox's Exch. i. 231. 784. ■ Rot. Pari. i. SS9.

1 Pari. Writs, i. 799., ii. P. ii. 1323.

484 WILLIAM DE RETFORD. Emv. III.

commission to try certain malefactors of France charged
with molesting the merchants of Southampton. In the
following year, 1329, he was one of the justices itinerant
into Northamptonshire ; but after 4 Edward III., when he
had the custody of the castle and manor of Porchester com-
mitted to him, he is not again noticed. We believe William
Randolf, of Laverstoke, in Wiltshire, to have been his son.1

RAVENSER, RICHARD DE, Archdeacon of Lincoln.

? Keeper, 1377.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

RETFORD, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1354.

It is highly probable that William de Retford was the son of
Robert de Retford, the justice itinerant of the last reign.
The document by which he was appointed keeper of the great
wardrobe, is on the Roll of Nottinghamshire, the county to
which that Robert belonged. This is dated in 23 Ed-
ward III. ; and by a mandate as to the purchase of certain
materials for the king's use issued two years previously, and
countersigned as by his advice and testimony, it appears that
he then held a place in the royal household. He is there
called " clericus." He was raised to the Exchequer bench as
a baron on November 27, 1354, 28 Edward III. ; and is
mentioned as a justice of assize in 32 Edward III., in Serjeant
Benloe's Reports. The period of his death or retirement we
have not been able to discover.2

RICHMOND, Archdeacon of. See R. de Wodehouse.

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 284., ii. 41. 81. ; N. Fcedera, ii. 751. ; Dugdale.
* Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 205.; N. Fcedera, iii. 114.; Dugdale.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE SADINGTON. 485

SADINGTON, ROBERT DE.

Ch. B. E. 1337. Chancellor, 1343. Ch. B. E. 1345.

Although it has been suggested, in the notices of two judges
in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward L, that the names
Shottindon and Sodington may be only varieties of that of
Sadington l, there is nothing positive to prove that it is so ;
and we cannot find any evidence that they and the subject
of the present notice are of the same family. Robert de
Sadington was clearly so called from a place of that name
in Leicestershire ; and, we conceive, was the son of John de
Sadington, in the household (valettus) of Queen Isabella,
by whose request the custody of the hundred of Gertre, in
that county, was committed to him.2

This connection may probably account for Robert's first
employment about the court. In 3 Edward III. he was com-
missioned, with the sheriff of Leicester and another, to sell the
corn in certain manors which had fallen into the king's hands ;
and his name occurs in the Year Books as an advocate from
that to the tenth year, during which period he was placed on
two or three commissions of enquiry.3 It does not appear,
however, that he held the degree of a serjeant-at-law.

Soon after the death of Henry le Scrope, chief baron of the
Exchequer, he was appointed to that office, his patent being
dated March 20, 1337, 11 Edward III.; and Prynne says,
that he was the first chief baron whom he finds summoned
to parliament, meaning, we presume, by that specific title.4
On July 25, 1339, he acted as the locum tenens of William
de Zouche, the treasurer, then abroad ; and from May 2
to June 21, 1340, he held the office of treasurer.5 During
this time he still continued chief baron; and, as the court
was then constituted, there was no solid objection to his

1 Robert de Shottindon, ii. 474. ; Thomas de Sodington, ante, p. 154.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 243. * Ibid. ii. 29. 107. ; N. Foedera, ii. 829. 840.
* Prynne, on 4th Inst. p. 4. * Dugdale's Chron, S.

I I 3

486 ROBERT DE SADINGTON. Edw. Ill-

holding both offices. His removal from the treasurership was,
perhaps, fortunate for him, as he otherwise would probably
have been swept away with the rest on King Edward's angry
return from Tournay in the following November.

On September 29, 1343, a month after Sir Robert Par-
ning's death, the Great Seal was delivered to Robert de
Sadington, as chancellor.1 He held it for about two years.
During his time, there is a curious entry of the seizure, by
the mayor and bailiffs of Sandwich, of nine bulls and nu-
merous letters and processes from the Roman court, attempted
to be surreptitiously introduced into the kingdom "in quadam
linea tela cerata inclusos ; " and of their being delivered by
the chancellor, in "full Chancery at Westminster," to the
chamberlain of the Exchequer, to be kept in the treasury.2

If Lord Campbell's depreciatory paragraph, with its mar-
ginal stigma on the chancellor as a " bad equity judge," is
founded on nothing more (and he gives us no other au-
thority) than Coke's silence as to his merits, we fear that such
a reason might go further than the noble author intended ;
and we acknowledge that we find no trace of his being more
deficient or less successful than his contemporaries. The
cause of his resignation of the Seal on October 26, 1345 3, is
not given ; and, from anything that appears, it was quite as
likely to have arisen from political as from legal motives.
His reinstatement as chief baron of the Exchequer, on the
8th of the following December, seems to exclude the idea
that he was inefficient as a judge.

In the next year he was appointed one of the custodes of
the principality of Wales, the duchy of Cornwall, and the
earldom of Chester, during the minority of the king's son,
Edward, Prince of Wales.4 In 1347 he was the head of the
commission assigned "ad judicium ferendum," that is to
say, to sentence and to execute the Earls of Menteith and

1 Rot. Claus. 17 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 26. - N. Foedera, iii. 25.

1 Rot. Claus. 19 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 10. 4 Cal. Rot. Pat. 154.

1327—1377. JOHN DE ST. PAUL. 487

Fife, taken with King David in the battle of NeviFs Cross,
in which they are described as traitors to Edward de Balliol,
King of Scotland. In the following year he went the
circuit into Kent.1 Though there is no distinct entry of his
death, it probably took place in the first quarter of 1350,
24 Edward III. In that year he had a grant of the
custody of the lands of William Botreaux, in Sadington, in
Leicestershire, during the minority of the heir; and his
successor as chief baron, Gervase de Wilford, having been
appointed on April 7, his name no more appears.

He married Joyce, the sister and heir of Richard de
Martival, Bishop of Salisbury ; and John de Sadington,
mentioned in 37 Edward III., was probably his son.2

ST. DAVID'S, Bishop of. See J. de Thoresbt.
ST. MARTIN'S, London, Dean of. See W. de Melton,
W. of Wtkeham.

ST. PAUL, JOHN DE, Archdeacon of Cornwall, Arch-
bishop of Dublin.

? Keepeu, 1334. M. R. 1337. Keeper, 1340.

The family of John de St. Paul had property in the county
of York ; and it is not improbable that he was the son of
Robert de St. Paul, lord of the township of Byram, who was
one of the adherents of the Earl of Lancaster in the reign of
Edward II.3 John was a clerk in the Chancery, and is the
last named of three of those officers to whom the custody of
the Great Seal was entrusted at York, from January 13 to
February 17, 1334, during the temporary absence of John
de Stratford, the chancellor.4

1 N. Foedera, iii. 108. 177.

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 210. 230.; Nicholl's Leicestershire, 192. ; Dug<lale's
Chron. Series.

* Par). Writs, ii. P. ii. 1387. * Rot. Claus. 7 Edw. III., p. 2. in. J.

i I 1

488

JOHN DE ST. PAUL.

Edw. III.

On April 28, 1337, he was constituted master of the
Rolls in the place of Michael de Wath1 : and in the next year
hired the Bishop of Exeter's house, near St. Clement's church
in the Strand, afterwards Essex House.2 In 13 Edward III.
the House of Converts, in Chancery Lane, was granted to him
for life.3 While he held the office of master of the Rolls, the
Great Seal was twice deposited with him and other clerks ;
viz., from July 6 to 19, 1338, and from December 8, 1339, to
February 16, 1340 : but on the latter day he was appointed
sole custos till the restoration of Archbishop Stratford on
April 28. He again held it for a short time on the resig-
nation of the archbishop in the following June.4

On the king's hurried return from the siege of Tournay,
John de St. Paul was one of the victims of his indignation.
He was charged with some malversation in his office, and cast
into prison; but he obtained his release as a clergyman
through the intervention of Archbishop Stratford. He how-
ever was deprived of the custody of the Rolls on Decem-
ber 2, two days after the king's arrival in England.5 The royal
anger did not long continue ; for though St. Paul was not
restored to the mastership of the Rolls, which had been given
to Thomas de Evesham, he after a little wThile was allowed
to resume his old position among the masters in Chancery.
On the death of the chancellor Parning on August 26, 1343,
he was again one of the three to whom the seal was en-
trusted till the appointment of Robert de Sadington on
September 29.6

In 1346 he was made Archdeacon of Cornwall7; and about
the month of October, 1349, was elected Archbishop of
Dublin. He presided there for thirteen years, the con •

1 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 13. - Cal. Rot. Pat. 132.

3 Rot. Pat. 13 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 10. 4 Hardy's Catal.

» Barnes' Edw. III., 217. ; Angl. Sac. i. 20.; Rot. Claus. 14 Edw. III.,
p. 2. m. 10.

e Rot. Claus. 17 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 24. 7 Le Neve, 94.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE SCARDEBURGH. 489

tinuance of the king's confidence being shown by his appoint-
ment, in 1359, to assist the justiciary in the government of
Ireland. His death occurred in 1362, when he was succeeded
as archbishop by Thomas Minot.1

SCARDEBURGH, ROBERT DE.

Just. K. B. 1334. Just. C. P. 1339. Just. K. B. 1341.

It has been generally believed that Robert de Scardeburgh,
the justice, and Robert de Scorburg, the baron of the Ex-
chequer, were one and the same person. The names Scord,
Scorb, and Scharde, frequently occurring among the advocates
in the Year Books of Edward II. and Edward III., it is
difficult to distinguish whether one or two persons are meant ;
and as neither of these abbreviations appear after the sixth
year of the latter reign, it was not unreasonable to suppose
that they were variations of the name of one individual who
was about that period raised to the bench. It is certain,
however, that they were two persons, although the latter
was sometimes called by the former's name ; and that the first
derived his name from Scarborough, in the North Riding of
Yorkshire, while the last obtained his, as we shall show in
our account of him, from Scorbrough, in the East Riding.
Their disappearance as advocates from the Year Books
arises from their both receiving judicial appointments nearly
at the same time ; Scardeburgh, in Ireland, in 1331-2, and
Scorburgh, in England, in 1332.

Robert de Scardeburgh stands at the head of a commission
of assize into the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and
Alderney, in 5 Edward III.2 ; and at the close of that year,
1331, he was made chief justice of the Common Pleas in
Ireland, in which character he is mentioned two years after-

1 N. Fcedera, iii. 190. 433. ; Holinshed, vi. 44.
■ Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 57.

490 ROBERT DE SCORBURGH. Er>w. 111.

wards.1 In 8 Edward III. he was superseded in that office
by Richard Fitz-Simon, and his services were transferred to
the Court of King's Bench in England, of which he was con-
stituted a judge on September 14, 1334.2

He was in a commission of array for York in 13 Ed-
wardlll.3; and on September 6, in that year, 1339, he changed
his seat in the King's Bench, with John de Shardelowe, for
the latter's place as a judge of the Common Pleas. In this
court, however, he remained little more than a year, resuming
his seat in the King's Bench on January 8, 1341, and
retaining it for nearly four years. He was then, in 18 Ed-
ward III., 1344, restored to his former position of chief
justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland4 ; and in the same
year two new Seals were for the first time provided, by the
advice of the council, for sealing the judicial writs of the two
benches there, the custody of which was granted to him, with
the fees appertaining to the duty.5 His history terminates
here, for his name is not again mentioned.

SCORBURGH, ROBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1330. B. E. 1332.

That Robert de Scorburgh took his name from Scorbrough,
in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and that he was sometimes
called by the name of Robert de Scardeburgh, will be appa-
rent from the two following facts. Under the name of
Scorburgh he had a license in 17 Edward II. to assign a lay
fee in Beverley and Etton ; and on his death, in 14 Ed-
ward III., he is described, under the name of Scardeburgh, as
possessing the manor of Scorby, and also property in Stamford
Bridge and Etton, both of which are in the East Riding, and
in the neighbourhood of Beverley and Scorbrough.6 We

1 Cal. Rot. Pat. 113. 117. 2 Ibid. 120.

8 N. Foedera, ii. 105. 4 Cal. Rot. Pat. 135. 149.

5 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 166. 6 Ibid. i. 274., ii. 136.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE SCORBURGH. 491

cannot, however, agree with the learned editor of the Par-
liamentary Writs and of the Index to the Rolls of Parliament
in interpreting both the names Scardeburgh and Scorburgh
as meaning Scarborough, in the North Riding; and no
question can be entertained that Robert de Scorburgh and
his contemporary, Robert de Scardeburgh, were not the same
individual. Robert de Scorburgh 's connection with the law
appears from his being employed on special commissions in
Yorkshire in 16 and 20 Edward II. ; the former being for
the trial of offenders chasing the deer in the archbishop's park
at Beverley.1 In both of these commissions he is called
Scorburgh, and is evidently added to the regular judges, as a
serjeant is in the present day. In 18 Edward II. he was
appointed also on a commission of enquiry, his name being
then spelled Scoreburgh. Again, in 2 Edward III. there is
a petition to parliament by the people of " Scartheburgh,"
relative to a trial before Robert de Scoresburgh and his com-
panions, justices of Oyer and Terminer in that town2; and in
the fourth year he was amongst the justices itinerant into
Derbyshire, as Scorburgh.3

He was raised to the bench of the Exchequer on Novem-
ber 2, 1332, 6 Edward III., the record calling him Scorburgh,
by which name he received knighthood in the same year.4
He is also so named, in the following year, in the record
commissioning him to treat with the Earl of Flanders.5

After this we hear nothing of him till his death in 14 Ed-
ward III., when it appears, by the document above referred to,
that his property was committed to the custody of Wolfand
de Clistere, because Thomas, his son and heir, was an idiot.

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1406. ■ Rot. Pari. i. 420., ii. 28.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Series. * Dugdale's Orig. 102.

* N. Foedera, ii. 875.

492 WILLIAM SCOTT. Edw. III.

SCOTHOU, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1348.

Except in Dugdale's list of justices itinerant for Kent in
22 Edward III., 1348, we find no reference whatever to
William de Scothou, who probably took his name from a
parish so called in Norfolk. A Peter de Scothow was
returned member for Norwich in 12 Edward II.1

SCOTT, WILLIAM.

Just. C. P. 1337. Just. K. B. 1339. Ch. K. B. 1341.

The name of Scott was so common even at this early period,
that it is difficult to speak with certainty of the family of
this William Scott. If H. Philipps, in his Grandeur of the
Law, 1684, is right in saying that Sir Thomas Scott, then of
Scott's Hall, in Kent, was descended from him, it would
seem that the original name of the family was Baliol, and
that William, the brother of John Baliol, King of Scotland,
who frequently wrote his name as William de Baliol le Scot,
after the contest for the crown in the reign of Edward I.
had terminated in his brother's overthrow, politically dropped
his patronymic, and retained only the national addition he
had assumed. In the reign of Edward III. this family was
seated in the parish of Braborne, in Kent ; and it was not till
Henry VI. 's time that they removed to Scott's Hall, a manor
in the neighbouring parish of Smeeth.2

William Scott was a pleader in the courts from 3 Ed-
ward III., and was made one of the king's Serjeants in the
eighth year. On March 18, 1337, 11 Edward III., he was
raised to the bench of the Common Pleas ; but was removed
into the King's Bench on May 2, 1339 ; and when Robert

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. i. 205. : Hasted's Kent, viii. 5.

1327—1377. GEOFFREY LE SCROPE. 493

Parning was made treasurer in 14 Edward III., William
Scott succeeded him as chief justice of that court on Ja-
nuary 8, 1341.

Dugdale, who transfers him to the Common Pleas as chiei
justice there on April 27 in the following year, has no
doubt mistaken the expression in the liberate Roll which
he quotes as authority ; inasmuch as no new chief justice of
the King's Bench was then appointed in William Scott's
stead, and he is specially noticed as still holding that office in
20 Edward III., the year of his death1 ; besides which, no
fines appear to have been levied before him after he left the
Common Pleas in 13 Edward III.2

One Humphrey Hunney, probably a discontented suitor,
having complained that the chief justice had awarded an
assize contrary to law, was imprisoned, judged, fined, and
ransomed for the offence.3

His descendants numbered among them many eminent in
offices of trust, as well in the state as in the county : and Sir
John Scott, chief baron of the Exchequer in the reign of
Henry VIII., is said to have been of the same family,
which was not extinct at the end of the last century.

