William Staunford

Son of Will. Staunford of London Mercer, (*)(*) Int. cod. MS. Rad. Sheldon de Beoly in com. Wig. Arm. in coll. Armorum Lond. num. 133. p. 146. (by Margaret his Wife, Daugh. and Heir of—Gedney of London) Son of Rob. Staunford of Rowley in Staffordshire, was born in the County of Middlesex 22. Aug. 1509. (1. Hen. 8.) received so much literature among the Oxonians that enabled him sooner than another Person to conquer the rudiments of the municipal Law in Greys-Inn near London. In the 36. of Hen. 8. he was elected Autumn Reader of that House, but did not read because of the pestilence then in those parts, yet in the Lent following he did perform that office with great credit and honor. In the 5. Ed. 6. he was Double-Reader of that Inn in the time of Lent, and the next Year was called by writ to be Serjeant at Law. In 1553, (1o Mariae) he was made the Queens Serjeant, and the next Year was not only constituted one of the Justices of the Common-pleas (some say of the Common-bench) but also dubb’d a Knight, being then in high esteem for his great abilities in his profession, especially for the Books that he about that time composed, taken then, especially in after Ages, into the hands of the most learned in the Law, which have ever since made him famous among them and others. The titles are,

Pleas of the Crown, divided into several titles and common places. Lond. 1557. qu. &c. In some impressions, they are divided into two Volumes.

Exposition of the King’s Prerogative, collected out of the abridgment of Anth. Fitzherbert, and other old Writers of the Laws of England. Lond. 1567. 68. &c. qu. Besides other Books which have not been yet Printed. This noted Lawyer, who was a zealous R. Cath. departed this mortal life on the 28. 1558 Aug. in Fifteen hundred fifty and eight. Whereupon his body was buried in the Church of Hadley in Middlesex. I have seen a Copy of his (a)(a) In [〈◊〉] . p [•] gerog. Cant. in Reg. Noodes, part. 2. Qu. 53. Will, wherein the stiles himself one of the Justices of the Common-pleas under the King and Queen, and desires that his Body may be buried in the Parish Church of Islyngdon, Hadley or Houndsworth. His posterity remaineth in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and elsewhere, to this day.