Sir Robert Norwich KS JP (died April 1535) was a British justice. He was a member of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and is first mentioned practicing in the

Court of Requests The Court of Requests was a minor equity court in England and Wales. It was instituted by King Richard III in his 1484 parliament. It first became a formal tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, hearing cases from the poor an ...

in 1516, followed by service in his home county of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

as a commissioner in 1518. The same year he became a Bencher of his Inn, also giving his first reading, and acted as the Treasurer from 1519 to 1520. He was created 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 writ ...

in 1521, followed by a promotion to

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 writ ...

a year later and, in 1525, an appointment as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

, again for Essex. In 1529 he was knighted and appointed Surveyor of the King's Liveries, along with Sir Thomas Nevill, an office he held until his death. 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 other ...

on 22 November 1530, although there are few records of his character or career as Chief Justice. He died in April 1535, and was buried in St Nicholas's Chapel near

Serjeant's Inn Serjeant's Inn (formerly Serjeants' Inn) was the legal inn of the Serjeants-at-Law in London. Originally there were two separate societies of Serjeants-at-law: the Fleet Street inn dated from 1443 and the Chancery Lane inn dated from 1416. In 17 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norwich, Robert Chief Justices of the Common Pleas Knights Bachelor Serjeants-at-law (England) 1535 deaths Year of birth uncertain 16th-century English judges