Chronicles of an Old Inn; Or, A Few Words about Gray's InnHope, Andrée
History
Chronicles of an Old Inn; Or, A Few Words about Gray's Inn
Hope, Andrée
Gray's Inn; Inns of Court; Lawyers -- Great Britain
The Chief Justice married, secondly, Joan, daughter of Sir William
Pickering, and widow of Sir Ralph Graystock, Baron of the Exchequer.
By this marriage Sir William had also an only son, James Gascoigne,
settled at Cardington, in Bedfordshire. A descendant of this James
Gascoigne, the inheritrix of Cardington, married her distant cousin
William, a younger son of the Gascoignes of Gawthorp.
This William Gascoigne was Sheriff for Bedfordshire in 1506, _temp._
King Henry VII., and was Sheriff for Buckinghamshire in the fifth
year of King Henry VIII. He was subsequently knighted by Henry VIII.,
and became Comptroller of the Household to Cardinal Wolsey; for the
great Cardinal in many respects affected Royal state, and succeeded
in having the chief offices of his household held by nobles, or by
men of gentle birth. This branch of the Gascoignes also terminated
in a daughter, Dorothy, who married Sir Jarrett Harvye; thus the
direct descendants of the famous Chief Justice became merged in other
families. Of collateral descendants, however, there are many; Nicholas
Gascoigne of Lavingcroft, Sir William's next brother, having left a
numerous family of sons and daughters, who married amongst the Percys,
Latimers, Vavasours, etc.
From the eldest son of this Nicholas descended a somewhat celebrated
man, Richard Gascoigne, who was not only a learned antiquary and
collector, but who has done good service to the history of this country
by having brought before the public in 1638 Mr. Dugdale, whose writings
have given much interesting and important information.
The greater part of the valuable collections made by Richard Gascoigne
is now at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire. There are also relics of the
Gascoigne family at Ickwellbury, Bedfordshire.
William Gascoigne became a student of the Law at Gray's Inn, and was
early enrolled a member of that learned Society. His career was both
brilliant and rapid. Towards the end of the reign of King Richard II.
he was already so eminent in his profession that, in 1398, he was made
one of the King's Serjeants.
There are records of many transactions at this period, all of which
give proof, not only of Gascoigne's great abilities as a lawyer, but
also testify to the esteem in which he was held on account of the
fidelity and uprightness of his advice, and the invariable justice
of his decisions. His great merits caused him to be appointed one of
the Commissioners for Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, when this
Prince was about to go into banishment.
Gascoigne had to watch over the interests and receive all moneys that
might come to the Duke during his absence from England. A most onerous
appointment, involving not only considerable difficulty but also no
inconsiderable danger, for in those turbulent days the law of might
frequently warred most successfully against the law of right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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