Sir Roger Townshend KS (died 1493) was an English landowner, judge, and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Though his ancestors had held lands in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

for generations, their estates being centred on the village of Raynham, he was the first of his family to attain national prominence.

Origins

Probably born in the 1420s, he was the son of Sir John Townshend (died 1465) and his second wife Joan, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Lunsford, of

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romford ...

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 ...

. His sister was the wife of Francis Colville (died 1494), of Newton Colville.

Career

Sent to study at

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 ...

in 1454, where he was first elected a Governor in 1461 and first elected a Reader in 1468, he was his father's heir in 1465. As well as legal practice, he was returned to Parliament for

Bramber Bramber is a former manor, village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It has a ruined mediaeval castle which was the ''caput'' of a large feudal barony. Bramber is located on the northern edge of the South Downs ...

in 1467 and for

Calne Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs h ...

in 1472. Proceeds of his legal work were invested in rural land, extending the estates inherited from his father. In 1469 he bought numerous holdings in Norfolk from Sir John Paston, his client who owed him a considerable sum. After 1472 he pursued a purely legal career, being made 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 1478, a legal assistant to the House of Lords in 1480, and 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 writ ...

in 1481 In 1483 he was made Third Justice of 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 ...

by King

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

, after the promotion of John Catesby, and the next King, Henry VII, kept him in post, knighting him at

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

in 1486. After Catesby's death in 1486, he was made Second Justice. In addition to his High Court duties, he sat 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 ...

and as 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 ...

judge for several counties. He made his will on 14 August 1493 and died on 9 November 1493.

Family

He married twice, his first wife being Anne, daughter and coheiress of Sir William Brewes (Braose in archaic spelling), of Stinton Hall at Salle, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of

John Hopton John Hopton (died 1558) was a 16th-century Roman Catholic Bishop of Norwich. He was a member of the Dominican Order by 1516, in Oxford. He was educated at the University of Bologna in Italy and at Oxford University, where he took a doctorate in ...

, of

Blythburgh Blythburgh is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is west of Southwold and south-east of Halesworth and lies on the River Blyth. The A12 road runs through the village which is split e ...

, and widow of Sir John Jermy, of

Metfield Metfield is a village in Suffolk, England, but its name is derived from Medefeld or 'Meadow feld' (see ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names''). It is situated close to the border with Norfolk, being approximately 5 miles south eas ...

. She is recorded as the mother of his twelve children, the eldest son being

Roger Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

. She died on 31 October 1489 and he then married Eleanor, daughter of William Lunsford, of

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

,Burke's Peerage (106th Ed, 1999), p. 2836 who survived him, serving as his executrix and dying on 5 September 1500.

Ancestry

References

* (Contains errors). {{DEFAULTSORT:Townshend, Roger Members of Lincoln's Inn Serjeants-at-law (England) Justices of the Common Pleas English MPs 1467 English MPs 1472

Roger Townshend (judge) Sir Roger Townshend KS (died 1493) was an English landowner, judge, and politician. Though his ancestors had held lands in Norfolk for generations, their estates being centred on the village of Raynham, he was the first of his family to atta ...

15th-century births 1493 deaths People from Raynham, Norfolk Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Calne