William de Notton

Sir William de Notton (died c.1365) was an English landowner and lawyer who had a highly successful career in both England and Ireland, ending with his appointment as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.^[1]

He is thought to have belonged to the landowning family of de Notton, who took their name from Notton in West Yorkshire.^[2] He acquired the manors of Fishlake and Woolley Hall in Yorkshire, as well as Litlington, Cambridgeshire and Cocken Hatch near Royston, Hertfordshire.^[3]

He served on a commission of oyer and terminer in 1343-5. In 1346 he became Serjeant-at-law : he was obviously an excellent lawyer, whose arguments are frequently reported in the Year Books.^[4] He became a Member of Parliament in 1349 and sat on a commission to inquire into the condition of labourers and artisans in Surrey.^[5]

In 1355 he was made a judge of the Court of King's Bench; on assize in 1356 he was ordered to remove the Sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Northumberland. In 1357 he was appointed to a powerful commission to inquire into an alleged affray between a servant of John Gynwell, Bishop of Lincoln and members of the Order of Hospitallers. Ironically (in view of Notton's later office as Chief Justice) the alleged instigator of the affray, Richard de Wirkeley, the Prior of the Hospitallers, was himself a former Lord Chief Justice of Ireland; while the commission included another former Irish Lord Chief Justice, Henry de Motlowe.^[6]

He sat on another judicial commission late the same year to inquire into the death, presumed to be murder , of George de Longueville, "chevalier", at Billing, Northamptonshire. Longueville was an MP, and a member of the prominent landowning family who later owned Wolverton in Buckinghamshire, but little is known about the circumstances of his murder. ^[7]

In 1356 Thomas de Lisle, Bishop of Ely, was charged with inciting the murder of Wiliam Holm, a servant of Blanche of Lancaster, the King's cousin, (with whom he had a long-standing quarrel), and sheltering the murderers.^[8] Notton sat on the court which found the Bishop guilty. For this he was summoned to appear and answer for his conduct at the Papal Court in Avignon in 1358, and when he failed to attend was excommunicated.^[9] King Edward III however seems to have placed great trust in Notton; he remained on the King's Bench until 1361 when he was sent to Ireland as Lord Chief Justice, and in 1363 he was a member of the Council which advised the King's second son Lionel of Antwerp, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.^[10]

He probably died in 1365, and certainly before 1372.^[11] By his wife Isabella he had at least one son.

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