BRYAN, THOMAS.

CH. C. P. 1485.

See under the Reigns of Edward IV., Edward V., and Richard III.

THE place of Thomas Bryan's nativity cannot be stated with any certainty, nor the family from which he sprung. He studied the law in Gray's Inn, and is mentioned in the Year Books as an advocate so early as Hilary, 34 Henry VI., 1456. His call to the degree of the coif was in Michaelmas, 1463'; and his practice seems to have been considerable, both during the next seven years of Edward's reign and the short restoration of Henry VI. that followed. The death or retirement of Chief Justice Sir Robert Danby occurring at the end of the latter period, Thomas Bryan was raised to the head of the Common Pleas in his stead, on May 29, 1471, a few weeks after Edward's return.2 In 1475 he received the honour of knighthood on the same day as the Prince of Wales; and he continued to perform the duties of his office for the remainder of the reign.

There is evidence of his not being removed under Edward V. and Richard III.; and from the latter he received a grant, in tail male, of the manors of Wyllesford near Uphaven in Wiltshire, of Over in Gloucestershire, and of Calverton in Buckinghamshire, properties forfeited to the king by persons attainted. These grants are stated to be for services against the rebels; but the nature of them is not mentioned. they were judicial, and not political, may be presumed from his immediately receiving a new patent as chief justice on Henry VII.'s accession, and from his being appointed one

Y. B. 3 Edw. IV., p. 12. b.
Holinshed, iii. 344.

2 Dugdale's Chron. Series.

That

of the commissioners to execute the office of steward at that king's coronation.1

He presided in his court till his death, about October, 1500, when Sir Thomas Wood was preferred to his place. Sir Thomas Bryan's will was proved on December 11 in that year; and, inasmuch as both he and his son Thomas desired to be buried in the religious house of Ashruge, and the son of the latter was buried there, it may be presumed that he was seated in Buckinghamshire. The name of his wife does not appear; but his will proves that, besides a daughter Elizabeth and a bastard child Joan, to whom he bequeathed a legacy, he left a son named Thomas, who married Margaret, the daughter of Sir Humphrey Bouchier, the son of Lord Berners. By her Thomas had a son Francis, who was knighted for his services in France, and was gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII., by whom he was employed in important negotiations, and was ultimately made lord justice in Ireland. He was the intimate friend of Sir Thomas Wyatt, and was himself a scholar and a poet. His poetical powers are thus celebrated by Drayton in the "Heroical Epistles."

"And sweet-tongu'd Bryan, whom the muses kept,
And in his cradle rock'd him while he slept." 2

CALOWE, WILLIAM.

JUST. C. P. 1487.

THERE was a family of Calowe seated at Holbeach in Lincolnshire in the reign of Richard II., from which this William Calowe probably descended. He was so short a time a judge that very little is known about him. In the

2 Testament. Vetust. 449. 551.; Wood's Athen. (1845), i. 169.

the Middle Temple in
In the second
In the second year of

Year Books he is mentioned under the name of Collow, as an advocate from Michaelmas 15 Edward IV. 1475, and as having been called serjeant from Trinity Term of the eighteenth year. Richard III., 1484, he was joined with Sir John Catesby in the commission of assize for the county of Dorset ; and in January 31, 1487, 2 Henry VII., he was raised to the judicial seat in the Common Pleas. The only fine levied before him is in the following Trinity Term; and, from the absence of all notice of him from that time, it would seem that he then resigned or died. The name, indeed, once occurs in the Year Book of Michaelmas 15 Henry VII., 1499; but probably this is a mistake.1

CANTERBURY, ARCHBISHOPS OF. See J. MORTON, H. DENE, W. WARHAM.

CATESBY, JOHN.

JUST. C. P. 1485.

See under the Reigns of Edward IV., Edward V., and Richard III.

THE family of John Catesby was settled in Northamptonshire; and he was no doubt a relation, apparently the uncle, of William Catesby, esquire in the household of Edward IV. and Richard III., who was attainted for his adherence to the latter in the field of Bosworth, since the manors of Kirkby on Wretheck, and other lands in the county of Leicester, which Sir John Catesby and two others held by the gift of Thomas Davis and John Bye, are exempted from the operation of that attainder. 2

1 Rot. Parl. iii. 402. vi. 322.; Dugdale's Orig. 47.; V

2 Rot. Parl. vi. 276. 278.

He was a member of the Inner Temple, or the "Inner Inne," as it was then called; and first appears among the advocates in the Year Books in Michaelmas 37 Henry VI., 1458. He was honoured with the coif in 1463', and made king's serjeant on April 18, 1469. It was not till more than twelve years afterwards that he was promoted to the Bench, being constituted justice of the Common Pleas on November 20, 1481, 21 Edward IV. He was knighted in the following year; and the three subsequent changes in the sovereignty of the kingdom made no alteration in his judicial position.

Henry VII., however, delayed his re-appointment for nearly a month after his brethren, probably on account of doubts arising from his relationship to William Catesby, so closely connected with the late king.

At one time of his life, either he or a namesake occupied a tower and house in the palace of Westminster, called "le Grene Lates," which tower and house, and other tenements there, together with the custody of the houses in Westminster Hall called by the extraordinary names of "Paradyse, Helle, and Purgatory," were granted to Anthony Kene, Esq., in 1 Henry VII.2

The excellence of his character may be inferred from his being the first-named executor in the will of Bishop Waynflete 3, whom he survived but a short time. He died between November 3, 1486, the date of the last fine levied before him, and Hilary Term, 1487; a case in the Year Books of 2 Henry VII., fo 10., reciting that he died in coming to court, "viii. lewkes extra London," whereupon certain writs he had received were admitted.

He married Elizabeth the daughter of William Green

1 Y. B. 3 Edw. IV. fo. 13.

2

Rymer, xii. 275.; Rot. Parl. vi, 372.

of Heese in Middlesex, Esq.; and by his will it appears that he had seven sons and two daughters. He desired to be buried in the abbey of St. James, in Northampton, and apparently was seated at his manor of Whiston in that county. 1

The conspirator in the gunpowder plot was one of his descendants.

DANVERS, WILLIAM.

JUST. C. P. 1488.

WILLIAM DANVERS was half brother to Sir Robert Danvers, judge of the Common Pleas in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., being one of the sons of John Danvers, of Cothorp in Oxfordshire, by his second wife, Joan, daughter of William Bruly of Waterstock in the same county. He probably received his legal education in Lincoln's Inn, where Robert had studied; but he does not appear in the list of the governors or of the readers in that house. There must have been a considerable difference between the ages of the two, because William's career as an advocate, in the Year Books, does not commence till 1475, seven or eight years after his brother's death. He attained the degree of serjeantat-law soon after the accession of Henry VII., in the third year of whose reign, on February 5, 1488, he was raised to the bench of the Common Pleas. Although his attendance in court is not noticed in the Year Books beyond Trinity, 16 Henry VII., 1501, fines appear to have been acknowledged before him as late as February, 1504.

He married Anne, daughter and heir of John Perry, Esq., of Chamberhouse in Berkshire; and his descendants were settled at Upton in Warwickshire.2

1 Testam. Vetust. 277. 389.

2 See Vol. IV. p. 428.; Dugdale's Orig. 47.; Burke's Ext. Baronet. 150.