Sir Thomas Billing, Chief Justice of England

Knight, Lord Chief Justice of England.

Eldest son of John...was of the Inns of Court and was called to the bar; made Sergeant-at-law in 1453, and knighted in 1458 for taking a prominent part with the Lancastrian party. When the right of the crown was argued (1466), he appeared at the bar of the House of Lords as counsel for Henry VI, leading the Attorney and Solicitor General. He was the principal law adviser to Edward IV, and in 1463 was made Justice of the King's Bench, and in 1468 Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In the spring of that year he was struck with apoplexy, and expired in a few days after a tenure in office for seventeen years in the midst of civil wars and revolution. He was buried in Bittlesdan Abbey in Oxfordshire, where a large blue marble slab was placed overhis body, having on it the figures, in brass, of himself and his lady. He is represented in his official robes. This slab and the slab that covered his son Thomas were taken from the Abbey after the dissolution of monistaries and placed at the upper end of the Wappenham Church, where they now remain.

Sir Thomas, by his first wife catherine, daughter of Roger Giffard of Twyford in Buckinghamshire, Esquire, became possessed of Gifford's Manor, in the Hamlet of Astwell, and parish of Wappenham in Northamptonshire, afterwards called Billing's Manor, where he took up his residence. The ancient manor house, although much curtailed in size in still standing (1861), and now occupied as a farm-house.

The second wife of Sir Thomas Billing was Mary, daughter and heir of Robert Wesenham of Conington, Huntingdonshire, Esquire, and widow of Thomas Lacy and William Cotton. She died on the 14th of March, 1499, and was buried in the south asile of St. Margaret's Church at Westminster, a great portion of which church was rebuilt by herself and her husband, Sir Thomas Billing. A monument was there erected in her honor.

The children of Sir Thomas Billing, all by his first wife, were: Thomas, his heir, who succeeded to the estate in Astwell, and died on 23d of March, 1508-9, leaving four daughters, coheiresses, by whose marriages the large estates of the Billings passed into other families; John, who settled in Buckinghamshire; Roger, of whom nothing is known; William, who probably settled in Wedon Beck; Nicholas, Katherine, Isabel, Margaret.

• -------------------- Lord chief justice of England.
• -------------------- Creighton, Spencer-Mounsey, "The Billings Family of Connecticut," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 81, 1927, 156 cites Campbell in his Lives of the Chief Justices as saying, that he 'enjoyed the felicitous fate accorded to very few persons of any distinction in those times - that he never was imprisoned - that he never was in exile - and that he died a natural death.' Most of the great fortune that Katherine Gifford brought to the family passed out of it when Thomas's heir, Thomas of Astwell, left no sons. He married first Katherine Gifford. He married second Mary Wesenham, widow of William Cotton. He was Chief Justice of the King's Bench 23 Jan 1468 - 5 May 1481. Sir Thomas died on 5 May 1481 and is buried in Bittlesden Abbey, Northants.