SCROPE, GEOFFREY LE.

Ch. K. B. 1328, 1330, 1332, 1337. Just. C. P. 1334.
See under the Reign of Edward IT.

Sir Harris Nicolas, who has carefully investigated the
history of this family 4, is of opinion that the first person who
is recorded to have borne the name of Scrupe, or Scrope, was
a native of Normandy. In the reign of Henry II. they had
baronial possessions in Gloucestershire ; and, in that of Ed-

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 179. 2 Dugdale's Orig. 45.

s State Trials, ii. 1024.

4 Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor in the
court of Chivalry, 1385 — 1390; by Sir Harris Nicolas.

494

GEOFFREY LE SCROPE.

Edw. II]

ward I., large estates in Yorkshire also ; comprehending, in
the latter county, lands in East Boulton, Little Boulton,
Fencotes, and Yarnewick.

Geoffrey le Scrope was the second son of Sir William
le Scrope, a knight distinguished both in tournaments and
the field, by his wife Constance, who is presumed to have
been the daughter and heiress of Thomas, the son of Gillo de
Newsom upon Tyne. Their eldest son was Henry, the sub-
ject of the next notice.

The earliest reference we have to Geoffrey is in a deed
dated July 27, 1310, 4 Edward II., by which William de
Brakenbury granted him part of a certain rent out of the
mill of Thirsk, in Yorkshire. In the ninth year of that reign,
March, 1316, he certified as possessing property in various
townships of that county.

In the parliament held in January of the latter year he is
mentioned as suing for the king ; and a grant was made to
him of 207. for his expenses, in the liberate of which, accord-
ing to Dugdale, he is called serjeant. In that character
he was evidently summoned to the councils and parliaments
of the seven subsequent years; and was also occasionally
added to some judicial commissions for the trial of offenders.
Dugdale has inadvertently inserted his name in the list of
judges of the King's Bench in 9 Edward II., though he has
taken no notice of such a fact in his sketch of him in the
Baronage. There is no doubt, however, that this is an error,
as he is described as one of the king's Serjeants in 14 and
16 Edward II., and as attornatus Regis in the former year1,
in the wardrobe account of which, also, there is an entry of
the payment of 137. 6s. 8d. " To Geoffry le Scrop, king's
serjeant, staying near the person of the king by his order,
when journeying through divers parts of England in the

Abbrev. Placit. 351.

1327—1377. GEOFFREY LE SCROPE. 495

months of April, May, and June, in the present fourteenth
year, of the king's gift, for his expenses in so staying." l In
14 and 16 Edward II. he was employed in negotiating with
the Scots.2

It was not till September 27, 1323, 17 Edward II., that
he was raised to the bench, when he was constituted a judge
of the Common Pleas, and fines were levied before him till
the following Hilary Term.a On March 21, 1324, he was
promoted to the chief justiceship of the King's Bench 4
in the room of Hervey de Staunton ; and he presided in that
court till the end of the reign.

He was certainly removed from the office on the accession
of Edward III., which not improbably arose from a suspicion
of his being a partisan of the Despencers and Baldock, the
chancellor. This seems likely, from the fact that his murder,
as well as theirs, was one of the alleged objects of the con-
spiracy of Roger Mortimer and others in the beginning of
the year 1324.5 Whatever was the reason of his non-appoint-
ment, he soon succeeded in clearing himself by the testimony
of the peers, and was reinstated on February 28, 1328, 2 Ed-
ward III. His services were so highly appreciated by his
sovereign, that they were frequently employed in diplomatic
engagements, which obliged him for a time to resign his
place in the court. Thus, when Edward went to France in
May, 1329, 3 Edward III., Robert de Malberthorpe and
his brother, Henry le Scrope, were successively substituted
for him till December 19, 1330, when he was re-appointed.
Again, Richard de Wilughby held his place from March 28
till September 20, 1332, 6 Edward III. ; and, on a third oc-
casion, Richard de Wilughby took his seat on September 10,
1333, in consequence of Geoffrey le Scrope being about

1 Archaeologia, xxvi. 345. 2 N. Foedera, ii. 434 — 524.

8 Dugdale's Orig. 45. 4 Rot. Claus. 17 Edw. II., m. 20.

5 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 244.

496 GEOFFREY LE SCROPE. Edw. III.

to go on a foreign embassy. But in February, 1334, the
King's Bench was ordered by the parliament at York to
stay in Warwickshire after Easter next; "for that Sir
Geoffrey le Scroop, chief justice, is busie in the king's
weighty affairs, whose place to supply Sir Richard Wi-
lughby is appointed." 1

Dugdale quotes a patent of July 16, 1334, 8 Edward III.,
by which Scrope was constituted second justice of the Common
Pleas, in the place of John de Stonore, with an exemption
annexed from being called upon to go out of the kingdom
against the king's enemies against his will.2 As no fines appear
to have been levied before him, he probably did not long re-
main in that court, and certainly was not one of its eight judges
enumerated by Dugdale in 1 1 Edward III.3 It was perhaps
about this time that he resumed his place as chief justice of
the King's Bench, which he certainly held on April 4, 1338,
12 Edward III., when the nomination of two new judges was
directed to him in that character.4 He is mentioned in the
Book of Assizes in the same year ; and ultimately resigned his
office before the following October, a payment being then
made to him as " nuper capitalis justiciarius." 5

He was employed by both his sovereigns to treat with the
Scots, and by Edward III. to assist in the negotiations re-
lative to the marriages between his sister Eleanor and the
French king's eldest son, and between John, the son of the
Earl of Kent, and a daughter of one of the French nobles.
After his retirement from the King's Bench he was engaged
in many other diplomatic missions on behalf of the king, in
one of which he is styled " Secret arius noster." 6

But it was not only as a lawyer and negotiator that he was
distinguished ; he made himself equally prominent as a knight

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 377. 2 Cal. Rot. Pat. 118.

3 Dugdale's Orig. 39. * Rot. Claus. 12 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 11

3 Liber. 12 Edw. III., m. 4. 6 Nicolas's Scrope Controversy, ii. 102.

1327—1377. GEOFFREY LE SCHOPE. 497

and a soldier. At the tournaments held at Northampton,
Guilford, and Newmarket, at the first of which lie was
knighted, he gained great distinction. He accompanied the
king in the invasion of Scotland, and displayed his banner
and pennon at the affair of Stannow Park. He was one of
the royal retinue several times in Flanders and France, with
a train of two knights and forty men-at-arms ; and he served
at the siege of Tournay in July 1340, 14 Edward III. The
explanation of his presence on that occasion, given by Sir
Ralph Ferrers, one of the witnesses examined on the Scrope
and Grosvenor controversy in 1385-90, is clearly a miscon-
ception. He says that " it was the custom in early times in
royal expeditions made by the king, in places where he
claimed prerogative, to take with him his chief justice of the
King's Bench, to execute his office as others perform theirs,
so that Sir Geoffrey Scrope, the king's chief justice, was
there ; and the king ordered him to raise his banner at the
said siege ; and he had beneath his banner, in his retinue,
forty lances," one of whom was his eldest son, Sir Henry.
Certainly the practice was not sufficiently common to war-
rant the assertion ; and the fact was clearly not as stated ;
for, so far from Geoffrey le Scrope being then chief justice,
in that very month Robert Parning was substituted for
Richard de Wilughby, who had succeeded Geoffrey in that
office six years before.

An anecdote is related of a characteristic revenge which
he took of Cardinal Bernard de Monte Faventio, during those
wars, for some insulting remarks he had made to the king in
reference to the strength of the French. He brought him
one night into a high tower, and, pointing to the frontiers
of France, in flames for several leagues, he said, "My lord,
what thinketh your eminence now ? Doth not this silken
line wherewith you say France is incompassed seem in great
danger of being cracked, if not broken ?" The cardinal was

VOL. III. K K

498 GEOFFREY LE SCROPE. Edw. III.

struck speechless, and dropped down apparently lifeless with
fear and sorrow.

He received many grants from both Edward II. and Ed-
ward III. in reward for his services. From the former,
charters of free warren over his estates ; a licence to castellaie
his house at Clifton upon Yore, in Yorkshire; and a market
and fair for Burton-Constable, with a confirmation of the
manor of Eltham-Maundeville, in Kent, which had been
granted to him by Sir Gilbert de Aton. From the latter,
free warren over other lands, including the manor of Masham,
in Yorkshire, which he had lately purchased, and for which
he obtained a market and two annual fairs. Besides some
temporary holdings, he obtained the manors of Boudon and
Harebourgh, in Leicestershire, to hold in fee farm at a rent of
61. 6s. 7c/.1 And, lastly, in 14 Edward III., he was created a
banneret, and had a grant of 200 marks per annum for the
support of that dignity ; a confirmation of which was made in
the reign of Henry IV. to his grandson Stephen, who in sub-
stitution of it received certain lands, and an annuity of 20/.
payable by the burgesses of Hull.2

He did not long survive this last honour, but died in the
same year at Ghent, in Flanders. His body was removed to
Coversham, where it was buried, in the church of the abbey,
under a tomb on which his effigy was placed.

He married first, Ivetta, daughter of Sir William Roos, of
Igmanthorp ; and secondly, as it is believed, Lora, daughter
and co-heiress of Sir Gerard de Furnival, and widow of Sir
John Uflete. By the latter he had no children ; but by the
former he had five sons and three daughters. His eldest
daughter, Beatrix, was married to Sir Andrew Lutterell ; his
second, Constance, to Sir Geoffrey Lutterell, Sir Andrew's
brother ; and his third, Ivetta, to John de Hothom.

1 Abbrcv. Rot. Orig. ii. 111. 2 Report on Peerage, i. 354.

1327—1377. HENRY LE SCROrE. 499

His second son, Sir Thomas, died during his father's life ;
his third and fourth sons, Sir William and Sir Stephen, dis-
tinguished soldiers, were both present at the battle of Cressy ;
and his youngest son, Geoffrey, became a priest, and held
some dignities in the church.

His eldest son, Sir Henry le Scrope, who was governor of
Guisnes and Calais, was summoned to parliament as a baron
in 1342, and was generally called Lord Scrope, of Masham.
His descendants held the title till 1517, when, on the death
of the ninth lord without issue, it fell into abeyance among
his three sisters.1

SCROPE, HENRY LE.

Just. C. P. 1327. Cir. K. B. 1329. Ch. B. E. 1330.
See under the Reign of Edward 1 1.

Henry le Scrope was the eldest son and heir of Sir
William le Scrope, and Constance, his wife. Like his
brother, the last mentioned Geoffrey, he was distinguished
both as a knight and a lawyer. No mention of him, that
we have found, occurs before 27 Edward I., when he obtained
the king's licence for a market and fair in his manor of Croft,
in Yorkshire.

His name appears as an advocate in the Year Book of
1 Edward II. ; and in the next year, on November 27, 1308,
lie was raised to the bench of the Common Pleas. Fines
were levied before him in that character from the following
Easter till Trinity, 10 Edward II."2; and during the same in-
terval he frequently acted as a judge of assize and on various
criminal commissions. The king's pecuniary pressure at that
period is shown by the application he made in 1311 to the
executors of Henry do Lacy, the late Earl of Lincoln, of

1 Dugdale's Baron, i. 657.; Chron. Series; Pari. Writs, ii. 1409. J Nicolas'
Synopsis, and Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy, ii. 3. 10. 95 — 104.

2 Dugdale's Oiig. 44.

K K S

500 HENRY LE SCROrE. Edw. III.

whom Henry le Scrope was one, for a loan of 4000 marks
out of his assets.

He was promoted to the office of chief justice of the King's
Bench, in the room of William Inge, on June 15, 1317, 10
Edward II. This place he retained for above six years, and
was then superseded, about September, 1323, 17 Edward II.,
by Hervey de Staunton, who after a few months made way
for Henry's brother, Geoffrey le Scrope. Some confusion
often arises in the reports in the Year Books from the diffi-
culty of distinguishing which brother is referred to.

The cause of his removal is nowhere related, nor whether
it was at his own request. That it was occasioned by no
dissatisfaction on the king's part may be inferred from his
being constituted, in the same year, custos of the forests
beyond Trent, an office which he still retained at the com-
mencement of the next reign.1

Within a few days after the accession of Edward III., viz.,
on February 5, 1327, Sir Henry le Scrope had a patent con-
stituting him second justice of the Common Pleas, — the first
instance of such a designation being adopted ; and the fines
acknowledged before him, after his restoration to his place in
that court, extended to Hilary in the third year. It was not,
however, till October 28 in that year, 1329, that he changed
his position for that of chief justice of the King's Bench, to
which he was then re-appointed during the temporary absence
of his brother, Geoffrey le Scrope, who, upon his return,
superseded him on December 19 in the following year.

His judicial services, however, were too valuable to be
lost ; for on the same day he was made chief baron of the
Exchequer, displacing John de Stonore ; and he continued
on that bench during the remainder of his life. There

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 271.; Rot. Pari. ii. 10. The former says, "citra
Trentam ; " but the latter, " della Trente ; " which is more probably correct.
See also N. Fcedera, ii. 578.

1327—1377. HENRY LE SCROrE. 501

are, it is true, two patents bearing date respectively the
18th and 49th of November, 1333, 7 Edward III., by the
former of which he is constituted chief justice of the Common
Pleas, and by the latter chief baron of the Exchequer. From
this we can only infer that the removal into the Common
Pleas was without his consent, and the restoration to the
Exchequer at his solicitation ; the more especially as William
de Herle, whom he was to have superseded in the former
court, was immediately replaced.

Among the royal rewards for his good services, Edward II.
granted him a rent of forty-seven shillings and ninepence, in
Medbum, in Leicestershire, and the advowson of the church
there 1 ; and afterwards all the hereditaments which Andrew
de Harcla, Earl of Carlisle, possessed in Caldwell and
Uckerby, in Lincolnshire. Edward III. gave him a messuage
in Bay ford, in Hertfordshire, with a carucate and thirty
acres of land there.2 Besides these and some other grants,
he obtained charters of free warren over his estates, and a
licence for a fair and market in his manor of Wenslay,
Yorkshire. He was also made a knight banneret.

His death occurred on September 7, 1336, 10 Edward III.,
leaving very considerable possessions in Middlesex, Leicester-
shire, Hertfordshire, Rutlandshire, and Bedfordshire, but
chiefly in the county of York. He was buried in the abbey
of St. Agatha, at Easby, near Richmond in the latter county,
of which he was esteemed the founder, having purchased the
property of the family of the Earl of Richmond, and been a
large contributor to the house. Three years before his death
he converted all the services by which the abbey had hitherto
held his lands into that of finding a priest to celebrate divine
service in the church of the Holy Trinity, at Wenslay, for
the souls of himself, his father, and his brother Geoffrey, and

1 Abbrev. ltot. Orig. i. 205. * Ibid. ii. 1J.

K K

502 THOMAS DE SETONE. Einv. III.

their respective wives and heirs, and for the soul of Henry
de Lacy, formerly Earl of Lincoln.

His wife's name was Margaret, but there is a doubt
whether she was the daughter of Lord Roos or of Lord Fitz-
Walter. She afterwards married Sir Hugh Mortimer, of
Chelmarsh, in Shropshire, and of Luton, in Bedfordshire, and
lived till 1357.

They left three sons, all of whom were minors at the time
of their father's death. "William and Stephen, the two
elder, died without issue before 19 Edward III. ; in which
year the inheritance devolved on the third son, Richard, the
first Baron Scrope of Bolton, who will be noticed among the
chancellors in the reign of Richard II.1

SETONE, THOMAS DE.

Just. K. B. 1354. Just. C. I\ 1355. Ch. K. B. 1357.

The Year Books contain the name of Thomas de Setone for
ten years before he was raised to the bench. He was one of
the king's Serjeants in 19 Edward III., and as such was
summoned to parliament. In the same year he applied to
the council, on behalf of the community of the bishoprick of
Durham, to forego the iter there for that year; and he ob-
tained his prayer on their paying 600 marks for the favour.2
Dugdale places him as a judge of the King's Bench in 28 Ed-
ward III., and of the Common Pleas in 29 Edward III., with-
out any date of appointment to either. He may, however,
have been mistaken, as the authority he quotes is the liberate
Roll, in which the word " bancum " sometimes applies to
both courts. He was certainly a judge of one of them in
April, 1354, 28 Edward III., for he was one of the triers of
petitions in the parliament then held3 ; and he was a judge of
the Common Pleas in Michaelmas, 1355, 29 Edward III., for

1 Dugdale's Baronage, i. 654.; Monast. vi. 921.; Chron. Series.; Sir Harris
Nicolas' Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy, ii. 11 — 15.

