Thomas Billing
Encyclopedia
Sir Thomas Billing was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench
.
to have been a native of Northamptonshire
, where two villages near Northampton bear his name, and to have afterwards lived in state at Ashwell
in that county. Lord Campbell
says he was an attorney's clerk; but this seems doubtful. He was, at any rate, a member of Gray's Inn
. Writing to one Ledam, Billing says : 'I would ye should do well, because ye are a fellow of Gray's Inn
, where I was fellow ' (Paston Letters
, i. 43, 53), and, according to a Gray's Inn
manuscript, he was a reader there. His social position was sufficient to enable him to be on terms of intimacv with the families of Paston and of Baron Grey de Ruthyn
. In 1448 he was member of parliament for London, and was recorder in 1451. Along with seven others he received the coif as serjeant-at-law
2 January 1453-4, and in the Hilary term of that year is first mentioned as arguing at the bar. Thenceforward his name is frequent in the reports.
appointed him king's Serjeant
21 April 1458, and Lord Campbell
, citing an otherwise unknown pamphlet of Billing in favour of the Lancastrian cause
, says that with the attorney-general and solicitor-general he argued the cause of King Henry VI
at the bar of the House of Lords
. The entry in the Parliamentary Rolls, however, indicates that the judges and king's Serjeants excused themselves from giving an opinion in the matter. About the same time Billing appears to have been knighted, and on the accession of Edward IV
his patent of king's Serjeant
was renewed, and in the first parliament of this reign he was named, along with Serjeants Lyttelton and Laken, a referee in a cause between the Bishop of Winchester
and some of his tenants. He is said by Lord Campbell
to have exerted himself actively against King Henry
, Queen Margaret
, and the Lancastrians, and to have helped to frame the act of attainder
of Sir John Fortescue
, chief justice of the king's bench
, for being engaged in the Battle of Towton
, and to have advised the grant of a pardon, on condition that the opinions of the treatise ‘De Laudibus’ should be retracted.
in his ‘Pleas of the Crown,' says that on the trial of Walter Walker for treason in 1460, for having said to his son, 'Tom, if thou behavest thyself well, I will make thee heir to the Crown' i.e. of the Crown Inn, of which he was landlord, Billing ruled a conviction, and Lord Campbell
accepts the story. But it would seem from the report of the judgment of Chief-justice Bromley
in the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton
, 17 April 1554, that the judge at that trial was John Markham
, afterwards chief justice
next before Billing, and that he directed an acquittal.
as chief justice of the king's bench
23 January 1468-9, having precedence over Yelverton and Bingham, justices of the king's bench; and this office he retained in spite of political changes. For when Henry VI
for a few months regained the throne new patents were at once issued, 9 October 1470; and when Edward IV
overthrew him, 17 June 1471, he, along with almost all the other judges, was confirmed in his seat. It is suggested that he may have owed this less to his legal talents than to the support of the Earl of Warwick
. In 1477 Billing tried Burdet of Arrow, Warwickshire
, a dependent of the Duke of Clarence
, for treason, committed in 1474, in saying of a stag, 'I wish that the buck, horns and all, were in the king's belly,' for which he was executed. Billing is also said to have been concerned in the trial of the Duke of Clarence
himself. He continued to sit in court until 5 May 1481, when he died and was buried in Bittlesden Abbey. His tombstone is now in Wappenham
Church, Northamptonshire
. His successor was Sir William Hussey
.
, who had previously been married to Thomas Lang, and then to William Cotton of Redware, Staffordshire
. She died in 1499, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster
, which she and Sir Thomas Billing had rebuilt. By his first wife he had issue four daughters and five sons, one of whom, Thomas, his heir, died in 1500 without male issue, and was buried with his father and mother.
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
.
