Of Boughton, Northants. Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.educated Cambridge and Middle Temple; knighted 1537, Ch Justice King's Bench 1539–45 and Common Pleas 1545–54 (‘a descent,' says Fuller in his Worthies, ‘in honour, but an ascent in profit'); executor HENRY VIII's will, Govr to EDWARD VI, the passages in whose will settling the crown on Lady Jane Grey he drafted, possibly under duress, though this, if the case, did not save him from imprisonment in the Tower of London on MARY's accession July 1553; he bought his way out, however, by a substantial payment of cash and landed property two months later; married 1st Sept 1512 Cicely, daughter of William Lane, of Orlingbury, Northants, and had issue (the sons all died in infancy); married 2nd 1527 Cicely, daughter of George Kirkham, of Warmington, Northants; married 3rd by May 1533, as her 3rd husband, Ellen, eldest daughter of John Roper, Attorney-Gen, by Jane, elder daughter of Sir John Fyneux, Ch Justice King's Bench.