2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 177. 3 Rot- Pari. ii. 254.

1327—1377. JOHN DE SIIAItDELOWE. 503

fines were then acknowledged before him : and it appears
probable that he was appointed to this court between the pre-
vious Hilary and Trinity terms, as the list in the Year Book
omits his name in the former, and includes it in the latter
term.

On July 5, 1357, 31 Edward III., he was made chief
justice of the King's Bench in the room of William de Share-
shull then retiring ; but it would seem, from the words " ad
tempus " in the mandate, that it was at that time a mere
temporary appointment; and, from the fact that his name ap-
pears on fines up to Midsummer, 33 Edward III,, we may
infer that he acted up to that date as a judge of the Common
Pleas also; especially as in the same year he is designated by
the latter title, when he was admitted of the king's secret
council. Thus it was not till afterwards that he was per-
manently fixed in the presidency of the King's Bench ; but
there is no doubt that he then held it till the thirty-eighth
year; when, on May 24, 1360, Henry Green was appointed
his successor.1

SHARDELOWE, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1332. Just. K. B. 1339. Just. C. P. 1342.

The burial-place of the Shardelowes was in the church of
Thompson, in Norfolk : there the ancestors of John de Shar-
delowe were interred, and there both he and his wife reposed :
there also his two sons founded a chapel dedicated to
St. James at the altar of St. Martin. Besides possessions in
this county, he had manors in Suffolk and Cambridge, and
considerable property in the latter.

His name appears as an advocate in the Year Books of
Edward II. and the early part of Edward III. He was
raised to the bench of the Common Pleas, in the room of

1 Dugdale's Orlg. 4 5.; and Citron. Scries; C'al. Hot. Pat 171.
K K 4

504

WILLIAM DE SHARESHULL.

Eday. III.

Thomas Bacon,, on January 28, 1332, 6 Edward III., on
which occasion lie was created a knight of the Bath. Dug-
dale says, that he exchanged his court with Robert de Scar-
deburgh for that of the King's Bench, on September 6, 1339.
Yet the same author states that fines continued to be levied
before him till a month after Michaelmas, 1340, 14 Ed-
ward III. ; and this being a duty solely devolving on judges
of the Common Pleas, it would seem that his absence from
the court was but temporary. It was about the latter period
that Edward III. returned to England from Tournay, and
visited upon his ministers his disappointment at the failure
of supplies. Shardelowe, in whichever court he then acted,
was one of the victims, being removed from his office, and im-
prisoned. The charge against him does not appear ; but, in
little more than a year, he was restored to his place in the
Common Pleas, his patent being dated May 16, 1342, 16 Ed-
ward III. He was a trier of petitions in the parliament of
the next year, and died in 18 Edward III.

He left two sons, John and Thomas, the latter of whom we
take to have been attorney-general in 40 Edward III. The
family continued to flourish in Norfolk till 11 Henry VI.,
1433, when it failed for want of male issue.1

SHARESHULL, WILLIAM DE.

Just. K. B. 1333. Just. C. P. 1333, 1342. Ch. B. E. 1344.
Just. C. P. 1345. Ch. K. B. 1350.

The manor of Shareshull, where William de Shareshull was
born, is in the county of Stafford. He was brought up to
the law, and is mentioned among the advocates in the Year
Book of Edward II. In 5 Edward III. he was a king's
Serjeant, and in the next year was one of the council whom

1 Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 476. 625 — 630. ; Dugdale's Orig. 39. 45. 102. ; and
Chron. Series; Barnes' Edward IT I., 212.; Rot. Pari. ii. 135.; Cal. Inquis.
p.m., ii. 117.

1327—1377. WILLIAM L>E SHARESHULL. 505

the king selected to advise him * ; being about the same time
invested with the knighthood of the Bath.

On March 20, 1333, 7 Edward III., he was constituted a
judge of the King's Bench; but remained in that court for
little more than two months, being removed into the Com-
mon Pleas on the 30th of May following. His continuance
on the bench was interrupted in December, 1340, 14 Ed-
ward III., by his dismissal and imprisonment on some charge
of mal-administration made by the king on his return from
the siege of Tournay.2 The particulars are not recorded ;
but in no very long time he recovered the royal favour, being
reinstated on May 10, 1342; and on July 2, 1344, he was
raised to the office of chief baron of the Exchequer. He sat
in that court about sixteen months, when, on November 10,
1345, he was removed to the Common Pleas with the title of
second justice, which he retained for the next five years ;
during which time he was appointed one of the custodes of
the principality of Wales, &c, during the minority of the
king's son.3

On the disgrace of William de Thorpe, October 26, 1350,
24 Edward III., he was advanced to the head of the court of
King's Bench, and presided in it till July 5, 1357, 31 Ed-
ward III. While holding that office, he declared the causes of
the meeting of five parliaments, from 25 to 29 Edward III.4
He seems, indeed, at this time, to have been more a political
and parliamentary judge than a man of law; for no chief
justice is so seldom mentioned in the Year Books. Having
pronounced a judgment against the Bishop of Ely, for har-
bouring one of his people who had slain a man of Lady
Wake's, he was excommunicated by the pope, in the last year
of his judicial career, for not appearing when summoned.5

1 Rot. Pari. ii. G9. « Barnes' Edw. III., j>. 212.

3 Cal. Hot. Pat. 154. « Hot. Pari. ii.

J Panics' Edw. III., 551.

506

JOHN DE SIIOllDICH.

edw. m.

After retiring from the bench, on which he had sat, with
a slight interruption, for above twenty-four years, he still
retained the royal favour ; for we find him in confidential
positions as late as the thirty -fourth year of the reign.1

He lived beyond 37 Edward III., in which year he granted
his manor of Alurynton, in Gloucestershire, to the abbot and
convent of Oseney, in addition to lands at Sandford, in
Oxfordshire, which he had given six years before. He was a
benefactor also to the convents of Bruera and Dudley.

He left a son of the same name, who died in 1 Henry IV.2

SHIRLAND, ALMARIC DE.

B. E. 1365.

Of Almaric de Shirland's personal history we can trace
nothing, except that the manor of Mutford, in Suffolk, was
conveyed to him in 45 Edward III. He was placed on the
bench of the Exchequer as second baron on October 29, 1365,
39 Edward III., when a considerable change was made in the
judges of all the courts. Beyond that clay his name does not
appear in the published records, except in the forty-fourth
year, when he was sent into Lincolnshire and three neigh-
bouring counties to borrow money for the king's use; and
received his salary of forty marks a year as baron, together
with an additional allowance, of the same amount, which the
king had recently granted to him.3

SHORDICII, JOHN DE.

13. E. 1336.

The personal name of Shorclich is unquestionably derived
from the parish so called, formerly in the suburbs of London,

1 N. Fcedera, iii. 457. 469.

2 Cal. Inquis p. m., ii. 201. 216. 226. 265., iii. 260.

3 Ibid. ii. 315. ; Issue Roll, 44 Edw. III., 112. 346. ; Dugdalc.

1327—1377. JOHN DE SHORDICH. 507

and now forming part of it. Trobably it was so designated
from containing the ditch through which the sewers of the
city ran. So early as the reign of King John, a Hereward
de Shoresdich is mentioned as undergoing the purgation of
water on a charge of murder ; but though he passed the
ordeal, it is added that he renounced the kingdom J : and in
the reign of Edward I. a Benedictus de Shordich had a
grant from the king of some houses of a Jew in the Old
Jewry, in the parish of St. Olave, in Colcherche-strete.2

It is not improbable that John de Shordich was the son
of this Benedictus, who appears to have been a man of sub-
stance. John was an advocate in the court of Arches, and
in 18 Edward II. was employed as one of the nuncios to
treat in Flanders ; and in the following year accompanied the
king to France as part of his retinue.3 He is styled " legum
doctor," and "juris civilis professor." The " Magister "
which is sometimes prefixed to his name applies, no doubt, to
this degree, and not to any clerical order, as he was knighted
in 17 Edward III., and is always afterwards described with
that rank. For his services to Edward II. he was rewarded
with the chief clerkship of the Common Bench, and with the
manor of Passenham, in the county of Northampton. But
by a petition to parliament in 4 Edward III. (after the king
had freed himself from the control of his mother), he com-
plained that he had been ousted by the queen both of his office
and a large part of the manor ; whereupon compensation was
awarded to him.4 From the previous year to the end of his
life he was perpetually engaged in missions to different courts,
both before and after he was appointed second baron of the
Exchequer on November 10, 1336, 10 Edward III.5 How
long he remained in office docs not appear ; but when the

1 Abbrev. Placit 90. « Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 74.

3 N. Feeders, ii. 550. 606. * ltot. Pari. ii. '11.

■ Cal. ltot. Pat. I26i

508

ADAM DE STEYNGRAVE.

Edw. III.

court was re-constituted on January 20, 1342, his name was
omitted. He continued, however, to be engaged in diplomatic
employments till the 18th year, about which time his death
probably occurred, as he is not mentioned subsequently.1

A Nicholas de Shordich was a commissioner of array in
Middlesex in 26 Edward III.2 ; and Richard de Shordich, a
goldsmith, and William de Shordich, were two of the sureties
for the goldsmiths who purchased the jewels which were
stolen from the treasury in 31 Edward III.3

SKIPWITH, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1359. Ch. B. E. 1362. Just. C. P. 1376,

See under the Reign of Richard II.

SPAIGNE, NICHOLAS DE.

? Keeper, 1371.

The commencement of Nicholas de Spaigne's employment in
Chancery does not appear. The earliest mention of his name
is as one of the clerks in that department in 45 Edward III.,
when he was the last of four of them appointed to hold the
Great Seal during the absence of Sir Robert de Thorpe, the
chancellor, which began on March 18, 1371, but the termi-
nation of which is not recorded. In that and the two follow-
ing years he was one of the receivers of petitions to the
parliament, and probably died in 48 Edward III., 1374.
He seems to have been connected with the county of York.4

STEYNGRAVE, ADAM DE.

B. E. 1332. Just. C. P. 1341. Just. K. P». 1342.

Of Adam de Steyngrave, or Stangrave, little can be col-
lected beyond his judicial appointments in each of the three

1 N. Fcedera, ii. 772 — 1241., iii. 12. - Ibid. iii. 243.

3 Kill. Exch. i. 294.

4 Rot. Claus. 45 Edw. III., m. 35. ; Rot. Pari. ii. 303. 309. 317.; Abbrev.
Rot. Orig. ii. 304.

1327—1377. JOHN DE STOKES. 509

courts. He no doubt belonged to the knightly family settled
at the manor of that name in the parish of Edenbridge, in
Kent. He was constituted a baron of the Exchequer on
July 24, 1332, 6 Edward III., and remained there till
January 20, 1341, 14 Edward III. He was not included
in the new patent of that date ; but on October 28 follow-
ing he was made a judge of the Common Pleas; and on Ja-
nuary 10, 1342, he became, by another change, a judge of the
King's Bench. The time of his death or removal is uncer-
tain; but it must have been before April, 1347, as his name
is not included in the order for the judges' robes then issued.
In 14 Edward III. he was one of the commissioners ap-
pointed by parliament to enquire into the true value of the
bishopricks north of Trent.1

STOKES, JOHN DE.

B. E. 1365.

The name of Stok, Stoke, or Stokes, as it is indifferently
spelled, is so common at this period, that it is impossible,
without more distinct memorials than we have found, to say
of what family this baron of the Exchequer was a member.
There was in the reign of Edward II. a Ralph de Stokes
who was a clerk of the great wardrobe ; and in that of
Richard II. an Alan de Stokes who held the same office ;
so that it is not impossible that this John de Stokes may
have been the son of one and the father of the other. He
was raised to the bench of the Exchequer on November 3,
1365, 39 Edward III. ; and we find him sent, in the forty-
fourth year, into Yorkshire and Northumberland, to obtain
loans for the king from the wealthy of those counties, and to
survey the alien priories.2

1 Hasted's Kent, iii. 182.; Dugdale ; Rot. Pari. ii. 119.

2 Devon's Issue Roll, 133. 209.; N. Fcedera, iii. 773.; Issue Roll, H Edw.
III., 25C>.

510

JOHN DE STONORE.

Edw. III.

STONORE, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1327. Ch. B. E. 1329. Ch. C. P. 1329.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

STONORE, not far from Sandwich, in Kent, may perhaps have
been the birth-place of John de Stonore, as we find him, so
early as 10 Edward II., taking a release of all the lands of
llobertde Dumbleton, in Lesnes, in that county.1 A manor,
however, of the same name in Oxfordshire, may be thought
to have a better claim to his nativity ; unless, as is not
unlikely, he gave his name to the manor; following the
example of those spoken of by the Psalmist, who u call the
lands after their own names."2 An effigy in judges' robes,
bearing his arms, is in the church of Dorchester, which is near
to the manor.

He is frequently mentioned as an advocate in the Year
Books of the early part of the reign of Edward II. ; and he
was so far advanced among the Serjeants as to be summoned
to assist at the parliament of the sixth year. In the ninth
year he had a grant of 201. per annum for his expenses in
prosecuting and defending suits for the king ; and on several
occasions he was employed on special judicial commissions,
his proceedings under which he was commanded, in 12 and 13
Edward II., to carry into the Exchequer to be estreated.

In the following year, on October 16, 1320, lie was consti-
tuted a justice of the Common Pleas in the room of John
Bacon ; and the fines levied before him commence in the
next month. Dugdale continues them, without stating any
interruption, till the octave of Michaelmas, 27 Edward III.,
1353 3; and yet he introduces him into his list of justices of
the King's Bench from 17 Edward II, 1323-4, till the end
of that reign. As the authority quoted for this is only a

1 Abbrev. Placit. 326.
3 Dugdale's Orig. 44.

9 Psalm xlix. 1

1327—1377. JOHN DE STONORE. 511

liberate, no doubt ordering the payment of a salary, we
should have supposed that Dugdale had mistaken the words
" justiciarius domini regis," by which title the judges of both
benches were then often called, as designating that he was a
justice of the King's Bench ; but that we find that John de
Stonore, on May 3, 1324, in the same seventeenth year, was
again constituted a judge of the Common Pleas, the patent
containing no special words of explanation. As none of the
commissions upon which he was placed, and none of his sum-
monses to parliament about this period, in the slightest
degree distinguish the court to which he belonged, we are
unable to account for his re-appointment to the court of
Common Pleas, except by supposing that, though there is no
record of it, he was for a short time removed from that court,
perhaps to make room for Walter de Friskeney, and was re-
placed at the above date. However this may have been,
there is no doubt that John de Stonore continued from that
time a judge of the Common Pleas till the end of the reign ;
for we find his name to a fine in Trinity Term in 1326 *, and
that he was re-appointed by Edward III. a few days after he
was proclaimed king.

On February 22, 1329, 3 Edward III., he was made chief
baron of the Exchequer in the room of Walter de Norwich ;
and on September 3, in the same year, was further advanced
to be chief justice of the Common Pleas, superseding William
de Herle, who, however, was restored two years afterwards,
on March 2, 1331 ; and John de Stonore, on April 1, was
placed in the second seat in the court. From this he seems
to have been removed, on July 16, 1333, 8 Edward III., by
Geoffrey le Scrope ; but on July 7 in the following year, on
the resignation of William de llerlc, Stonore was reinstated
as chief justice.

On the king's return from Tournay, at the end of the year

1 Dugdale'i Orig.

512

JOHN DE STOUrORD.

Edw. III.

1340, both he and several other judges, for some alleged
misconduct the particulars of which have not transpired,
were removed from their places, and imprisoned ' ; and Roger
Hillary was constituted his successor on January 8, 1341, 14
Edward III. No record remains of the investigation that
followed, nor does Stonore's name occur for the next sixteen
months ; but we may presume that the charges against him
were not very heavy, or that they were not substantiated,
inasmuch as he was restored to his place of chief justice of
the Common Pleas on May 9, 1342, 16 Edward III., and
remained undisturbed in it till 28 Edward III., 1354, when
he died, leaving large possessions in nine counties, to which
his son, also named John, succeeded.

