Thomas Juvenal (died 1309) was the first known Common Serjeant of London, an ancient British legal office, first recorded with his appointment in 1291, and which is the second most senior permanent judge in London after the Recorder of London, acting as deputy to that office, and sitting as a judge in the trial of criminal offences.
On 3 May 1291, during the reign of Edward I, and "...in the presence of Ralph de Sandwych, Warden; Gregory de Rokele, Stephen Aswy, Robert de Basinge, Ralph le Blound, William de Farndon, Richard Aswy, John le Blound, Nicholas de Winchester, William de Bettoyne, Adam de Foleham, John de Canterbury, and Walter Hauteyn, Aldermen; Thomas Romeyn and William de Leyre, Sheriffs, Thomas Juvenal was elected by the assent of the foregoing to the office of Common Serjeant of London, and sworn well and faithfully to perform that office, &c." [1] [2]
On his death in 1309 King Edward II and his favourite Piers Gavestone requested that the position be given to John Albon; the request not being received in time, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs of the City of London instead gave the office to Thomas de Kent, a Serjeant-at-Mace. [3]
His widow, Alice, died in 1318, and left property to the church of St Agnes in Aldersgate. [4]
The Barons of the Exchequer, or barones scaccarii, were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (inferior) barons. When Robert Shute was appointed second baron in June 1579 the patent declared "he shall be reputed and be of the same order, rank, estimation, dignity and pre-eminence to all intents and purposes as any puisne judge of either of the two other courts." The rise of commercial trade in Elizabethan England occasioned fraudulent application of the Quo minus writ. More taxation demanded staff at the exchequer to sift an increase in the case load causing more widespread litigation cases to come to the court. From the 1580s onwards the Barons of Exchequer were no longer held in such low regard, and more likely to be Serjeants-at-law before qualification. The Inns of Courts began to exclude solicitors, and held posts for judges and barons open equally to barristers. In 1591, Regulations reflected a case in which the Lord Keeper Egerton banned solicitors from seeking cases in the Exchequer.
The Recorder of London is an ancient legal office in the City of London. The Recorder of London is the senior circuit judge at the Central Criminal Court, hearing trials of criminal offences. The Recorder is appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the City of London Corporation with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor. The Recorder's deputy is the Common Serjeant of London, appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor. The Recorder of London is, since 14 April 2020, Mark Lucraft.
The High Sheriff of Tipperary was the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Tipperary. Initially an office for a lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judicial importance, he had ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs.
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC, was the eighth of ten children born to English author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years. He was also the last surviving child of Dickens.
The Common Serjeant of London is an ancient British legal office, first recorded in 1291, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London, acting as deputy to that office, and sitting as a judge in the trial of criminal offences.
The Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests is a position established by the Normans in England.
Judge George Cecil Whiteley KC MA DL JP (1875–1942), was Common Serjeant of London from 1933 to 1942 and a Judge at the Mayor's and City of London Court.
Thomas Cantock, Quantock or Cantok was an English-born cleric and judge in medieval Ireland, who held the offices of Bishop of Emly and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Ralph Fitzwilliam, or Ralph, son of William de Grimthorpe, Lord of Greystoke, was a feudal baron with extensive landholdings in the North of England, representative of a manorial lordship seated where Grimthorpe Hill rises to commanding views a mile to the north of Pocklington in the Yorkshire Wolds. He gave sustained military service and leadership through the Scottish and Welsh campaigns of Edward I and was summoned to parliament from 1295 to 1315. His marriage in c. 1282 brought him other manors including Morpeth in Northumberland and its appurtenances. In 1297 he was enfeoffed as tenant-in-chief of the entire barony of Greystoke, seated at Greystoke in Cumberland but with Yorkshire estates, through his matrilineal Greystok descent. He entered upon these in his own right in 1306. Having served in the retinue of Aymer de Valence, during the first decade of Edward II's reign he remained dependable as a military leader and royal lieutenant in the defence administration of the northern counties and Scottish marches. His descendants adopted the Greystoke name, and their inheritance continued in the male line until the end of the 15th century.
Sir Frederick Albert Bosanquet, KC, JP was a British judge who was Common Serjeant of London, the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London.
Sir Robert Bagod was an Irish judge who was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1276. He built Baggotrath Castle, which was the strongest fortress in Dublin: it was located on present-day Baggot Street in central Dublin. He also founded the Carmelite Friary in Dublin.
Sir John le Blund was Mayor of London, England for eight consecutive years.
Henry le Walleis was a 13th-century English politician and Mayor of London. His origins are obscure; he was an outsider to London and may have been Welsh by birth. After making his fortune in the wine trade, he became an alderman in 1269 and sheriff in 1270. As alderman, he represented the ward of Cordwainer. He went on to serve five terms as mayor.
Nicholas de Farndone was a 14th-century English goldsmith and politician who served four non-consecutive terms as Mayor of London.
Sir Walter Devereux of Bodenham was a member of a prominent knightly family in Herefordshire during the reigns of Edward I, and Edward II. He gave rise to the Devereux Barons of Whitchurch Maund, Earls of Essex and Viscounts of Hereford.
Sir William Hewett was a prominent merchant of Tudor London, a founding member and later Master of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers of London as incorporated in 1528, and the first of that Company to be Lord Mayor of London, which he became in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. His career arched across the first four decades of the Company's history, and drew him inexorably, if sometimes reluctantly, into the great public affairs of the age.
Richard le Blond was an Irish lawyer and judge of the early fourteenth century. After serving for many years as Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) he was rewarded for his services to the English Crown with a seat on the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland).
John de Ponz, also called John de Ponte, John Savan, or John of Bridgwater (c.1248-1307) was an English-born administrator, lawyer and judge in the reign of King Edward I. He served in the Royal Household for several years before moving to Ireland, where he practised in the Royal Courts as the King's Serjeant-at-law (Ireland). He later served as a justice in eyre, and then as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). He was clearly a gifted lawyer, but as a judge, he was accused of acting unjustly.
Sir George Barne was an English businessman in the City of London who was active in developing new trading links with Russia, West Africa and North America, far outside what had been traditional English trading patterns. Created a knight in 1553, he served as Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London. He was the father of Sir George Barne and grandfather of Sir William Barne. Nicholas Culverwell was probably a nephew.