William Hussey (judge)

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Sir William Hussey, or Huse, or Husee (d. 1495) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench

[edit] Origins

Hussey was probably a son of the Sir Henry Huse who received a grant of free warren in the manor of Herting in Sussex in the eighth year of Henry VI. Campbell, however, describes him as belonging to a Lincolnshire family of small means.

[edit] Career

He was a member of Gray's Inn, and on 16 June 1471 was appointed Attorney General, with full power of deputing clerks and officers under him in courts of record. As attorney general he conducted the impeachment of the Duke of Clarence for treason. In Trinity term of 1478 he attained the degree of serjeant-at-law, and on 7 May 1481 was appointed chief justice of the king's bench, in succession to Sir Thomas Billing, at a salary of 140 marks a year. This appointment was renewed at the accession of each of the next three kings, and under Henry VII he was also a commissioner to decide the claims made to fill various offices at the coronation.

In the first year of this reign he successfully protested against the king's practice of consulting the judges beforehand upon crown cases which they were subsequently to try. In June 1492 he was a commissioner to treat with the ambassadors of the King of France. He seems to have died in 1495, as on 24 November of that year Sir John Fineux succeeded him as chief justice.

[edit] Family and descendants

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Berkeley of Wymondham, and had 4 sons, John, Lord Hussey of Sleaford, and Robert, from whom descend the Hussey family of Honnington, Leicestershire.

This article incorporates text from the Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), a publication now in the public domain.