One of his descendants, Thomas Stonor, of Stonor Park, in
Oxfordshire, was summoned to parliament on September 14,
1839, as the senior co-heir of Hugh, Baron Camoys, who
died in the reign of Henry VI., when the title fell into
abeyance between his two sisters ; Queen Victoria having
terminated it in favour of Mr. Stonor, the representative of
the elder.2

STOUFORD, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1342. Ch. B. E. 1345. Just. C. P. 1345.

Dugdale spells this name Stouford, and I think correctly ;
although it is called Stonford in the Rolls of parliament, in
the Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium, and in the Calendar
of Inquisitions. The latter work (ii. 171.) mentions a
messuage and carucate of land belonging to John de Stonford,
at Stonford, near West-Dene, in Devonshire ; and Prince, in
his Worthies of Devon, specifies Stowford, in the parish of
West-Down, as the birth-place, about 1290, of John do

1 Barnes' Edw. III., 213.

2 Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 1

242.; Cal. Rot. Pat. 88 — 142. ; Dugdale

Burke.

1.327—1377. JOHN DE STOUFOItD. 513

Stowford, the judge. The mistake of the letter u for n in
the old writing may be very naturally supposed, when there
is other evidence of the pronunciation of the name. We
have in 1307 a John de Stoford who was a manucaptor for a
burgess returned to parliament for Plympton1, in the neigh-
bourhood of his native place; a John de Stoford who was one
of the custodes of the "terra maritima" of Devon, in 14
Edward III.2; and in the same year a John de Stovord, made
one of the king's serjeants-at-law.3 The first of these was
probably the father of the judge ; and in the two latter, with
little doubt, we have the judge himself.

He is among the advocates whose names are recorded in
the Year Books in the early part of the reign ; and he was
raised to the bench of the Common Pleas on April 23, 1342,
16 Edward III. There he remained till November 10,
1345, when, on the transfer of William de Shareshull to
the Court of Common Pleas, he was placed for about a
month in the office of chief baron of the Exchequer ; being
superseded, on December 8, by Robert de Sadington. This
was no doubt a temporary arrangement for the accommoda-
tion of the latter, who had lately been removed from the office
of chancellor ; as John de Stouford certainly resumed his
place in the Common Pleas, fines acknowledged before
him from that time till Midsummer, 1372, 33 Edward III.,
being still extant.4 There is no evidence of his living after
the latter date ; and his death is stated to have occurred at
his house at Stouford, his remains being buried in the church
of West Down.

There are several entries of grants made by him for pious
uses5; and he is reputed to have built the bridge over the
Taw, near Barnstaple, besides another between that town

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. i. 5. ■ N. Feeder*, ii. 1112.

3 Dugdale's Chron. Series. 4 Dugdftle'l Orig. 45.

* Cal. Inquis. p. in., ii. 106. 171, 172. 190.

VOL. III. I. L

514 WILLIAM DE STOWE. Edw. III.

and Pilton, in consequence of finding a poor woman and her
child drowned in the neighbourhood.

He married Joan, a co-heir of Tracy of Wollocombe, a
name assumed by the family in the reign of George I.1

STOWE, WILLIAM DE.

B. E. 1341.

William de Stowe, whose name first appears as a witness
to the release executed to King Edward III. in 1327 by the
widow of Aylmer, late Earl of Pembroke2, was made a baron
of the Exchequer on January 20, 1341, 14 Edward III.
He continued in that court till the twentieth year, when we
find him recorded among the judges from whom loans were
required3; but he is omitted in the list of those for whom,
in the following year, robes were ordered.4 The date of the
first record is February 12, 1346, and of the last, April 1,
1347 ; so that his retirement from the bench must have oc-
curred between those two days.

We know not whether he is the same William de Stowe who
is mentioned in connection with the abbey of St. Edmund's
Bury in 9 Edward III.5 ; but he was parson of the church of
Sabrithes worth ; and it does not seem improbable that his
removal from the Exchequer was occasioned by a complaint
made against him under that description in the parliament of
Hilary, 21 Edward III., for maintenance and menaces against
the petitioners.6 He was still alive in the twenty-sixth year,
when he endowed that church with a house in the parish.7

' Prince's Worthies. 2 N. Fcedera, ii. 698.

3 Rot. Pari. ii. 453. * Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 192.

5 N. Fcedera, ii. 924. 6 Rot. Pari. ii. 179.

T Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 224.

1327—1377. JOnX DE STRATFORD. 515

STRATFORD, JOHN DE, Archdeacon of Lincoln,
Bishop of Winchester, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Chancellor, 1330.

John de Stratford was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in
Warwickshire, where he had property.1 The condition of
his parents does not appear ; but that they were in easy cir-
cumstances may be inferred from the fact that he was edu-
cated at Merton College, Oxford, in which university he
took the degree of Doctor of Laws. He is believed to have
been the nephew of Ralph Hatton de Stratford, Bishop of
London.2

That he occupied some official position as early as the year
1317, 10 Edward II., there can be little doubt, as he was
summoned, twice in that and once in the next year, among
certain judges and other legal persons, to advise with the
council on various important subjects. In like manner he
was summoned to parliament in the four following years ;
and, from the place in which his name occurs, it would seem
that he was either an officer of the Exchequer, or, perhaps, a
clerk in the Chancery.3

On September 13, 1319, he was admitted to the Arch-
deaconry of Lincoln4; and in December, 1321, he was sent
on a mission to the pope on the affairs of Scotland. Either
before or just after this event, Archbishop Hubert Walter
appointed him dean or chief judge of his court of Arches ; in
which office he exhibited, not less in his knowledge of law
than in the adjudication of the cases before him, the quickest
discernment and the most consummate prudence. From
1321 to 1323 he was engaged in frequent embassies to the
papal court at Avignon ; and being there on the death of his

1 (;il. Inquis. i>. m., ii. 46.

* Mr. J. G. Nichols, in his notes to Erasmus' Pilgrimages, p. 99.
a Pari, Writs, ii. P. ii. 1471. * Le Neve, 156.

L L 2

516 JOHN DE STRATFORD. Emv. III.

colleague, Reginald de Asser, Bishop of Winchester, on
April 12 * in the latter year, he succeeded, notwithstanding
the king's urgent applications in favour of Robert de Baldock,
in obtaining a bull from Pope Pius XXIL, dated June 20,
1323, conferring upon him the vacant bishoprick.

The king's anger was excessive. He remonstrated with
the pope, issued directions to the bailiffs of the different
ports to arrest any messengers coming into England with
letters on the subject, and expressed the bitterest rancour
against the new-made prelate; calling him, in one of his
missives, "pseudo nuntium" and " adversarium nostrum,"
and dismissing him from his ambassadorial functions in terms
of indignation. On his arrival in England, proceedings were
immediately commenced against him in the Court of King's
Bench, which were removed to the parliament summoned for
February, 1324 : in them he was addressed merely by his
name, without the episcopal title ; an omission which he, in
his answers, was most careful always to supply. No further
record of the process appears ; but, by the intercession of the
pope, Stratford was at last reluctantly recognised, and had his
temporalities restored by a patent dated June 28, 1324.2 It
seems, however, that this was purchased by the bishop's
bond to pay the king 10,000/., 8000/. of which was to be void
on the death of the king or the bishop.3 No part even of the
2000/. was claimed during that reign ; for from that time he
enjoyed the full confidence of the king, by whom he was em-
ployed in his negotiations with the court of France, and to
whom he faithfully adhered when others had deserted the royal
cause. After Edward's retirement he joined in the election of
the prince as custos of the kingdom. On October 26, 1326,
and on November 6, he was constituted locum tenens of the
treasurer, and remained so for a short time. It is some credit

1 N. Foedera, ii. 462—515. . - Ibid. 526—557.

3 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 258.

1327—1377. JOHN DE STRATFORD. 517

to Queen Isabella that she thus showed her respect for the
bishop's fidelity to her husband, and that she then employed
him in prosecuting the treaty with France, although she in-
sisted on the payment of 1000/. of his bond. It was not, how-
ever, till her removal from power, and the assumption of the
kingly office by her son, Edward III., that the bishop was
called to a prominent position in the royal councils. He was
then constituted chancellor on Nov. 28, 1330, 4 Edw. III.1,
and immediately was released from all arrears of his old
obligation.2 He accompanied the king to France in the fol-
lowing April, both of them, according to Barnes, assuming
the disguise of merchants, in performance of a certain vow ;
and in the next November he was sent abroad on a mission
relative to the affairs of the duchy of Acquitaine, from
which he returned in time to open the parliament at West-
minster on March 12, 1332.

On the death of Simon Mepham, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, Stratford was translated to the vacant primacy, No-
vember 3, 1333, and the temporalities were restored on
February 5, 1334. On the 28th of the following September
he resigned the Great Seal 3, which was given to Richard de
Bury, Bishop of Durham, who held it only till June 6, 1335.
It was then restored to Stratford 4, and retained by him for
nearly two years, viz., till March 24, 1337, his brother,
Robert de Stratford, Bishop of Chichester, being appointed
his successor.5 During the whole of this time he was con-
tinually engaged in embassies to France and other powers ;
and was actively employed in similar duties during the three
next years, and in presiding over the council while the king
was absent.6

On April 28, 1340, 14 Edward III., he was a third time

1 Rot. Claus. 4 Edw. III., m. 16. * Rot Pari. ii. 60.

3 Rot. Claus. 8 Edw. III., m. 10. 4 Ibid. 9 Edw. III., m. 23.

s Ibid. 11 Edw. III., p. |, m. 29. 8 N. Fcedera, ii. 883—1115,

L L 3

518

JOHN DE STRATFORD.

Edw. III.

constituted chancellor l ; but on June 20 following, on account
of his increasing infirmities, he resigned the Seal to the king,
which was thereupon again entrusted to his brother, Bishop
Robert.2

From the commencement of his first chancellorship till his
final retirement from the office, the archbishop had been the
chief counsellor of the king; and even now, on Edward's pro-
ceeding to France, he was left as president of his council.
But the French wars had emptied the Exchequer ; the king's
arms were unsuccessful before Tournay, and his allies were
pressing in their demands for money which was not forth-
coming. Irritated by his forlorn condition, he listened to the
intimations of his courtiers that his officers were unfaithful
and treacherous ; and coming suddenly to England, on No-
vember 30, 1340, he removed the chancellor, confined some
of the judges, and hastily sent for the archbishop. The
primate, however, thought it prudent to escape to Canter-
bury, and to refuse to answer except before his peers. Ed-
ward issued a declaration full of accusations, to which the
archbishop replied, justifying his conduct, and successfully
refuting the charges. The wordy war continued till the par-
liament met in April ; when, though the prelate went sub-
missively into the Exchequer to hear the information that
had been filed against him, he was for some time refused ad-
mittance into the hall, but was at last allowed to take his
seat. The lords supported his appeal to their jurisdiction,
and the question was referred to a committee, who reported
in his favour. By the intercession of both houses, however,
the business was stifled ; and the archbishop having humbled
himself, and the king having pardoned him, the proceedings
were annulled in the next parliament in Easter, 1343, as
contrary to reason and truth.3

i Rot. Claus. 14 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 27.
3 N. Fcedera, ii. 1141. 1143. 1147. 1154.

Ibid. o. 1. m. 13.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE STRATFORD. 519

In July, 1345, he was appointed the head of the council left
as advisers of the king's son, Lionel, to whom the custody of
the kingdom had been entrusted ; and a similar confidence
reposed in him in the following year 1 is the last record of
importance in his career. He died at Mayfleld, in Sussex, on
August 23, 1348, 22 Edward III., after sitting as primate
nearly fifteen years, and was buried in Canterbury ca-
thedral.

His liberality to his church, his charity to the poor, his
humble and pleasing manners, and his natural sense and
general learning, are acknowledged by all his biographers.
That his reputation was high as an able politician, a loyal
counsellor, and a man of deep legal knowledge for the time, is
evidenced not more by the number of years during which he
was engaged in high employments, than by firmness in meet-
ing his temporary disgraces, and the alacrity with which his
talents were again put in requisition. He is said to have
crossed the Channel thirty-two times in the public service.

He built and handsomely endowed a college in his native
town.2

STRATFORD, ROBERT DE, Archdeacon of Canterbury,
Bishop of Chichester.

Keeper, 1331. Chancellor, 1337.

Robert de Stratford, brother of John, was also born at
Stratford-on-Avon, and was parson of the church there. It
is probable that he, like his brother, was educated at Oxford,
as he afterwards became chancellor of that university, and
distinguished himself by his firmness and prudence in settling
the violent differences that had arisen between the northern

1 N. Feeder*, Hi. 50. 85.

8 Godwin de PraetuL 10G. 224.; Le Neve, 6. 156". 286.; Barnes* Edw. III.,
43 — 216. ; State Trials, i. 57. ; Dugdale'l Cliron, Belies.

i, L 4

520

ROBERT DE STRATFORD.

Edw. III.

and southern scholars as to the election of proctors. The
date of this event does not appear.

The first time his name occurs is on April 1, 1£31, 5 Ed-
ward III., in the first chancellorship of his brother, who, being
then about to accompany the king to France, sent the Great
Seal to his house in Southwark, in charge of Robert, under
the seal of the master of the Rolls; after which they both con-
tinued to seal with it till the chancellor's return on April 20. 1
In the course of the same year he was made chancellor of the
Exchequer.2 The Seal was again left in the hands of these
two on November 21 following3; and on June 23, 1332,
Robert de Stratford was alone appointed by his brother to
receive it, and to do the business appertaining to the office.4
During the time it now remained in his possession, he was
called the chancellor's locum tenens ; and he was one of the
three commissioners named to open the parliament in the
following December.5 He was a third time entrusted by his
brother with the Seal on April 6, 1334, to be kept by him
under the seals of two of the clerks of the Chancery.6

His brother's first chancellorship terminated on Sept. 28
following ; on which occasion Robert is for the first time
called Archdeacon of Canterbury.7 Le Neve (p. 12.) places him
in his dignity in 1331 ; but it is unlikely, if he held it, that the
title should have been omitted in the records till now, the
more especially as it was afterwards invariably added. He
was also a canon in St. Paul's and Lincoln cathedrals.

When his brother, the archbishop, was made chancellor a
second time on June 6, 1335 8, the Seal was again given to
Robert as locum tenens ; and it is probable that he continued
to act in that capacity till March 24, 1337, when, on his

1 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. III., m. 17. 20. 2 Cal. Rot^Pat. 112.

8 Rot. Claus. 5 Edw. IIT., p. 2. m. 2 4 Ibid. 6 Edw. III., m. 22.

5 N. Foedera, ii. 848. 6 Rot. Claus. 8 Edw. III., ra. 27.

7 Ibid. m. 10. 8 Ibid. 9 Edw. III., m. 23.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE STRATFORD. 521

brother's resignation, he was himself constituted chancellor.1
In the following September he was raised to the bishoprick
of Chichester on the death of John de Langton ; and on
July 6, 1338, on account of his unexplained wish to be
exonerated from the chancellorship, the Great Seal was given
to Richard de Bynteworth, Bishop of London.2

After Bynteworth's death the archbishop again took the
Seal for two months, apparently to hold it during the absence
of his brother .Robert, who received the appointment a second
time on June 20, 1340, but was not sworn in till July 12.3
He accompanied the king to France in September, and was
with him before Tournay.4 When he quitted the camp he
left enemies behind him, who whispered in the king's ear that
his disappointment in receiving supplies was attributable to his
ministers at home. The king was too easily persuaded ; and
making a hurried journey, arrived at the Tower of London in
the middle of the night on November 30, and the next morn-
ing not only took the Great Seal away from the bishop, but
threatened him with imprisonment, being only prevented from
carrying his intentions into execution by the Clementine
prohibition against such an indignity on ecclesiastics of that
rank.

The bishop does not appear to have been included in the
subsequent proceedings against his brother ; but if he were,
he no doubt participated in the pardon ; for in May, 1343, he
was sent on a mission to the pope, and was left one of the
council when Prince Lionel was appointed custos of the
kingdom in July, 1345.5

He survived his brother nearly fourteen years, and died at
Aldingburne on April 9, 1362, whence his body was removed
to his own cathedral for burial.