Early life and career
Billing is said by FullerThomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his Worthies of England, published after his death...
to have been a native of Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, where two villages near Northampton bear his name, and to have afterwards lived in state at Ashwell
Ashwell
Ashwell may refer to:Places:*Ashwell, Devon*Ashwell, Hertfordshire*Ashwell, Rutland*Ashwell, Somerset*Ashwell, Queensland, a suburb of Ipswich, in AustraliaPeople:*Gilbert Ashwell*Lena Ashwell*Thomas AshwellBuildings...
in that county. Lord Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell PC, KC was a British Liberal politician, lawyer, and man of letters.-Background and education:...
says he was an attorney's clerk; but this seems doubtful. He was, at any rate, a member of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
. Writing to one Ledam, Billing says : 'I would ye should do well, because ye are a fellow of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
, where I was fellow ' (Paston Letters
Paston Letters
The Paston Letters are a collection of letters and papers from England, consisting of the correspondence of members of the gentry Paston family, and others connected with them, between the years 1422 and 1509, and also including some state papers and other important documents.- History of the...
, i. 43, 53), and, according to a Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
manuscript, he was a reader there. His social position was sufficient to enable him to be on terms of intimacv with the families of Paston and of Baron Grey de Ruthyn
Baron Grey de Ruthyn
The title of Baron Grey de Ruthyn was created in the Peerage of England by writ of summons in 1324 for Roger Grey, a son of John Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Wilton. It has been abeyant since 1963...
. In 1448 he was member of parliament for London, and was recorder in 1451. Along with seven others he received the coif as serjeant-at-law
Serjeant-at-law
The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...
2 January 1453-4, and in the Hilary term of that year is first mentioned as arguing at the bar. Thenceforward his name is frequent in the reports.
King’s serjeant
Lord-chancellor WaynfleteWilliam Waynflete
William Waynflete , born William Patten, was Bishop of Winchester from 1447 to 1486, and Lord Chancellor of England from 1456 to 1460. He is best remembered as the founder of Magdalen College and Magdalen College School in Oxford....
appointed him king's Serjeant
Serjeant-at-law
The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...
21 April 1458, and Lord Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell PC, KC was a British Liberal politician, lawyer, and man of letters.-Background and education:...
, citing an otherwise unknown pamphlet of Billing in favour of the Lancastrian cause
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
, says that with the attorney-general and solicitor-general he argued the cause of King Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
at the bar of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. The entry in the Parliamentary Rolls, however, indicates that the judges and king's Serjeants excused themselves from giving an opinion in the matter. About the same time Billing appears to have been knighted, and on the accession of Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
his patent of king's Serjeant
Serjeant-at-law
The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...
was renewed, and in the first parliament of this reign he was named, along with Serjeants Lyttelton and Laken, a referee in a cause between the Bishop of Winchester
William Waynflete
William Waynflete , born William Patten, was Bishop of Winchester from 1447 to 1486, and Lord Chancellor of England from 1456 to 1460. He is best remembered as the founder of Magdalen College and Magdalen College School in Oxford....
and some of his tenants. He is said by Lord Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell PC, KC was a British Liberal politician, lawyer, and man of letters.-Background and education:...
to have exerted himself actively against King Henry
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
, Queen Margaret
Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou was the wife of King Henry VI of England. As such, she was Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471; and Queen consort of France from 1445 to 1453...
, and the Lancastrians, and to have helped to frame the act of attainder
Bill of attainder
A bill of attainder is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a judicial trial.-English law:...
of Sir John Fortescue
John Fortescue
thumb|right|John FortescueSir John Fortescue was an English lawyer, and the author of the De laudibus legum Angliae, an influential treatise on English law.-Early life:...
, chief justice of the king's bench
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
, for being engaged in the Battle of Towton
Battle of Towton
In 1461, England was in the sixth year of the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster over the English throne. The Lancastrians backed the reigning King of England, Henry VI, an indecisive man who suffered bouts of madness...
, and to have advised the grant of a pardon, on condition that the opinions of the treatise ‘De Laudibus’ should be retracted.
