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By regulations beyond those above alluded to, "no attorney or common solicitor" could be admitted without consent, nor could utter barristers be called without being first examined by the whole bench; and every member called to the bench was obliged to keep "some learning vacations." Directions were also given for the regular attendance of the members, while in commons, at mass, matins, evensong, &c., and for keeping eighteen offering days in the year, "according to antient laudable custome of this House." These orders were issued in 3 & 4 Philip and Mary.'

At the dinner of John Prideaux the reader, on August 28, 1555, the students seem to have taken offence at the lord mayor Sir John Lyons, who had been invited as a guest, appearing there with his paraphernalia as chief magistrate. By an entry in an old chronicle it appears that "whane he was goynge the swerde was willed to be borne doune in the closter," the latter words having been substituted by the annalist for "torne from hym."2

MIDDLE TEMPLE. After the publication of the joint orders of the inns of Court, this society found it necessary to issue more particular directions as to dress. In 4 & 5 P. & M. it was ordered that no member should wear "any great Bryches in their Hoses, made after the Dutch, Spanish or Almon fashion; or Lawnde upon their caps, or cut doublets," under the like penalties as those before imposed.3

GRAY'S INN.-The change which on Mary's accession was made in the established religion of the kingdom imposed of course an expense on the inns of Court for the restoration of the ceremonial ornaments. Those of Gray's Inn chapel are given by Dugdale at length, including altar cloths, albes, corporas, ephopes, girdles, &c., the charge for which amounted to no more than 17. 18s. 7d.

'Dugdale's Orig. 146–148.

3 Dugdale's Orig. 191.

Chron, Grey Friars, 97.

The rebuilding of the hall was commenced in 1556, and was completed in 1560; every member being assessed towards the expense, under the penalty of losing his chamber if he did not pay.

The arrival at the dignity of ancient in this society did not involve an exemption from duty; for by an order of July, 1557, every ancient was to be attendant upon the reader and at the Christmas feast for nine vacations after his election, under a penalty of 40s.'

Dugdale's Orig. 279, 274 284.

VOL. V.

ΑΛ

354

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF

THE JUDGES UNDER THE REIGN OF MARY.

BOWES, ROBERT.

M. R. 1553.

See under the Reign of Edward VI.

THE early life of Sir Robert Bowes afforded little preparation for the judicial position in which he was eventually placed. His family had been seated at Streatlam Castle, in the county of Durham, for more than two centuries; and almost every one of its members had been eminent as a warrior, and had distinguished himself in some glorious field. Sir Robert was the second son of Sir Ralph Bowes, by Margery, daughter and co-heir of Richard Conyers of South Cowton. His elder brother, Ralph, received the order of knighthood on Flodden Field, but dying with only one son, who left no male issue, Sir Robert succeeded to the paternal

estate.

The military propensities of the family were early exhibited by Sir Robert; and so experienced was he in all the peculiarities of border-warfare, that when negotiations were pending with the Scots in December, 1541, his presence was required by the council in London, as one who could advise them on the subject. In the following year he led a body of 3000 cavalry against the Scots, by whom, under the Earl

Acts Privy Council, vii. 285.

of Huntley, he was defeated at Haddenrig and, as some say, made prisoner. The war was terminated by the death of King James; and Sir Robert became warden of the East and Middle Marches. During the reign of Edward, he compiled his "Informations" on the state of the marches and their laws and customs, addressed to Henry, Marquess of Dorset, the warden-general, and full of curious and interesting details. In June, 1551, he was one of the commissioners to conclude the convention with Mary, Queen of Scots, and in the following September was sworn a member of the Privy Council.

The intelligence he had exhibited as a diplomatist and as an author probably pointed him out as the successor of John Beaumont in the office of master of the Rolls, for which he received his patent on June 18, 1552.3 In that character he was one of the witnesses to King Edward's will, fixing the succession of the crown on Lady Jane Grey, and he acted on her council during the short continuance of her nominal reign. On July 19, 1553, he signed the letter to Lord Rich on her behalf, but on the next day he signed another to the Duke of Northumberland, commanding him to disarm.' This probably saved him from the punishment with which several of Lady Jane's partisans were visited, and founded a claim on Queen Mary's favour. He was evidently continued in his office for two months of the new reign; and even then he seems to have retired voluntarily, the entry being that his patent was cancelled "pure, sponte et absolute," on September 6. Resuming then his duties on the border, he was sent by the council to Berwick in the ensuing April, to assist Lord Conyers in taking the musters, with a warrant for 1007. as a reward from the queen.

1 Lingard, ii. 333.

Pat. 6 Edw. VI., p. 4.

2 Rymer, xv, 265. 272.

Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camden Soc.), 100, 109,

By his wife Alice, the daughter of John Metcalfe of Nappa, he had four sons; but these all dying in infancy, the property on his own death devolved on his younger brother Richard, Captain, of Norham, the father of Sir George Bowes, the knight-marshal.'

BROMLEY, THOMAS.

CH Q. B. 1553.

See under the Reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI.

THE ancient family of Bromley, which was established as early as the reign of King John at Bromleghe in Staffordshire, has supplied the ranks of the law with three judges, -the chief justice whose career is now to be recorded, the lord chancellor of the same name in the reign of Elizabeth, and Sir Edward Bromley, the baron of the Exchequer under James I. and Charles I.

The subject of the present sketch is Thomas Bromley, who was the son of Roger Bromley (a younger brother of the immediate ancestor of Queen Elizabeth's chancellor), by Jane, the daughter of Thomas Jennings. He was placed at the Inner Temple, and became reader there in autumn, 1532. Although again nominated for the same duty, both in autumn, 1539, and Lent, 1540, he did not perform it on either occasion.2 In June of the latter year he was called to the degree of the coif, and must have previously attained considerable eminence in his profession, since he was appointed one of the king's serjeants on the 2nd of the next month.

In little more than four years he was raised to the bench, succeeding Sir John Spelman as a judge of the King's Bench on November 4, 1544. That he was highly esteemed by

1 Memorials of Rebellion of 1569, by Sir Cuthbert Sharpe, App. 370. ? Dugdale's Orig. 164.

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