1 Rot. Claus. 11 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 29. 2 Ibid. 12 Edw. III., p. 2. m. ...

3 Ibid. 14 Edw. III., p. 1. in. I:;.

« Rot. Pat. I J Edw. III., p. 1. in. 33. 5 N. Feeder* ii. 1223., iii. 50.

522

JOHN DE THORESBY.

Edw. III.

He was a prelate of great resolution and courage ; and, not-
withstanding the king's charges against him, seems to have
been uncorrupt and faithful. He is mentioned as a consider-
able benefactor both to the place of his birth and the city of
his cathedral.1

TANK, WILLIAM.

Ch. B. E. 1374.

Until William Tank was constituted chief baron of the Ex-
chequer, in the place of Thomas de Lodelowe, on February 3,
1374, 48 Edward III, we do not find any mention of his
family, nor of his name except as an advocate in the Year
Books from the twentieth year. During the short period
that he presided in the court he acted as a judge of assize;
and there are two instances of grants to him of the custody
of lands pending the minority of the heir; both of which
being in Sussex, it is not improbable that he was settled in
that county. He was succeeded as chief baron by Henry
de Asty on November 12, 1375.2

THORESBY, JOHN DE, Bishop of St. David's and
Worcester, and Archbishop op York.

M. R. 1341. Keeper, 1343. Chancellor, 1349.

John de Thoresby, or Thursby, was born at a manor of
that name in Wensleydale, in Yorkshire, which had been long
in the family ; and was the second son of Hugh de Thoresby,
who was lord of it in 9 Edward II.3 He was brought up
to the church ; and greatly distinguished himself while at
Oxford by his attainments in the study of divinity, taking a
high degree in both laws. So early as 1 Edward HI. he was

1 Godwin de Prsesul. 507. ; Mr. Bowchier's Account of the Bishops of
Chichester in the Chapter Books ; Barnes' Edward III., 213.
■ N. Fcedera, iii. 997. ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 331. 336.
3 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 410.

1327—1377. JOHN DE THORESBY. 523

the last named in a mission to the pope to procure the canon-
ization of Thomas, Duke of Lancaster. At that time he pro-
bably was a clerk in the Chancery, where he continued to act
for several years; and having in 10 Edward III. been served
in open court with a monition to appear before the pope on
some appeal, the papal messengers were straightwray committed
to prison as guilty of a contempt, and were only released by
the intercession of Queen Fhilippa.1 This, however, did not
prevent his being again sent to the pope, four years after-
wards, to obtain a dispensation for the proposed marriage
between Hugh le Despencer and the daughter of the Earl of
Salisbury.

In the following year, on February 21, 1341, he received
the appointment of master of the .Rolls in the place of
Thomas de Evesham.2 During the illness and at the death
of Chancellor Parning, in 1343, he did the duties of the Seal;
and, with two of the clerks of the Chancery, held it till
Robert de Sadington was invested with the office.3

It does not precisely appear how long he continued master
of the Rolls; but certainly as late as May 20, 1345. But
as he no doubt resigned that post on being made keeper of
the Privy Seal, by which designation he is first described on
the 26th of the following July, his nomination to the latter
probably took place between those months.4

In the previous year he obtained a canonry in Lincoln
cathedral, and again visited the papal court as one of the
king's ambassadors ; performing the same duty in France in
1346.5

On September 3, 1347, he was consecrated Bishop of St.
David's; and on June 16, 1349, 23 Edward III., within a
month after the death of John de Ofibrd, he was appointed

1 Prynne on 4th Inst. p. 16. * Hot. Claus. 15 Edu\ III., p. 1. m.

1 Ibid. 17 Edw. 1 1 1., p. 2. m. 2 l. * N. Feeders, ii. 897. 1119, iii. 39.

5 Ibid iii. 25. 54. 92.

524:

JOHN DE THOIIESBY.

Edw. III.

his successor as chancellor.1 On the 4th of the following
November he was translated to the bishoprick of Worcester ;
and by papal provision was raised to the archbishoprick of
York on October 22, 1352. He was left one of the custodes
of the kingdom when King Edward renewed his invasion of
France in 1355 2; but on his sovereign's return after the
battle of Poictiers in the ensuing year, his advancing age
prompted him to apply for liberty to retire from the chan-
cellorship, which he had held with credit and honour longer
than any other chancellor of this reign, though for little more
than seven years in all, during four of which he had been
archbishop. He was accordingly, " benevole et gratanter,"
exonerated from his duties on November 27, 1356, when the
Great Seal was placed in the hands of William de Edington,
Bishop of Winchester.3

His political duties during the seventeen remaining years
of his life were confined to conducting various treaties with
the Scottish king ; but for the most part he devoted himself
to his episcopal functions, and to the renovation of his cathe-
dral. He laid the first stone of the new choir on July 29,
1362 ; and besides exciting the nobles and clergy of his
province to aid his endeavours, he expended large sums in
carrying on that splendid work, and also in restoring and
ornamenting the chapel of St. Mary, where his remains were
afterwards deposited. The question of precedence between the
two archbishops, which had for many years occasioned un-
seemly contests, was settled by agreement between him and
Archbishop Islip ; and Pope Innocent TV., in his confirmation
of the arrangement, introduced the nice distinction of primate
of England, and primate of all England. He is said by some
to have been created a cardinal by Pope Urban Y. ; but his

1 Rot. Claus. 23 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 8.
■ Rot. Claus. 30 Edw. III., m. 4.

N. Foedera, iii. 305.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE THORrE. 525

name does not appear in the most authentic lists, nor is he
ever so called in the English records.

After presiding over his province for twenty-one years, he
died at his manor of Thorpe on November 6, 1373, having
been engaged in the public service for nearly forty-eight years
of Edward's reign, with a character honourably described as
"contentionum et litium hostis, et pacis et concordiae amicus."
Besides several other religious works, he wrote a commentary
in the English tongue on the Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue,
and the Articles of Faith, for the use of the people of his
province. That on the Ten Commandments is printed by
Thoresby in the appendix to his " Vicaria Leodensis."1

THORPE, ROBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1330.

This Robert de Thorpe, who was a justice itinerant into
Derbyshire in 4 Edward III., 1330, was clearly a different
person from the chief justice and chancellor in a later period
of the reign ; but the Thorpes were so numerous that it
would be merely guess-work to attempt to fix the family to
which he belonged. He may have been the son of John and
Alicia de Thorpe, of Creek, in Norfolk, and Combes, in
Suffolk ; and if so, he died in the same year he acted as
justice itinerant, and was succeeded by his son John. We
are not certain whether this was the same Robert who was
member for Northamptonshire in 17 Edward IT.; but it
seems not improbable, as he was frequently employed on
judicial enquiries in various counties and the perambulations
of the forests.2

1 Godwin de Praesul. 464. 581. 687.; Chambers' Biog. Illust. of Worcest. ;
Drake's Eboracum, 434.

8 Dugdale; Cal. Intjuis. p. m., i. 310., ii. 30. 159.; Pari. Writs, ii. 1505.

526 ROBERT DE THORPE. Edw. III.

THORPE, ROBERT DE.

Ch. C. P. 1356. Chancellor, 1371.

Robert de Thorpe was a native of Thorpe, near Norwich,
and was educated at Cambridge, in which university he laid
the foundation of the divinity schools, with the chapel over
them, in 1356, and was afterwards master of Pembroke
College. He was brought up to the law, and commenced
his career as an advocate as early as 14 Edward III., 1340,
attaining the rank of king's serjeant in 1345. Coke calls
him " a man of singular judgment in the laws of this realm."
He was appointed one of the justices to try felonies in the
county of Oxford, in 1355, and was frequently employed as
a justice of assize ; but held no seat on the judicial bench
at Westminster until he was selected to be the successor
of Roger Hillary, as chief justice of the Common Pleas, on
June 27, 1356, 30 Edward III. Nine years afterwards he
had an extended grant of 40/. a year to support the dignity
of knighthood which the king had conferred upon him ;
and he continued to preside in that court for nearly fifteen
years. So high a character did he acquire, that when the
Commons petitioned the king that none but laymen should
be placed in the higher offices of the state, he was deemed
the fittest man to supersede William of Wykeham, Bishop
of Winchester, as chancellor ; and the Great Seal was
accordingly delivered to him on March 26, 1371, 45 Ed-
ward III.1

He enjoyed this dignity little more than a year, his death
occurring on June 29, 1372, at the Bishop of Salisbury's
house, in Fleet Street.2 By his will, which bears date on
the same day, he leaves to his executors, Sir John Knyvet
(who was appointed chancellor in his place), John de Harle-
ston, John de Bretton, and Richard Treton (who afterwards

1 Rot. Claus. 45 Edw. III., m. 35. * Ibid. 46 Edw, III., m. 20.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE THORPE. 521

became master of Corpus Christi College), all his goods,
together with his possessions in London, to be disposed of in
such manner as they should judge would be most beneficial
to his soul. Among the appropriations which they made,
were grants to all the colleges then established at Cambridge
for an annual commemoration of him.

He married Margaret, the daughter of William Deyncourt,
but left no children ; his brother, Sir William de Thorpe,
being his heir.1

THORPE, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1342. Just. K. B. 1345. Ch. K. B. 1346. ? B. E. 1352.

To which of the families of Thorpe this William de Thorpe
belonged, we have not been able precisely to ascertain. His
name appears in the Year Books as an advocate as early as
7 Edward HI. In 15 Edward III., 1341, he was made
one of the king's Serjeants ; and is called the king's attorney
in the following year. In that year, on April 23, 1342,
he was raised to the bench. The words used are " unus
Justiciariorum ad placita in Banco."2 Dugdale thereupon
inserts him among the justices of the Common Pleas ; but
as he does not mention any fines levied before him, and
introduces his name as a justice of the King's Bench in the
nineteenth year, on the authority of the liberate Roll, with-
out mentioning the date of his removal from the Common
Pleas, it may be doubtful whether his first appointment was
not to the King's Bench, especially as he became the chief
of it on November 26, 1346, 20 Edward III. In that
character he opened the parliaments of the two following
years.3

Towards the end of 1350, charges were made against him

1 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 337.; Cal. Inquis. p. m., :!2_' ; Masters' Hist, of
Corp. Christi Coll., Cambridge, 28. ; Dugdale's Chron. Series,

* Cal. Hot. Pat. 142. * Hut. Pail. ii. KM. 200.

528

WILLIAM DE THORPE.

Edw. III.

of malversation In his office ; and the king issued his writ,
on November 3, to the Earls of Arundel, Warwick, and
Huntingdon, and to John de Grey of Retherfield, his
steward, and Bartholomew de Burghersh, the chamberlain,
to have him before them, and to do justice according to his
demerits. They immediately proceeded on their commission ;
when he confessed that he had received bribes from Richard
de Salteby, of 107. ; from Hildebrand Bereswerd, of 207. ;
from Gilbert Haliland, of 407. ; from Thomas de Derby of
St. Bartholomew, of 20/. ; and from Robert de Dalderby, of
107. ; all of whom had been indicted before him at Lincoln ;
and that he had therefore caused the writ of exigent against
them to be stayed : whereupon he was committed prisoner to
the Tower of London, and all his lands and goods were ordered
to be seized into the king's hands, until the royal will and
pleasure should be known.

With this legal and reasonable judgment, however, the
king was not satisfied ; and accordingly issued another writ
on November 19, in which, after reciting the oath taken by
the justices, that none of them should accept any gift or
reward from any one wTho had a plea or process before them,
it was added, that when Sir William de Thorpe took that
oath, the king, "ore tenus," imposed such punishment, that
if he in any manner acted contrary thereto, he should be
adjudged to be degraded and hanged. And then, after
detailing the offence with which Thorpe was charged, and
his confession, and dilating on the augmented fees assigned to
the judges, and their three robes a year, the king states that he
is greatly moved at the judgment pronounced by the justices
assigned to try him, and that they have forborne to proceed on
the sentence agreed to be imposed on him. He then commands
the same parties immediately to pronounce the judgment
agreed upon. This was accordingly done on November 19,
1350, 24 Edward III. : and thereupon, on the same day, the

1.327— 1377. WILLIAM DE THOBPE. -">^9

king, by writ of Privy Seal, signified that lie "gave and
forgave him his life," but ordered his body to be remitted
to prison.1 The record and process were afterwards laid
before the parliament, which confirmed the judgment.2
Coke says, that Sir William Thorpe was pardoned and
restored to all his lands, "as by the record appearcth ;"3 but
the record, as published, only says that the execution of the
judgment of hanging was pardoned to him, and that he was
remitted to prison to await the king's favour. The re-
mainder of the judgment, " that all his lands and goods
should be forfeited to the king," is left unnoticed, and
consequently unpardoned ; and by entries on the records of
that year4, it appears that the sheriffs of Lincoln and other
counties were directed to take his lands, &c, into the king's
hands, as convicted of certain crimes ; and that four of his
horses, " cum cellis frenis et garconibus," were seized by
one of the sheriffs of London.

In the following year, however, he received the king's
pardon, with the restoration of part of his lands ; viz., the
manor of Changton, in Sussex.5 He was not restored to
his office of chief justice, which William de Shareshuli cer-
tainly held during the next five years ; but after an interval
of eighteen months he was made second baron of the Ex-
chequer, on May 24, 1352, 26 Edward III. ; unless the
William de Thorpe who then received that appointment was
a different person. In the absence of any evidence to the
contrary, there is good reason to believe that he was the
same person ; the more especially as we have instances, ten
years before, of the king's reinstating judges against whom
charges had been made; and as it was extremely improbable
that a person, of whom no previous notice exists of his being

1 N. Foedera, iii. 208. " Hot. Pari. ii. 227.

3 Third Inst. 145. ' Abhrev. Hot. Orig. ii. 211, '21 'J.

5 Cal. Rot. Pat. 1G0.
VOL. III. M M

530

WILLIAM DE THORPE.

Edw. III.

connected with the court, should he at once raised to the
office of second baron, above the other occupants of that
bench.

The whole proceeding is very extraordinary. The charge
was for receiving bribes contrary to his oath; an offence
which did not touch the delinquent's life by any law then
existing; and so the commissioners appointed for his trial
found, and therefore sentenced him only to imprisonment,
and the forfeiture of his lands and goods. It is curious then
to see the king endeavouring to enforce the capital penalty
by his own personal declaration to Thorpe, when he took the
oath, that he should be hanged if he infringed it ; and after-
wards, when these judges had complied with his mandate,
immediately granting a pardon of the extreme part of the
sentence ; as if he were conscious that he was exceeding the
law. His order, a few days subsequently, to lay the pro-
ceedings before parliament, is further evidence of his own
doubts ; and on the discussion in the following February,
though the judgment was affirmed by the compliant Peers,
it was with a reservation which sufficiently manifested their
hesitation in recognising it ; viz., that such a judgment should
be only good against a delinquent who had the administration
of the laws of England. The effect which the king desired
was no doubt produced ; and being satisfied with showing
how far his power would extend in similar cases, it is not im-
probable that, after a decent term of purgation, he would be
glad to avail himself of the services of a learned and useful
man, not by restoring him to the high place he had before
occupied, but by placing him in the second seat on another
bench.

From a passage in the Liber Assisarum of 28 Edward III.,
p. 145., where Thorpe is said to have been " then made chief
justice," it might be inferred that he was restored to his

1827—1377. GILBERT DE TOUTHEBY. .">31

former place ; but attention to the context clearly proves that
the expression merely means that he was made chief justice in
the commission of assizes in Sussex, in the place of H. Green,
who had been sent on some other service ; as we should now
say, the senior judge of assize.

Whether the baron of the Exchequer were the same or a
different person, he was present among the judges in the
parliament of 28 and 29 Edward III. !, but not later.

AYithin a few years three William de Thorpes are men-
tioned ; in Nottingham, Northampton, and Sussex 2 ; but
we cannot satisfactorily identify either with the judge.

TOUTHEBY, GILBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1329.
See under the Reign of Edward II.