Judge of the King's Bench
At any rate, in 1464 (9 Aug.), Billing was added to the three judges of the king's bench, but by the king's writ only: and the question being thereupon raised, it was decided that a commission in addition to the writ was required for the appointment of a justice of assize. Baker in his Chronology,' and HaleMatthew Hale (jurist)
Sir Matthew Hale SL was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ, or The History of the Pleas of the Crown. Born to a barrister and his wife, who had both died by the time he was 5, Hale was raised by his father's relative, a strict...
in his ‘Pleas of the Crown,' says that on the trial of Walter Walker for treason in 1460, for having said to his son, 'Tom, if thou behavest thyself well, I will make thee heir to the Crown' i.e. of the Crown Inn, of which he was landlord, Billing ruled a conviction, and Lord Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell PC, KC was a British Liberal politician, lawyer, and man of letters.-Background and education:...
accepts the story. But it would seem from the report of the judgment of Chief-justice Bromley
Thomas Bromley (chief justice)
Sir Thomas Bromley was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.-Early life and career:Bromley was of an old Staffordshire family, and a second cousin of Sir Thomas Bromley . His father was Roger, son of Roger Bromley of Mitley, Shropshire, and his mother was Jane, daughter of Mr....
in the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton
Nicholas Throckmorton
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was an English diplomat and politician, who was an ambassador to France and played a key role in the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.-Early years:...
, 17 April 1554, that the judge at that trial was John Markham
John Markham
Sir John Markham was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench-Origins:Markham was the son of John Markham, a judge of the Common Pleas, by either his first or second wife...
, afterwards chief justice
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
next before Billing, and that he directed an acquittal.
Chief Justice of the King’s Bench
Billing succeeded MarkhamJohn Markham
Sir John Markham was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench-Origins:Markham was the son of John Markham, a judge of the Common Pleas, by either his first or second wife...
as chief justice of the king's bench
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
23 January 1468-9, having precedence over Yelverton and Bingham, justices of the king's bench; and this office he retained in spite of political changes. For when Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
for a few months regained the throne new patents were at once issued, 9 October 1470; and when Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
overthrew him, 17 June 1471, he, along with almost all the other judges, was confirmed in his seat. It is suggested that he may have owed this less to his legal talents than to the support of the Earl of Warwick
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Richard Neville KG, jure uxoris 16th Earl of Warwick and suo jure 6th Earl of Salisbury and 8th and 5th Baron Montacute , known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, and military commander...
. In 1477 Billing tried Burdet of Arrow, Warwickshire
Arrow, Warwickshire
Arrow is a village in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Together with the entirely rural parish of Weethley, it forms the combined civil parish of Arrow with Weethley...
, a dependent of the Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Warwick, KG was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the...
, for treason, committed in 1474, in saying of a stag, 'I wish that the buck, horns and all, were in the king's belly,' for which he was executed. Billing is also said to have been concerned in the trial of the Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Warwick, KG was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the...
himself. He continued to sit in court until 5 May 1481, when he died and was buried in Bittlesden Abbey. His tombstone is now in Wappenham
Wappenham
Wappenham is a linear village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is south-west of Towcester, north of Syresham and north-west of Silverstone and forms part of the district of South Northamptonshire...
Church, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. His successor was Sir William Hussey
William Hussey (judge)
Sir William Hussey , SL was an English judge who served as Chief Justice of the King’s Bench....
.
Family life
He was twice married, first to Katerina, who died 8 March 1479, second to Mary, daughter and heir of Robert Wesenham of Conington, HuntingdonshireConington, Huntingdonshire
Conington is a small village in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire. It lies within earshot of Ermine Street, now called the Great North Road, about south of Peterborough and north of Sawtry....
, who had previously been married to Thomas Lang, and then to William Cotton of Redware, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. She died in 1499, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster
St. Margaret's, Westminster
The Anglican church of St. Margaret, Westminster Abbey is situated in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, and is the parish church of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London...
, which she and Sir Thomas Billing had rebuilt. By his first wife he had issue four daughters and five sons, one of whom, Thomas, his heir, died in 1500 without male issue, and was buried with his father and mother.