Of Ranulph de Glanville, the reputed Author of the following Treatise, Lord Coke speaks in terms of the highest encomium. He informs us, that Glanville was Chief Justice in the Reign of Henry the Second, that he wrote profoundly on part of the Laws of England, and that his Works were extant at that day. “And,” continues his Lordship, “in token of my thankfulness to that worthy Judge, whom I cite many times in these Reports, (as I have done in my former) for the fruit which I confess myself to have reaped out of the fair field of his Labors, I will for the honor of him and of his name and posterity, which remain to this day (as I have good cause to know) impart and publish, both to all future and succeeding Ages, what I found of great antiquity and of undoubted verity, the original whereof remaineth with me at this day, and followeth in these words: _Ranulphus de Glanvilla, Justiciarius Angliæ, Fundator fuit domus de Butteley, in Comitatu Suffolciæ, quæ fundata erat anno Regis Henrici, filii Imperatricis, decimo septimo, et anno Domini 1171. quo anno Thomas Becket, Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus, erat occisus. Et dictus Ranulphus nascebatur in Villa de Stratford, in comitatu Suffolciæ, et habuit Manerium de Benhall, cum toto Dominio, e dono dicti Regis Henrici. Et duxit in uxorem quandam Bertam, filiam Domini Theobaldi de Valeymz, Senioris domini de Parham: qui Theobaldus per Chartam suam dedit dicto Ranulpho et Bertæ Uxori suæ totam terram de Brochous, cum pertinentiis, in qua domus de Butteley sita est, cum aliis terris et tenementis, in libero maritagio. Prædictus vero Ranulphus procreavit tres filias de dicta Berta (viz.) Matildam, Amabiliam, et Helewisam, quibus dedit terram suam ante progressum suum versus Terram Sanctam._” The document then proceeds with a minute accuracy to trace our Author’s Descendants, and finishes the sketch by informing us—“_quod præfatus Ranulphus de Glanvilla fuit vir præclarissimus genere, utpote de nobili sanguine, vir insuper strenuissimus corpore, qui provectiori ætate, ad Terram sanctam properavit, et ibidem contra inimicos Crucis Christi strenuissime usque ad necem dimicavit_.”[1] The paucity of these facts may be, in some measure, remedied, by consulting the Annals of our Second Henry, where the name of Glanville not unfrequently occurs. We hear of him in 1171, as Fermour of the Honor of Earl Conan:[2]—in 1172, as having the custody of that Honor, and the Fair of Hoiland;[3]—and in 1174, as still retaining the same Honor, and accounting for the Capture and Ransoms of Prisoners, &c. taken in War.[4] In the latter year he is said to have distinguished himself, as the General who took the King of Scotland Prisoner.[5] In 1175, he still retained the Honor of Earl Conan,[6] and filled the Office of Sheriff of Yorkshire.[7] In 1176, he was made a Justice of the King’s Court, and a Justice Itinerant.[8] In the same year, he accounted for Westmoreland by the