Gilbert de Toutheby was an advocate of considerable
eminence. His name frequently appears in the Year Books
among the counsel during the reign of Edward II., and in
the first two years of Edward III.; often abbreviated "Toud."
In 9 Edward II. he was employed in prosecuting and defending
the king's suits, and had a grant, with three others, of 20/.
for his expences therein, being at that time a king's serjeant-
at-law. The next year he was summoned among the legal
assistants to parliament ; and so continued to be during the
remainder of the reign. He is first mentioned in a judicial ca-
pacity, as one of the justices appointed in Lincolnshire in
March, 1318, 11 Edward II., and most of his future commis-
sions were in that county. It is evident that these occasional
employments as a judge did not prevent his pursuing his pro-
fession as an advocate ; for we not only find him engaged
in cases as a serjeant-at-law in 14 Edward II., but on the
accession of Edward III. his stipend for prosecuting and

1 Rot. Pari. ii. 254. 267. ■ V Faciei a, iii. MI. 457. 464.

M M 2

532

JOHN TRAVERS.

Edw. III.

defending the king's causes was renewed to him. He cer-
tainly acted as a justice of assize under the latter king; but
there is no mention of him later than the third year.

The custody of the manor of Foxton in Northamptonshire,
and of those of Welle and Brumpthorp in Lincolnshire, was
committed to him by Edward II. curing the minority of the
heirs.1

TRAVERS, JOHN.

Just. C. P. 1329.

John Travers was of a Lancashire family, and was re-
turned member for that county to the parliament of 35 Ed-
ward I. Under Edward II. he was frequently employed in
it as commissioner of array, assessor of the aids, and custos of
the lands forfeited by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and his
adherents. In the second year of the reign of Edward IIL
we find him employed with the seneschal of Gascony and the
constable of Bordeaux, to treat with certain German princes ;
and on March 2, 1329, in the next year, he was constituted
a justice of the Common Pleas. Though the fines levied be-
fore him do not extend beyond the middle of 1331, he is
mentioned in the Year Book of the reign as late as Michael-
mas, 1333. About that period he received the appoint-
ment of constable of Bordeaux, and died within four years ;
for in 11 Edward III. certain houses in the parish of St.
Andrew, Holborn, which belonged to him, and which came
into the king's hands for debts due at the time of his death,
■were granted to two clerks of the Chancery at two marks
a year, until they were redeemed by payment of the full
account. These, Dugdale therefore thinks it probable, were
used as an hospicium for the clerks of the Chancery ; and
that they formed the site of the Inn of Chancery now, by a

1 Rot. Pari. i. 352. 370. 433., ii. 402. ; Dugdale ; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1518. ;
Abbrev. Rot Orig. i. 218, 219., ii. 24.

1327—1377. LAMBERT DE T HIKING fl AM. 533

corruption of the judge's name, called Thavie's Inn. In a
subsequent page, however, he overturns this derivation by
proving that the Inn in question received its name from its
owner, John Tavie, at the time of whose death it had been
inhabited by apprentices of the law.1

TBEVAIGNON, JOHN DE.

Just. C. P. 1334.

The materials for drawing up an account of John de Tre-
vaignon are very scanty. He was of a Cornish family, the
descendants of which still flourish in that county. His name
appears in the reign of Edward II. as an advocate in the
courts. In 4 Edward III., he had the degree of the coif;
and was afterwards one of the king's Serjeants. On Sep-
tember 24, 1334, 8 Edward III., he was constituted a judge
of the Common Pleas ; and probably died within the next
year, as no fines were acknowledged before him subsequent
to Michaelmas Term, 9 Edward III.

In 21 Edward III. a John de Treyvenoun, probably the
judge's son, is mentioned as receiving a commission to impress
ships for the passage of Johanna, the king's daughter, to
Gascony. In 30 Edward III, Sir John Trevaignon, knight,
perhaps the same person, accompanied Edward, Prince of
Wales, to that country ; and in the thirty-third year was a
commissioner of array in Cornwall.2

TRIKINGIIAM, LAMBERT DE.

Just. Itin. 1329.
See under the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II.

The legal and judicial life of Lambert de Trikingham
extended from the reign of Edward I. to that of Edward III.

1 Part, Writs, i. 868., ii. P. ii. 1520.; Cal. Rot. Pat. 103. 105. 118.;
Dugdale's Orig. 45. 143. 271.

- Year Book, Edw, II. ; Dugdale's Orig. 45.; N. Fcedera, iii. I 16. 325. 456.

M M 3

534

MICHAEL DE WATH.

Edw. III.

His family was so called from a place of that name in Lin-
colnshire ; and Alexander de Trikingham, who acted in the
assessments of that county in the early part of the reign of
Edward L, was probably the judge's father.1

The first mention of Lambert occurs in 27 Edward I.,
1299, as the last of five justices itinerant into Kent. In the
next year he was raised to the bench at Westminster as a
justice of the Common Pleas ; and the fines levied before
him, commencing at the following Easter, 1301, continue till
Midsummer, 1316, 9 Edward II. ; showing that he had been
re-appointed by that king. On August 6, in the latter year, he
was removed to the King's Bench, where he remained exactly
four years ; retiring from that court on August 6, 1320, and
being immediately made a baron of the Exchequer. We
do not find him acting as a baron, nor summoned to parlia-
ment among the judges, later than the seventeenth year of
that reign ; and it is most probable that he left the bench
about that time, as a new baron was named at the close of
the year, apparently in his place. He still, however, was
employed as a justice itinerant ; and he is placed next to the
chief justice in the commission into Northamptonshire as late
as 1329, 3 Edward III.2

In 1317 he received the mastership of Sherbourn Hospital
in Durham3; and in 1329, being then called parson of the
church of Helpryngham in Lincolnshire, he granted some
land in that parish and in Hale Parva for the support of a
chaplain there.4

WATH, MICHAEL DE.

M. It. 1334. ? Keeper, 1339.

Michael de Wath was of a Yorkshire family ; and is
mentioned in 16 Edward II. 1322, as a surety for one of the

1 Pari. Writs, i. 871., ii. 1324.

"■ Orig. Jurid. 44.; and Chron. Ser. ; Rot. Pari. 161—380.

' Surtees's Durham, i. 138. * Cal. Inquis. p. m., ii. 27.

1327—1377. MICHAEL DE WATII. 535

adherents of the Earl of Lancaster.1 He is then described
as " Clericus ; " and two years afterwards is named in a com-
mission to assist the Archbishop of York in removing foreign
priests in the East Riding of that county. In June, 1332,
6 Edward III., he was one of the tallagers there2 ; and though
we do not find him so described, was probably a clerk in
the Chancery, which was often held at York ; for he received
the appointment of master of the Rolls on January 20, 1334,
on the death of Henry de Cliff; and was sworn in at the
abbey of St. Mary at York, on the 9th of February fol-
lowing.3

He held this office little more than three years, surrender-
ing it to John de St. Paul, on April 28, 1337.4 It is re-
markable, that during that time he never held the Great Seal
as the substitute of the chancellor, as was then the custom
with masters of the Rolls. But he was subsequently ap-
pointed to that duty in conjunction with two associates, at
the end of the year 1339 5; and several entries prove that he
continued to act as one of the clerks of the Chancery in 1338
and 1340.6

In the latter year he was one of the sufferers on the king's
angry return from France, and, with some of his brother-
officers, was cast into prison for maladministration in his
department. John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury,
remonstrating against his imprisonment as a clergyman, pro-
cured his release ; but he does not again appear in connection
with the Chancery, though he is named as one of the com-
missioners to inquire as to some complaints of the inhabi-
tants of Frismerk, in Yorkshire, as late as 21 Edward III.,
1347.7

1 Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 'J 12. 2 N. Fcedera, ii. 574. 840.

8 Rot. Clans. 8 Edw. III., m. 35. * Ibid. 1 1 Edw. III., p. 1. in. 13.

3 Ibid. 19 Edw. III., p. 3. m. II. 6 Rot. Pari. ii. 112.

7 Angl. Sac. i. 20. ; Barnes's Edward III., 212. 217. ; Ret Pari, ii. 187.

M N 4

536

G Eli VASE DE WILFORD.

Edw. III.

WELLS, Dean of. See R. de Bury.
WESTMINSTER, Abbot of. See S. de Langham.

WICHINGHAM, WILLIAM DE.

Just. C. P. 1365.

Wichingham, in Norfolk, was the seat of this family, and the
William de Wichingham who was member of parliament for
Norwich in the reign of Edward II. was most probably the
father of the judge. The first mention of the latter as an
advocate occurs in 21 Edward III. at the assizes, but not till
seven years after in the court at Westminster ; he having in
the meantime been employed as a justice to fix the wages of
labourers in his native county. His name appears as a
justice of assize from 34 Edward III., and two years after-
wards he was created a king's serjeant. His elevation to the
bench as a justice of the Common Pleas took place on
October 29, 1365, 39 Edward III. ; and he continued to act
in that court till the end of the reign. He was not, how-
ever, re-appointed on the accession of Richard II. ; although
he attended the first parliament of that king, and was named
in it as a trier of petitions. Spelman calls him " clarissimus
nominis illius jurisconsultus."1

WILFORD, GERVASE DE.

B. E. 134]. Ch. B. E. 1350.

The manors of Clifton and Wilford, in Nottinghamshire,
both belonged to one family, one branch of which used the
name of Clifton, and the other that of Wilford. Gervase de
Wilford was of the latter, and was made baron of the Ex-
chequer on January 20, 1341, 14 Edward III. On the 17th
of the following March, he was instituted to the living of

1 Spelman's Icenia, 151. ; Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1610.
Hi. 4. ; Dugdale's Orig. 45. ; and Chron. Ser.

Rot. Pari. ii. 455.

132:

1377. 11ICHARD DE WILUGI1BY. 537

Barnack in Northamptonshire; and in 18 Edward III. he
assigned various lands in Norfolk to the prior and eonvcnt
of Shouldham in the latter county.

He succeeded William de Shareshull as chief baron, on
April 7, 1350, 24 Edward III., and presided in the court till
the thirty-fifth year, 1361; when William de Skipwith
superseded him. The entry on the Boll states that he was
exonerated, being broken down by age. In 1359 he obtained
the Bishop of Lincoln's license, " alere et fovere pueros sub
virga magistri, in lectura, cantu, et grammatica facultate, ad
augmentum cultus divini in sua parochia, et eosdem informare,
clericis post pestem diminutis." '

WILUGHBY, RICHARD DE.

Just. C. P. 1328. Just. K. B. 1330. Ch. K. B. 1332. Just. C. P. 1340.

The original surname of this family was Bugge, which was
changed to Wilughby from their lordship of that name in
Nottinghamshire. Richard de Wilughby, the father of the
judge, purchased the manors of Wollaton in the same county,
and Risley in Derbyshire; and dying in 18 Edward II., was
succeeded by the subject of the present notice, who had in
the preceding year been substituted for his father as the re-
presentative in parliament for his native county ; and was
about the same time appointed chief justice of the Common
Pleas in Ireland.2

On the accession of Edward III. he was removed from this
position ; and it would appear that he resumed his practice at
the English bar, as he is mentioned in the Year Book as an
advocate in the first year. On March 6, 1328, in the second
year, however, he was placed on the bench of the Common

1 Thoresby's Thoroton's Notts, i. 105. ; Ellis's Letters of eminent Literary
Men, 325.; Cal. InquU. p. m., ii. 119.; Cal. Rot. Pat. 138. 159. 174.
Dugdale.

Pari. Writs, ii. P. ii. 1616.; Cal. Hot. Pat. 78. 94. 97.

538 RICHARD DE WILUGHBY. Edvv. III.

Pleas in England, and was further advanced on September 2,
1329, to be the second justice of that court. On Decem-
ber 15, 1330, he was removed into the Court of King's Bench ;
and when Geoffrey le Scrope, the chief justice, went abroad
with the king, Wilughby occupied the chief seat during his
absence. The first occasion was from March 28 to Septem-
ber 20, 1332, 6 Edward III.; and again on September 10,
1333 ; and several times afterwards, till Geoffrey le Scrope
ultimately resigned in the middle of 1338. From this time
there is no doubt that Wilughby presided in the court until
he was displaced on July 24, 1340, 14 Edward III. ; and on
the 9th of October following he was restored to the Common
Pleas.

Stephen Birchington says that he was one of the judges
who were arrested by the king on his hasty return to England
at the end of November, 1340, for some alleged misconduct1 ;
and it is to be remarked that neither in the Book of Assizes,
nor in the Rolls of Parliament, nor in any other document,
does his name appear as a judge till the seventeenth year. He
then certainly had a new patent2, and from that date fines
were levied before him till Trinity, 31 Edward III.3; when,
as the Year Book does not record any of his judgments of a
later date, we are inclined to think that he retired from the
bench, though he lived for five years afterwards.

It is related of him that about Christmas, 1331, which was
before he was chief justice, he was attacked on his way to
Grantham by one Richard Fulville, and forcibly taken into a
wood, where a gang of lawless men, large bodies of whom
then infested the country, compelled him to pay a ransom for
his life of ninety marks.4 This violence, however disagree-
able to its object, had the happy effect of causing measures
to be taken to put a stop to these combinations.

1 Angl. Sac. i. 21. 9 Cal. Rot. Pat. 146.

3 Dugdale's Orig. 45. 4 Barnes's Edw. III., 62.

1327—1377. ROBERT DE "WODEHOUSE. 539

He (lied in 36 Edward III., possessed of extensive estates
in the counties of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln, &c,
besides a great house situate in " le Baly" in London.1

He married three wives; 1, Isabel, daughter of Sir Roger
Mortein; 2, Joanna ; and 3, Isabella ; and had several children.
Two of his descendants, Sir Henry Willoughby of Risley,
and Sir William Willoughby of Selston, were created
baronets, the former in 1611, and the latter in 1660; but
both titles became extinct on their deaths without male
issue. There was no other connection between this family
and the noble house of Willoughby de Eresby than by inter-
marriage in the reign of Henry VIII.2

WINCHESTER, Bishops of. See J. de Stratford, W. de
Edington, W. of Wykeham.

WODEHOUSE, ROBERT DE, Archdeacon of Richmond.

B. E. 1329.
See under the Reign of Edward IT.

Sir Bertram de Wodehouse, a Norfolk knight of great
possessions, the seventh in descent from Sir Constantine, who
flourished in the reign of Henry I., is thus described in a
rhyming pedigree of the family. He

" Attended that brave king, Edward the First,
Into the north, when he the Scots disperst,
Slew twenty thousand, Edinborough shook,
Dunbar and Barwiek, where they homage took."

By his wife, Muriel, daughter and heir of Hamo, lord of
Felton, he had three sons, the second of whom is the subject
of this notice. The eldest, Sir William, was the ancestor
of the present Baron Wodehouse of Kimberly, Norfolk,
whose great-grandfather was ennobled on October 26, 1797 ;
and the youngest, John, was steward of the household of

1 Cal. laquU. p. m., ii. 256.

"-' TbOTOton'a Notts, ii. 210.; Dugdale ; Brydges' Collins' Peerage, vii. 216.

540 ROBERT DE WODEHOUSE. Edw. III.

Richard de By nte worth, Bishop of London, chancellor to
Edward III., and was afterwards Chamberlain of Chester.1

Robert de Wodehouse being brought up to the church,
became chaplain to Edward II., from whom he received the
office of escheator, about the fourth year of his reign, which
he held for the two following years, acting now on the south
and now on the north of the Trent.2 On July 24, 1318,
12 Edward II., he was constituted a baron of the Exchequer
in the room of Ingelard de Warlee. He was summoned to
parliament among the judges as late as November, 1322,
16 Edward II. ; but as his name does not appear in the sub-
sequent parliaments of that reign, nor in the first two years of
that of Edward III., we are inclined to think that he then
resigned or was removed ; the more especially as we find that
a new baron, William de Fulburn, was appointed on June 1,
1323. It was probably about this time that he became
keeper of the king's wardrobe, an office which he held at
the end of that reign, and at the commencement of the
next.3

In the first year of Edward III. he was presented to
the archdeaconry of Richmond, and admitted by proxy on
September 24, 1328. On April 16, 1329, in the third year,
he was replaced on the Exchequer bench as second baron ;
but again resigned his seat on the 16th of September, when
he was made chancellor of the Exchequer, by which title he
had a grant to him in the next year of the manor of Ashele
with the bailiwick of the forest of Bere in Hampshire.4 In
12 Edward III., March 10, 1339, he was promoted to the
office of treasurer of the Exchequer, but seems only to have
continued in it till the following December.

