Paul michael thorpe biography of william
The Testimony of William Thorpe and the Trial of Richard ...!
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorpe, William de
THORPE or THORP, Sir WILLIAM de (fl. 1350), chief justice, appears as an advocate in 1333, as one of the king's serjeants in 1341, as the king's attorney in 1342, and in the April of that year was appointed a justice, probably of the king's bench, where he certainly sat in 1345 (Foss), though Dugdale thinks that his first appointment may have been to the common pleas.
Paul michael thorpe biography of william
On 26 Nov. 1346 he was appointed chief justice of the king's bench, in 1347 sat on the commission for the trial of the Earls of Menteith and Fife, and opened the parliament of that and the following year. Charges of corruption in the execution of his office were made against him in 1350, he was imprisoned, and on 3 Nov.
Edward III issued a writ constituting the Earls of Arundel, Warwick, and Huntingdon, and two others, commissioners to try him. He confessed that he had received bribes from five persons indicted before him at Lincoln, and was