His Worship Worship is an honorific prefix for mayors, Justice of the Peace, justices of the peace and magistrates in present or former Commonwealth realms. In spoken address, these officials are addressed as Your Worship or referred to as His Worship, Her Wor ...

John Cottesmore SL JP (died 29 August 1439) was a British justice of unknown origin. The first record of his work was in Oxfordshire in 1403, the location of much of his early legal work. In 1418 he was appointed to a Commission of the Peace for

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

; by this point he was a

Serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

. In 1420 he was appointed to Commissions of the Peace for

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

and

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

, as well as ones in East Anglia and the Midlands. At this point he also became an

Assize The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

justice, and in 1423 was created a

King's Serjeant A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wr ...

; in 1425 he was one of the King's Serjeants summoned to Parliament. On 15 October 1429 he was appointed as a justice for the

Court of Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

, which led to an increase in commissions and appointments; in 1437, for example, he was sent to

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

with Marmaduke Lumley to oversee the mayoral elections, which, it was feared, would cause civil disturbances. On 20 January 1439 he was made

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the othe ...

, but served only briefly; he died on 29 August the same year.Oxford DNB: Cottesmore, John
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cottesmore, John 1439 deaths Chief Justices of the Common Pleas Serjeants-at-law (England) Justices of the Common Pleas Year of birth unknown