He probably died in January, 1345, 19 Edward III., as

1 Blomefield's Norfolk, i. 751. 2 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 174 — 194-

3 Rot. Pari. ii. 388. ; Issue Roll, Michas. 1 Edw. III.

4 Abbrev. Hot. Orig. ii. 43. 127.

1327—1377. DAVID DE WOLLORE. 541

his will was proved on the 3rd of the following February,
wherein he ordered his body to be buried in the choir of the
Augustine monks at Stamford.1

WODESTOKE, JAMES DE.

Jcst. C. P. 1340.

James de Wodestoke wore the judicial ermine for a very
short period ; his patent, as a judge of the Common Pleas,
being dated on February 4, 1340, 14 Edward III., and his
death occurring either at the end of that or the beginning of
the next year. From the eighth year of that reign his name
occurs in several commissions for the trial of offences, gradu-
ally rising from the lowest to the highest step in them. His
place of birth may be presumed from his name, and from his
being employed in 9 Edward III. to raise money for the
king in Oxfordshire. At his death he was in possession of
the manor of Brunes Norton, in that county, and of that of
Holshute, in Hampshire, and Appleton, in Berkshire, in
which he was a commissioner of array in 13 Edward III.2

WOLLORE, DAVID DE.

M. R. ? 1 345.

The town of Wollore, in Northumberland, gave its name to
David de Wollore, of whom little is known before he became
master of the Rolls. The only previous notice we have met
with, is that he was sent to attend the parliament which
King Edward Balliol summoned in Scotland in 8 Ed-
ward III., that his mission occupied eighteen days, and that
he was allowed three shillings a day for his ezpences.3
There is no evidence to show that he was a clerk in the

1 Dugdale ; Le Neve, 325.

* Dugdalc's Orig. 45. J Cal. Inquis. \k m, ii. 99. ; Hot. Pari. ii. 78. 449. ;
Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 99.; N. Feeder*, ii. 911. 1070.
3 N. Feeders, ii. hi:,. 897.

542

DAVID DE WOLLORE.

Edw. III.

Chancery, nor does the date of his appointment as master of
the Rolls appear. He is first mentioned in that office on
July 2, 1346, 20 Edward III. ] ; but we are inclined to think
that he had then filled it nearly a year ; because his prede-
cessor, John de Thoresby, is never described with the title
after he was constituted keeper of the Privy Seal, which took
place before July 26, 1345; and it is extremely improbable
that there should have been so long a vacancy in a place of
such importance.

On November 27, 1344, the king, by writ of Privy Seal2,
granted to him the custody of the messuage in St. Dunstan's,
Fleet Street, called " Hospicium de Clyfford," belonging to
Robert de Clyfford, who had died in the preceding year, until
the heir attained his majority. In this document he is called
only "clericus noster," and it would seem to have been
granted before he was master of the Rolls ; but even if he
had received the appointment, the official rank was not un-
commonly omitted in private beneficial grants similar to this.
Two instances occur of records with regard to Wollore him-
self, when he was undoubtedly master of the Rolls, in which
he is not so called.3

He continued in that office about five-and-twenty years,
during which time he frequently had the custody of the
Great Seal : on the death of John de Offord, from May 28,
to June 16, 1349 ; and during the absence of John de
Thoresby, from September 2, to October 8, 1351 ; and in
August, 1353; two or three of the clerks in Chancery being
joined with him in the trust.4 He was receiver of petitions in
the parliaments from 36 to 43 Edward III.5

1 N. Foedera, iii. 85.

2 Rot. Pat. 19 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 3. Mr. Thomas Duffus Hardy most
obligingly furnished me with a copy of this from the records in the Tower.

3 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii. 284. ; N. Foedera, iii. 266.

4 Rot. Claus. 23 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 8. 10.; 25 Edw. III., m. 12. ; 27 Edw.
III. m. 6.

* Rot. Pari. ii. 268—299.

1327—1377. WILLIAM DE ZOUCIIE. 543

In his clerical character he was a canon of St. Paul's,
London, and rector of Bishop's Wearmouth, in Durham ; his
successor in which was inducted in 1370, the year of his
death.1

WYKEHAM, WILLIAM OF, Dean of St. Martin's,
London; Archdeacon of Northampton, Lincoln, and
Buckingham ; Bishop of Winchester.

Chancellor, 1367.
See under the Reign of Richard II.

YORK, Archbishops of. See W. de Melton ; J. de
Thoresby.

ZOUCHE DE HARINGWORTH, WILLIAM DE.

Just. Itin. 1330.

Three eminent individuals, named William de Zouche,
nourished about this time ; one being of Ashby, and the
other two of Haringwbrth. Of the two latter, one held the
barony, and the other was of the clerical profession, promi-
nently employed in the service of the second and third Ed-
wards ; and raised to the office of treasurer by the latter.
He was Archdeacon of Exeter in 1330, Dean of York in
1336, Archbishop of York in 1342, and died in 1352.
There are two reasons which decide us in considering
that the justice itinerant into Derbyshire in 4 Edward III.,
1330, was the baron and not the priest. Had it been the
latter he would probably have been described by his clerical
title and dignity ; and the only other commission of justices
itinerant issued during that year was headed, as we conceive
this to have been, by a nobleman.

If this be the case, William de Zouche was the grandson
of Alan de Zouche, the justicier in the reign of Henry III.,

• Surtees'a Durham, i. 3SI,

544

WILLIAM DE ZOUCIIE.

Edvv. III.

through his younger son Eudo ; an account of whose succes-
sors was given in the last volume (p. 529.).

The manor of Haringworth, in Northamptonshire, with
other extensive property, came into William's possession at
the death of his mother, Milicent, one of the sisters and co-
heirs of George de Cantelupe, Baron of Bergavenny, in 27
Edward I. Under Edward II. he distinguished himself as
an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster, and ultimately assisted
in the deposition of that unfortunate monarch.

He married Maude, the daughter of John Lord Lovel of
Tichmersh, by whom he had a son named Eudo, whom he
survived ; and, after serving Edward III. in his foreign wars
for nearly twenty-six years, he died on March 12, 1352, and
was succeeded in his honours by his grandson William, the
son of Eudo.1

1 Pari. Writs, ii. 1650.; Dugdale's Baron, i. 69., Cliron. Scries.

INDEX

TO THE THIRD VOLUME.

• . ' 'ili,' Home* of the Judge* whose Lives are given in this Volume are printed in
Small Capitals.

Abel, John. Edw. II. 210.
Abyndon, Richard de. Edw. I. 50.;

Edw. II. 211.
Aldeburgh, Richard de. Edw. III.

390.
Allerthorpe, Laurence de. Edw. III.

391.
Apprentices, 48. 372.
Ashe, Alan de. Edw. III. 391.
Askeby, Robert de. Edw. II. 212.
Asty, Henry de. Edw. III. 392.
Attorneys, 48.

Attorney General, 44. 207. 368.
Anngerville. See Richard de Bury.
Aylestone, Robert de. Edw. II.

214.; Edw. III. 392.
Ayremynne, Richard de, Chancellor

of Norwich and Salisbury. Edw.

II. 214.
Ayremynne, William de, Bishop of

Norwich. Edw. II. 215.

Bacon, John. Edw. II. 219.

Bacon, Thomas. Edw. III. 393.

Baldock, Rai.vh de, Archdeacon of
Middlesex, Dean and Bishop of
London. Edw. I. 50. ; Edw. II.
220.

Dai. dock, Robert de, Archdeacon of
Middlesex. Edw. II. 222.

Bankwell, John de. Edw. I. 50. ;
Edw. II. 225.

Bankwell, Roger de. Edw. III.
393.

Baedklby, Robert dx. Edw. I. 50.;
Edw. II. 226.

Barnstaple, Archdeacon of. Set (i.
Giffard, W. de Melton.

Barons of Exchequer. Set Exche-
quer.

VOL. HI.

Barton, John de. Edw. I. 50.
Basset, William. Edw. III. 394.
Bateseord, John de. Edw. I. 51.;

Edw. II. 229.
Bath and Wells, Bishops of. See R.

Burnel, W. de Marchia, J. de Dro-

kenesford.
Baukwell. See J. de Bankwell.
Baumburgh, Thomas de. Edw. III.

395.
Baynard, Robert. Edw. III. 395.
Bealknap, Robert. Edw. III. 395.
Beckingham, Elias de. Edw. 1. 52.
Bek, Thomas, Archdeacon of Dorset,

Bishop of St. David's. Edw. I.

53.
Beler, Roger. Edw. II. 229.
Bella Fago, Roger de. Edw. I.

55.
Benstede, John dm. Edw. I. 55. ;

Edw. II. 231.
Bereeord, Ralph de. Edw. III.

397.
Bereeord, Richard de. Edw. II.

234.
Bereeord, William de. Edw. I. 55. ;

Edw. II. 234.
Berewyk, John de. Edw. I. 56. ;

Edw. II 237.
Berks, Archdeacon of. See R. de Ay-

leston.

BxENlNGHAMj R.ICHARD DX. Edw. II.

238.

Beverley, Provosts of. See P. de Ches-
ter, W. de Melton.

BlaSTOH, Thomas DX. Edw. 111.
397.

BloCLXT, John im . Edw. I I I.

i!m inobroke, Nicholas de. Edw,
II.

N N

546

INDEX.

Boreham, Harvey de. Edw. I. 56.
Bosco, John de. Edw. I. 56'.
Botetourt, John de. Edw. I. 57.

BoUDON, WlLLIAM DE. Edw. III.

399.
Bourchier, John de. See Bousser.
Bourchier, Robert de. See Bousser.
Bourne, William he. Edw. II.

239.
Bousser, John de. Edw. II. 240. ;

Edw. III. 399.
Bousser, Robert he. Edw. III.

400.
Boyland, Richard he. Edw. I. 59.
Brabazon, Roger le. Edw. I. 60. ;

Edw. II. 241.
Braboef, William de. Edw. I. 60.
Brayton, Thomas de. Edw. III.

402.
Breton, John le. Edw. I. 61.
Brewes, William de, punished for in-
sulting a judge, 43.
Broclesby, William de. Edw. III.

403.
Brome, Adam de. Edw. III. 404.
Brompton, William de. Edw. I.

62.
Brundish, Robert. Edw. III. 404.
Buckingham, Archdeacon of. SeeW.

of Wykeham.
Bukyngham, John de, Archdeacon of

Northampton, Dean of Lichfield,

Bishop of Lincoln. Edw. III.

405.
Burgh, Hugh de. Edw. II. 243.

BURGHERSH, HeNRY DE, Bishop of

Lincoln. Edw. III. 406.
Burnell, Robert, Archdeacon of

York, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Edw. I. 63.
Burnham, Thomas de. Edw. I. 67.
Burnton, William de. Edw. I. 68.
Burstall, William de. Edw. I IT.

409.
Burt, Richard de, Archdeacon of

Northampton, Dean of Wells,

Bishop of Durham. Edw. III.

409.
Bynteworth, Richard de, Bishop of

London. Edw. III. 414.
Byrlay, William de. Edw. I. 68.
Byrun, John de. Edw. I. 69.

Caen, John de. Edw. I. 71.
Cambhou, Walter de. Edw. I. 72.
Cantebrig, John de. Edw. III.
415.

Cantebrig, Thomas de. Edw. IT,

243.
Canterbury, Archbishops of. See W.

Reginald, J. de Stratford, J. de

Offord, S. de Langham.
Canterbury, Archdeacons of. See

J. de Langton, R. de Stratford.
Carleton, William de. Edw I. 73;

Edw. II. 244.
Cave, Hugo de. Edw. I. 73.
Cave, John de. Edw. I. 73.
Cavendish, John de. Edw. III.

416.
Chancellors, list of, under Edward I.

5—11. 24.; Edward II. 179—189.

200. ; Edward III. 320—326. 352.

Title of " Chancellor of England "

and " Lord Chancellor" introduced,

179.
Chancery, 177.336. ; Masters or Clerks

in, 13. 190. 332.
Chaynel, John. Edw. II. 246.
Chester, Peter de, Provost of Be-
verley. Edw. I. 74.
Chichester, Bishops of. See J. de

Langton, R. de Stratford.
Chichester, Dean of. See W. de

Greenfield.
Claver, John. Edw. III. 416.
Clement's Inn, 387.
Cliderhou, Robert de. Edw. II.

246.
Cliff, Henry de. Edw II. 247. ;

Edw. III. 417.
Cliff, William de. Edw. II. 247.
Clifford, Roger de. Edw. I. 74.
Clifford's Inn, 383.
Cobbeham, John de. Edw. I. 77.
Colneye, William de. Edw. II. 249.
Columbiers, Mathew de. Edw. I.

79.
Common Pleas, Court of, 15. 26.

194. 202. 343. 354.; Chief Justices
of, 20. 195. 344.; Judges of, 21.

195. 345.
Converts, House of, 328.
Cornwall, Archdeacon of. See J. de

St. Paul.
Cosh ale, William de. Edw. III.

418.
Cotyngham, Thomas de. Edw. III.

419.
Coventry, Archdeacon of. See J. de

Kirkeby.
Counsel, 208. 373.
Courteneye, Hugh de, Earl of Devon.

Edw. III. 419.

INDEX.

547

Craucombe, John de. Edw I. 81.
Creeping, Richard lie. Edw, I. 82.
Cressingham, Hugh de. Edw. I.

82.
Cressy, William he. Edw. I. 84.
Crokedayk, Adam de. Edw. I. 84.
Crokesley, John de. Edw. I. 85.

Delves, John de. Edw. III. 420.
Denum, William de. Edw. III.

422.
Devon, Earl of. See H. de Courte-

neye.
D'Eyncourt, Edmund. Edw. I. 85.;

Edw. II. 249.
Doncaster, John de. Edw. II. 251.
Dorset, Archdeacon of. See T. Bek.
Drayton, Nicholas de. Edw. III.

423.
Drayton, Thomas tie. See Bray ton.
Drokenesfoud, John de, Bishop of

Bath and Wells. Edw. I. 86.
Dublin, Archbishop of. See J. de

St. Paul.
Durham, Bishop of. See It. de

Bury.
Dyve, William de. Edw. II. 252.

Edenestowe, Henry de. Edw. III.

424.
Edenham, Geoffrey de. . Edward

III. 424.
Edington, William de, Bishop of

Winchester. Edw. Ill 425.
EDWARD I.; Survey of reign, 1.
EDWARD II.; Survey of reign,

177.
EDWARD III. ; Survey of reign,

315.
Ellksworth, Simon de. Edw. I.

87.
Ely," Archdeacon of. See J. de Of-

ford.
Ely, Bishop of. See J. de Kirkeby,

J. de Ilotham, S. de Langham.
Essex, Archdeacon of. See R. de la

Leye.

Evkkdon, Jons de, Chancellor of

Exeter, Dean of London. Edw. II.

252.
Evkkdon, Wii.i.iam dk. Edw. II.

253. ; Edw. III. 427.
El i sham, Thomas de. Edu\ 111.427.
Exeter, Chancellor of. See It. de

Hengham, J. de Everdon.
Exchequer, Court of, 16. 27. 196.
• bief Barons of,

196. 348.; Barons of, 23. 198.
350.
Eyneeield, Henry de. Edw. I. 88.

Fastolf, Nicholas. Edw. III. 428.
Faunt, William. Edw. III. 429.
Fencotes, Thomas de. Edw. III.

429.
Fermhaud, Nicholas. Edw. I. 88.

FlSHEBURNE, TlIOMAS DE. Edw. I. 89. J

Edw. II. 253.
Fits- William, Ralph. Edw. I.

89.
Foxle, John de. Edw. II. 254.
Fraunceys, John. Edw. 11.255.
Freningham, Ralph de. Edw. I.

91.
Friskeney, Walter de. Edw. II.

257.; Edw. III. 430.
Fulburn, William dk. Edw. II.

257. ; Edw. III. 431.
Fulcon, Robert. Edw. I. 92.
Fulthorpe, Roger de. Edw. III.

432.
Fyncheden, William de. Edw. 111.

432.

Garton, Thomas de. Edw. III.

443.
Gieeard, Godfrey, Archdeacon of

Barnstaple, Bishop of Worcester.

Edw. I. 93.
Giselham, William de. Edw. I. 94.
Gloucester, Walter de. Edw. 1 1.

