A tomb was afterwards erected there to his memory, which represents him in a kneeling posture, in his Judge's robes, with a large purse tied His tomb and epitaph. to his girdle, a long dagger in his right hand, and his wives kneeling on either side of him.* A brass plate, affixed to it, bears an inscription, of which the following words are still legible : "Orate pro Gulielmo Gascoyne et Elizabethe et Johannæ uxoribus ejus Hic jacet Gulielmus Gascoyne nuper Capitalis Justiciar. de Banco Henrici nuper Regis Angl. Obiit Die Dominica 17 Dec. A.D. The rest of the brass plate is wanting, and is said to have been torn off by one of Cromwell's soldiers during the civil wars. His wife Elizabeth was the daughter and sole heiress of Sir Alexander Mowbray, of Rutlington, in the county of York; and his wife Joan was the daughter of Sir William Pickering, and relict of Sir Ralph Greystoke, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. By both of them he had a numerous issue; and several great families, still flourishing, trace him in their line. His eldest son, Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, was one of Henry V.'s best officers, and gained high distinction, not only in the Battle of Agincourt, but in the subsequent campaigns of Bedford and Talbot. I must confess that I am proud of Sir William Gascoigne as an English Judge, and reluctant to bid. him adieu for others of much less celebrity and much less virtue. *There is a good portrait of him from the monument, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xli. p. 566. + The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xli. p. 623, professes to give this inscription, but interpolates, after "A.D.," "1412, 14 Hen. Quatre." CHAPTER IV. CHIEF JUSTICES TILL THE APPOINTMENT OF CHIEF JUSTICE FITZJAMES BY KING HENRY VIII. A.D. 1413. Hankford. SIR WILLIAM HANKFORD, the next Chief Justice of the King's Bench, although he was eminent in the law during three reigns, is hardly recollected for anything he did in his lifetime, except the ingenious and successful manner in which he plotted his own death. He is one of the "Worthies of Sir William Devon" for whom his countrymen claim the merit of having committed the Prince of Wales to prison; and he certainly was born at Amerie in that county, whatever may be the share of glory which he confers upon it. Till the termination of his career, all that I can relate respecting him on authentic testimony is, that he was called serjeant in the 14th of Richard II., was made a Puisne Judge of the Common Pleas in 21st of Richard II., was promoted to be Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1st of Henry V.,* and was reappointed to that office in 1st of Henry VI.† His in He had been a well-conducted man, but he was of a melancholy temperament, and he became. tired of life, notwithstanding the high posi- genious tion which he occupied, and the respect in There is some doubt as to the exact date of this promotion.. It must have been subsequent to 22nd March, 1413, when Henry V. issued writs for his first parliament, to which Sir William Gascoigne was summoned; and prior to 1st suicide. December, 1413, for on that day writs which he was held. He wished to shuffle off this mortal coil, but he was afraid to commit suicide in any vulgar way, at a time when a verdict of felo de se always followed such an act, and the body of the supposed delinquent was buried in a cross road with a stake thrust through it. He at last resorted to this novel expedient, by which he hoped not only that the forfeiture of his goods would be saved, but that his family would escape the anguish and the shame arising from the belief that he had fallen by his own hand. Several of his deer having been stolen, he gave strict orders to his keeper to shoot any person met with in or near the park, at night, who would not stand when challenged. He then, in a dark night, threw himself in the keeper's way, and, refusing to stand when challenged, was shot dead upon the spot. "This story" (says Prince, the author of WORTHIES OF DEVON*) "is authenticated by several writers, and the constant traditions of the neighbourhood; and I, myself, have been shown the rotten stump of an old oak under which he is said to have fallen, and it is called HANKFORD'S OAK to this day." A.D. 14221442. His monument stands in Amerie church, with the following epitaph inscribed upon it: His monument and epitaph. "Hic jacet Will. Hankford, Miles, quondam Capitalis His figure is pourtrayed kneeling; and out of his mouth, in a label, these two sentences proceed : : 1. "Miserere mei Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam!” Fuller, in a true Christian spirit, adds: "No charitable reader, for one unadvised act, will condemn his * Page 362. memory, who, when living, was habited with all requisites for a person of his place."* Obscure Chief Justices passed During the reign of Henry V., the nation, intent on the conquest of France, paid little attention to the administration of justice or domestic policy, and for the first twenty years of the reign of Henry VI. the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench continued to be held by very obscure men,-Sir William Cheyne,† Sir John Ivyn,‡ and Sir John Hody,§-who seem decently to have discharged their judicial duties, without gaining distinction either by decisions or law reforms, and without mixing in any of the political struggles which agitated the country. The reader will therefore willingly excuse me from inquiring into their birth, their education, their marriages, and their places of sepulture. over. Fortescue. Next comes one of the most illustrious of Chief Justices, Sir John Fortescue,|| for ever to be had A.D. 1442. in remembrance for his judicial integrity, Sir John and for his immortal treatise DE LAUDIBVS LEGVM ANGLIE. But, as he held the Great Seal of England while in exile, although he never filled the "marble chair" in Westminster Hall, I have already sounded his praise to the best of my ability in the LIVES OF THE CHANCELLORS.T He held the office of Chief Justice above twenty years with universal applause. During the latter half of this period the War of the Roses was raging; and he, being a devoted Lancastrian, not only sat in judgment on Yorkists when indicted before him, but * Fuller, i. 281. + 21st January, 1424-5. 20th January, 1439-40. 13th April, 1440. It would seem that in his time the judges' salaries had been thought to require an increase, as we meet with this entry: "Johannes Hody Capitalis Justic. habet CXL. marcas || 25th Jan. 1442-43. 18 March, 1461. valiantly met them in the field. At last, after the fatal battle of Towton, where he fought by the side of Morton, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, he fled into Scotland, and, Edward IV. being placed on the throne, he was superseded by a Yorkist Chief Justice. This was SIR JOHN MARKHAM,* of whom some particulars are known which may not be uninteresting. Sir John His professional pro gress. He was descended from an ancient family (the Markhams of that ilk) who had been seated at Markham in Nottinghamshire from time immemorial, possessing a small estate which had remained without addition or diminution for many generations. John, born in the reign of Henry IV., not contented to plough his paternal acres without being (although entitled to coat armour) more wealthy than yeomen and merchants who lived near him, determined to eclipse his ancestors by following the law, which was now becoming the highway to riches and distinction. Having been called to the bar when very young, by great industry, joined to great sharpness, he soon got into extensive practice, and began to realise the prospects which had dazzled him when a boy. In the year 1444 he was placed at the head of his profession by being made King's Serjeant, and soon after accepted the office of a Puisne Judge of the Court of King's Bench, probably hoping ere long to reach the dignity of a chiefship. Such hopes, however, are often delusive. He remained a puisne nineteen years, and would have died a puisne but for the civil war which broke out respecting the right to the crown. He took, very honestly, a different view of the controversy from his chief, Sir John Fortescue, who had actually written pamphlets to A.D. 1442- He is a *13th May, 1462. |