William of Drogheda (died 1245) was an Irish academic and ecclesiastical lawyer.

Life

A native of

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, William was the best known

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 ...

lawyer of the 13th century. He seems to have often pleaded cases at the

University Church of St Mary the Virgin The University Church of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary's or SMV for short) is an Oxford church situated on the north side of the High Street. It is the centre from which the University of Oxford grew and its parish consists almost exclusively of u ...

. His posts included rector of the church of Petha (

Petham Petham is a rural village and civil parish in the North Downs, five miles south of Canterbury in Kent, South East England. The village church is All Saints, Petham and is Grade I listed. It was built in the 13th century but suffered from a fire ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

?) and in 1245 the rector of Grafton Underwood,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...

. He described himself as a

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

in law. His single work, ''Summa aurea'', is concerned solely with legal practise, procedures and forms for canon law, presenting and winning a case. A recent description states that ''"The author's aim seems to have been to give a complete guide to every sort of action which an eccleiastical lawyer might have to deal."'' William outlines procedures for: * calling

witnesses In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...

* what to do if any – including the judge – fail to appear * liability *

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular ac ...

* behaviour of

advocates An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

and judges * the question of

fees A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead (business), overhead, wages, costs, and Profit (accounting), markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom (and previously the Repu ...

* the issuing of

legal documents Legal instrument is a legal term of art that is used for any formally executed written document that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation, or ...

The ''Summa'' is very incomplete, and appears to consist of the first of the six projected books of the work. This incompleteness may be due to it being abandoned due to its scale, rather than William's death. Drogheada was murdered by his

squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as ...

, Ralph de Boklande, at this house in the parish of

St Peter-in-the-East St Peter-in-the-East is a 12th-century church on Queen's Lane, north of the High Street in central Oxford, England. It is now deconsecrated and houses the college library of St Edmund Hall. The churchyard to the north is laid out as a garden and ...

, Oxford; it is now known as Drawda Hall, on

High Street, Oxford The High Street in Oxford, England, known locally as the High, runs between Carfax, generally seen as the centre of the city, and Magdalen Bridge to the east. Overview The street has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "''one of the world ...

. In January 1241 he had granted it to the abbey of

Monk Sherborne Monk Sherborne is a village in north Hampshire, England. Sherborne Priory is the burial place of William of Drogheada. Governance Monk Sherborne is a civil parish and is part of the Sherborne St. John ward of Basingstoke and Deane borough cou ...

on condition that they celebrated daily mass ''"in our church of Sherborne where my mother and father will lie after their deaths and I along with them."''

References

1245 deaths Medieval murder victims 13th-century Irish lawyers People from Drogheda Alumni of the University of Oxford Irish people murdered abroad People murdered in England 13th-century Latin writers Year of birth unknown Irish expatriates in England 13th-century Irish writers Drogheda {{Ireland-law-bio-stub