257.
Goldinoton, William de. Edw. II.

258.
Gkas, Nicholas le. Edw. I. 95.
Gray's Inn, 381.

Green, Henrt. Edw. III. 433.
Greenfield, Wii.i.iam de, Dean of

Chichester, Archbishop of York.

Edw. I. 96.
Gkkystokk, Hkshv dk. Edw. Ill

435.
GrtMESBT, Edmi MB DE. Edw. III.

43€.
GuLDKioui), Henrt de. Edw. I. 97, ,

Edw. II. 2.1!).

Gunthorp, William. Edw. 111.
Gurdon, Adam. Edw. I. 97.

Haohman, Nicholas. Edw. III.
436.

1 I AMI'.! KY, I I 1'MIV Dl . Va\\Y. 111.

Hamilton, Wii.i.iam de, Archdeacon

a, nl Dean <.!' Y..ik. Edw. I
« 2

548

INDEX.

Harweden, Robert de. Edw. I.

101.
Hauteyn, Hamon. Edw. I. 101.
Hegham, Roger de. Edw. I. 102. ;

Edw. II. 260.
Helyun, Waiter de. Edw. I. 102.
Hengham, Ralph de, Chancellor of

Exeter. Edw. I. 103. ; Edw. II.

261.
Heppescotes, Thomas de. Edw.

til. 438.
Herlaston, William de. Edw. II.

264. ; Edw. III. 439.
Herle, William de. Edw. II. 264. ;

Edw. III. 440.
Hertelfole, Geoffrey de. Edw. I.

103. ; Edw. II. 264.
Hertford, Robert de. Edw. I. 103.
Heym, Peter. Edw. I. 104.
Heym, Stephen. Edw. I. 104.
Hildesley, John de. Edw. III. 443.
Hillary, Roger. Edw. III. 443.
Hopton, Walter de. Edw. I. 105.
Hotham, John de, Bishop of Ely.

Edw. II. 265. ; Edw. III. 444.
Houghton, Adam de, Bishop of St.

David's. Edw. III. 447.
Houghton, John de. Edw. III.

447.
Howard, William. Edw. I. 107. ;

Edw. II. 265.
Huse, James. Edw. III. 448.
Hyde, Thomas de la. Edw. I. 107.

Ifeld, John de. Edw. III. 448.

Inge, John. Edw. III. 449.

Inge, William. Edw. I. 108. ; Edw.

II. 268.
Ingleby, Thomas de. Edw. III. 450.
Inns of Court and Chancery, 375.
Insula, John de. Edw. I. 108. ;

Edw. II. 270.

Judges, corruption of, 38. 365. ; de-
lays of, 205. ; contempt of, punish-
ed, 43. ; robes and salaries of, 44.
357.; oath, 360.; knighthood of,
362.

Justices Itinerant, 28. 37. 204. 359.

Justices of Trailbaston, 28. 37. 204.

Keepers of the Seal, 11. 179. 320.
Kelleshull, Richard de. Edw. III.

450.
Kendal, Hugh de. Edw. I. 108.
Kerdeston, William de. Edw. I,

109.

King's Bench, Court of, 16. 25. 192.

201. 337. 353.-, Chief Justices of, 17.

193. 338.; Judges of, 19. 194.341.
Kirkeby, Gilbert de. Edw. I. 1 10.
Kirkeby, John de, Archdeacon of

Coventry, Bishop of Ely. Edw. I.

110.
Kirketon, Roger de. Edw. III.

450.
Knovill, Gilbert de. Edw. I. 112.
Knyvet, John. Edw. III. 451.

Langham, Simon de, Abbot of
Westminster, Bishop of Ely, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. Edw. III.
453.

Langton, John de, Treasurer of
Wells, Archdeacon of Canterbury,
Bishop of Chichester. Edw. I.
113.; Edw. II. 272.

Langton, Walter de, Bishop of Lich-
field and Coventry. Edw. I. 113.

Leicester, Peter de. Edw. I. 116.

Leicester, Roger de. Edw. I. 116.

Leuknore, Geoffrey de. Edw. I.
117.

Leye, Roger de la, Archdeacon of
Essex, Dean of London. Edw. I.
119.

Lichfield and Coventry, Bishops of.
See W. de Langton, R. de North-
burgh.

Lichfield, Dean of. See J. de Buk-
yngham.

Lichfield, Treasurer of. See J. de
Sandale.

Lincoln, Archdeacons of. See J. de
Stratford, W. of Wykeham, R. de
Ravenser.

Lincoln, Bishops of. See H. de
Burghersh, J. de Bukyngham.

Lincoln, Deans of. See P. de Wilughby,
J. de Offbrd.

Lincoln's Inn, 380.

LlTTLEBERE, MARTIN DE. Edw. I.

120.
Lodelowe, Thomas de. Edw. III.

456.
London, Bishops of. See R. de Bal-

dock, R. de Bynteworth.
London, Deans of. See R. de Bal-

dock, R. de la Leye, ? J. de Sandale,

J. de Everdon.
Lord Chancellor, 179.
Loveday, Roger. Edw. I. 121.
Lovel, John. Edw. I. 122.
Lovetot, John de. Edw. I. 123.

INDEX.

549

Louther, Hugh de. Edw. I. 123.;

Edw. II. 275.
Louther, Thomas dk. Edw. III.

457.
Lvld, Thomas, Bishop of Ely, Trial

'of, 388.
Lymbergh, Adam de. Edw. III.

458.
Lythegrenes, John de. Edw. I.

124.

Maddingley, Robert de. Edw II.

277.
Malberthorp, Robert de. Edw. II.

277.; Edw. III. 459.
Malet, Robert. Edw. I. 125.
Mallore, Peter. Edw. I. 125.;

Edw. II. 278.
Malo Lacu, or Mauley, Peter de.

Edw. I. 125.
Marchia, William de, Bishop of

Bath and Wells. Edw. I. 127.
Mareschall, Thomas le, a serjeant,

action against, 47.
Martin, William. Edw. I. 127.
Mauley, Peter de. See Malo Lacu.
Melton, William de, Dean of St.

Martin's, London, Archdeacon of

Barnstaple, Provost of Beverley,

Archbishop of York. Edw. II.

279; Edw. III. 461.
Meres, Roger de, Edw.. III. 463.
Mkkton, Walter de, Bishop of Ro-
chester. Edw. I. 129.
Meting ham, John de. Edw. I. 131.
Middlesex* Archdeacons of. See

Ralph de Baldock, Robert de Bal-

dock, A. de Offord.
Mddleton, Adam de. Edw. I. 132.;

Edw. 11.279.
Middlxtoh, Peter de. Edw. III.

465.
Middlxtoh, William de. Edw. I.

132.
Mixfikld, William de. Edw. III.

466.
Montefort, Henry de. Edw. I.

133.
Mortimer, William de. Edw. I.

134.; Edw. II. 280.
Motelow, Henry de. Edw. III. 466.
Moubray, John de. Edw. III. 466.
Mi teord, John de. Edw. I. 134.;

Edw. II. 280. ; Edw. III. 467.

NXWBALD, (.i(ii l ki \ DK, Edw. I. 134.

Newi-nham, Thomas de. Edw. I I 1

NORMANVILL, ThOMAS DE, Edw. I.
135.

Northbury, Roger de, Archdeacon

of Richmond, Bishop of Lichfield

and Coventry. Edw. II. 281.
Northburg, William de. Edw. I.

136.
Northampton, Archdeacons of. See

It. de Bury, J. de Bukyngham,

W. of Wykeham.
Northwell, William de. Edw. III.

469.
Northwood, Roger de. Edw. I. 136.
Norwich, Bishops of. See J. Salmon,

W. de Ayremynne.
Norwich, Chancellor of. See R. de

Ayremynne.
Norwich, Walter de. Edw. II.

282. ; Edw. III. 469.
Nottingham, Robert de. Edw. III.

471.
Notton, William. Edw. III. 471.

Odyham, Walter de. Edw. I. 137.
Offord, Andrew de, Archdeacon of

Middlesex. Edw. III. 472.
Offord, John de, Archdeacon of

Ely, Dean of Lincoln, Archbishop

of Canterbury. Edw. III. 472.
Okham, John de. Edw. II. 282.
Ormesby, William de. Edw. I. 138.;

Edw. II. 283.
Osgodby, Adam de. Edw, I. 138.;

Edw. II. 284.

Pardishowe, Thomas de. Edw. III.

476.
Paries, Eustace and John, punished

for insulting a judge, 43.
Parning, Robert. Edw. III. 476.
Passele, Edmund de. Edw. II. 286.
Penecestre, Stephen de. Edw. I.

138.
Percehay, Henry de. Edw. III.

478.
Picbkfobd, Geoffrey de. Edw. I.

140.
Pleadings to be in English, 367.
Plxstk, Robert dk. Edw. 1 1 1. 478.
Polk, William de la. Edw. III.

478.
Powxa, Walter. Edw. III. 481.
Preston, OlLBXRl DK. Edw. I. 110.
Kadkci.yvk, Thomas dk. Edw. ill.

481.

IlADIMi All , .I'HIN Dl Edw, I I I

482.

550

INDEX.

Hades well, John de. Edw. II.

287.
Randolph, John. Edw. I. 143.;

Edw. II. 288.; Edvv. III. 482.
Havcnser, Hichard de, Archdeacon

of Lincoln. Edw. III. 484.
Reginald, Walter, Bishop of Wor-
cester, Archhishop of Canterbury.

Edw. II. 288.
Reporters, 49. 209. 388.
Retford, Robert de. Edw. I. 143. ;

Edw. II. 291.
Retford, William de. Edw. III.

484.
Reygate, John de. Edw. I. 143.
Richmond, Archdeacon of. See R. de

Wodehouse.
Rochester, Bishop of. See W. de

Merton.
Rochester, Solomon de. Edw. I.

144.

RODEBOROUGH, MlLO DE. Edw. II.

293.
Rolls House, 328.
Rolls, Masters or Keepers of, under

Edw. I. 12. 24.; Edw. II. 189.

200. ; Edw. III. 326. 352.
Roubury, Gilbert de. Edw. I. 146.;

Edw. II. 293.

Sadington, Robert de. Edw. III.

485.
Sadington, Thomas de. See Sodington.
Saham, Richard de. Edw. J. 146.
Saham, William de. Edw. I. 146.
St. David's, Bishops of. See T. Bek,

J. de Thoresby.
St. Martin's, London, Deans of. See

W. de Melton, W. of Wykeham.
St. Omero, William de. Edw. I.

147.
St. Paul, John de, Archdeacon of

Cornwall, Archbishop of Dublin.

Edw. III. 487.
St. Valerico, John de. Edw. I.

148.
St. Vigore, Thomas de. Edw. I.

148.
Salisbury, Chancellor of. See R. de

Ayremynne.
Salmon, John, Bishop of Norwich.

Edw. II. 294.
Salveyn, Gerard. Edw. I. 149.
San dale, John de, Treasurer of Lich-
field, Dean of London, Bishop of

Winchester. Edw. II. 296.
Sandavich, Ralph de. Edw. I. 150.

Saunford, John de, Archbishop of

Dublin. Edw. I. 151.
Say, Geoffrey de. Edw. II. 298.

ScARDEBURGH, ROBERT DE. Edw. III.

489.
Scorbubgh, Robert de. Edw. III.

490.
Scothou, William de. Edw. III.

492.
Scotre, Roger de. Edw. II. 300.
Scott, William. Edw. III. 492.
Scrope, Geoffrey le. Edw. II.

300.; Edw. III. 493.
Scrope, Henry le. Edw. II. 300. ;

Edw. III. 499.
Seal, 179. 316.
Serjeants, 46. 208. 370.
Setone, Thomas de. Edw. III.

502.
Seyton, Roger de. Edw. I. 152.
Shardelowe, John de. Edw. III.

503.
Shareshull, William de. Edw. III.

504.
Shirland, Almaric de. Edw. III.

506.
Shordich, John de. Edw. III. 506.
Skipwith, William de. Edw. III.

508.
Snyterton, Thomas de. Edw. I.

153.
Sodington, Thomas de. Edw. I. 154.
Spaigne, Nicholas de. Edw. III.

508.
Spigurnel, Henry de. Edw. I. 155.;

Edw. II. 301.
Stanes, Richard de. Edw. I. 155.
Stafleton, Milo de. Edw. I. 155.
Stapleton, Nicholas le. Edw. I.

156.
Staunton, Hervey de. Edw. I. 157.;

Edw. II. 303.
Steyngrave, Adam de. Edw. III.

508.
Stircheleye, Walter de. Edw. L

157.
Stokes, John de. Edw. III. 509.
Stonore, John de. Edw. II. 306. ;

Edw. III. 510.
Stouford, John de. Edw. III. 512.
Stowe, William de. Edw. III. 514.
Strange, Roger le. Edw. I. 157.
Stratford, John de, Archdeacon of

Lincoln, Bishop of Winchester,

Archbishop of Canterbury. Edw.

III. 515.
Stratford, Robert de. Archdeacon

INDKX.

551

of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester.

Edw. III. 519.
Stbatton, Adam dk. Edw. I. 159.
Sutton, Ei.ias dk. Edw. I. 162.

Tabula Marmorea, 177.
Tank, William. Edw. III. 522.
Temple, 381.
Terms, 15. 366.
Thavie's Inn, 385.
Thoresby, John be, Bishop of St.

David's and Worcester, Archbishop

of York. Edw. III. 522.
Thornton, Gilbert de. Edw. I. 163.
Thorpe, John de. Edw I. 164. ;

Edw. II. 306.
Thorpe, Robert de. Edw. I. 1 64.
Thorpe, Robert be. Edw. III. 525.
Thorpe, Robert de. Edw. III. 526.
Thorpe, William de. Edw. III.

527.
Toutheby, Gilbert de. Edw. II.

307. ; Edw. III. 531.
Trailbaston, 28 — 38. 360.
Travers, John. Edw. III. 532.
Trevaignon, John de. Edw. III.

533.
Trikingham, Lambert de. Edw. I.

164.; Edw. II. 307.; Edw. III.

533.
Trussel, William. Edw. II. 307.

Vavasour, William. Edw. I. 164.
Vaux, John de. Edw. I. 166.
Venality of officers, 205.

v, William de. Edw. I. 167.

Waledene, Humphrey de. Edw. I.
169. ; Edw. II. 309.

Walkingham, Alan de. Edw. I.
169.

Walsingham, Richard de. Edw. I.
169.; Edw. II. 311.

Ware, Ri< -hard i>k, Abbot of West-
minster. Edw. I. 169.

Wahlkk, Ingelard de. Edw. II.
311.

Wath, Michael de. Edw. III. 534.

Wellefokd, Geoffrey dk. Edw. II.

312.
Wells, Dean of. See R. de Bury.
Wells, Treasurer of. See J. de Langton.
Westcote, John de. Edw. II. 313.
Westminster, Abbots of. See R. de

Ware, S. de Langham.
Westminster clock furnished, 41.
Weyland, Thomas de. Edw. I. 170.
Wetland, William de. Edw. I. 1 72.
Wii'hingham, William de. Edw. III.

536.

WlLFORD, GERVASE DE. Edw. I IT.

536.

Wh.ughby, Philip de, Dean of Lin-
coln. Edw. I. 173.

Wilughby, Richard de. Edw. III.
537.

Winchester, Bishop of. See J. de
Sandale, J. de Stratford, W. de
Edington, W. of Wykeham.

Wodehouse, Robert de, Archdeacon
of Richmond. Edw. II. 314. ;
Edw. III. 539.

Wodestoke, James de. Edw. 111.
541.

Wogan, John. Edw. 1.171.

Wollore, David de. Edw. III. 541.

Worcester, Bishops of. See G. GifFard,
W. Reginald.

Wykeham, William of, Dean of St.
Martin's, London ; Archdeacon of
Northampton, Lincoln, and Buck-
ingham ; Bishop of Winchester.
Edw. III. 543.

Wymburn, Walter de. Edw. I. 175.

Wynton, Elias de. Edw. I. 176.

Wyther, William. Edw. I. 176.

York, Archbishop of. See W. de
Greenfield, W. de Melton, J. de
Thoresby.

York, Archdeacons of. See R. Burnel,
J. de Craucombe, W. de Hamilton.

York, Dean of. See W. de Hamilton.

ZOUCHE DE HaIUNGWORTH, WlLLIAM

de. Edw. III. 543.

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