see his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Billing

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• 'Fielding H. (Fielding Hudson) Garrison. John Shaw Billings; a memoir.
• Fielding H. (Fielding Hudson) Garrison. John Shaw Billings; a memoir.
• ' Sir Thomas Billing, the eldest son of John Billing of Rowell, was of the Inns of Court and was called to the bar. He was made serjeant-at-law in 1453, and knighted, in 1458, for taking prominent part with the Lancastrian party. When the right to the crown was argued (1466), he appeared at the bar of the House of Lords as counsel for Henry the Sixth, leading the Attorney and Solicitor-General. He was the principal law advisor to Edward the Fourth, and in 1465 was made Justice of the King's Bench, and, in 1468, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In the spring of the year 1481, he was struck with apoplexy, and expired in a few days, after a tenure of office for seventeen years, in the midst of civil wars and revolutions. He was buried in Battlesden Abbey, in Oxfordshire, where a large blue marble slab was placed over his body having on it the figures in brass of himself and his lady. He is represented in his official robes, and she in a plain dress with short waist and cuffs. On a brass plate beneath is this inscription:
• ' "Orate pro AV abs Thome Bylling militis quodm capital. Justic, do 1 " Regis ad plita coram ipso Rege ten. et Katerine u" 8 ej' quodm. Thomas obiit V die me s Maii Ann. M CCCCLXXX pri 5 et dicta Katerina obiit VHP die Martii A D ni MCCCCLXXIX quor a's' ab' ppciet' Deus. Amen." Under the inscription are the figures of five sons and four daughters, and on several labels, "Jhu mercy, and Lady Helpe" ; and at the four corners, the Arms of Billing impaling those of Gifford. This and the slab that covered his son Thomas were taken from the Abbey after the dissolution of monasteries and placed at the upper end of the centre aisle of Wappenham Church, where they now remain.
• ' The second wife of Sir Thomas Billing was Mary, daughter and heir of Robert Wesenham of Covington in Huntingdonshire, esquire, and widow of Thomas Lacy and William Cotton. She died on the fourteenth of March 1499, and was buried in the south aisle of St. Margaret's Church at Westminster, a great portion of which church was rebuilt by herself and her husband Sir Thomas Billing. A sumptuous monument was there erected to her memory. It was an altar-tomb with her figure inlaid in brass, in a mantle, gown, veil, and wimple; out of her mouth a tablet label, "Blessed Lady, etc." and on two scrolls on each side of her, "Blessed Trinity on me have mercy." Over her head the lily-pot between the Virgin and Gabriel with their usual labels: " Ave Maria Gracia plena " and " Ecce Ancilla dom. fiat michi secundu verbu tuQ," and above the Deity. At the four corners of the slab were the arms of her family with their several quarterings. Round the ledge of the monument, "Here lieth Dame Mary Bylling, late wife of Sir Thomas Bylling, Knight Chief Justice of England, and to William Cotton and Thomas Lacy: which Mary died the 14 day of March, in the year of our Lord God 1499." In quatre-foils at the ends of the tomb were her family arms (Wesenham), and at the sides the arms of Lacy, Cotton and Billing, all impaling those of Wesenham. This monument has been long since gone, supposed to have been destroyed in 1758, when the church underwent a thorough repair.
• ' Sir Thomas by his first wife Catherine, daughter of Roger Gifford of Twyford, in Buckinghamshire, Esquire, became possessed of Gifford Manor, in the hamlet of Astwell, and parish of Wappenham, in Northamptonshire, afterwards called Billings Manor, where he took up his residence. The ancient manor house, although much curtailed in size, is still standing, and now occupied as a farm house. The children of Sir Thomas Billing, all by his first wife were: Thomas his heir (see infra} ; John, who settled in Buckinghamshire (see page 400) ; Roger of whom nothing is known ; William who probably settled in Wedon Back; Nicholas (of whom see page 401) ; Katherine, Isabel, and Margaret.
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• 'Sir Thomas Billinge, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas1
• 'M, b. circa 1430, d. 5 May 1481
• Father John Billing
• ' Sir Thomas Billinge, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was born circa 1430 at of Astwell, Northamptonshire, England. He married Katharine before 1467. Sir Thomas Billinge, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas married Mary de Wesenham, daughter of Robert de Wesenham, after 8 March 1479; Her 3rd marriage; his 2nd. They had 4 daughters and 5 sons.2 Sir Thomas Billinge, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas died on 5 May 1481; Buried at Bittlesden Abbey. His tombstone now is in Wappenham Church, Northamptonshire.2
• 'Family 1 Katharine b. c 1440, d. 8 Mar 1479
• Children
  • ◦Thomas Billinge, Esq.+ b. c 1470, d. 23 Mar 1509
  • ◦Jane Billinge+3 b. c 1478
• 'Family 2 Mary de Wesenham d. 1499
• Citations
• 1.[S9902] Unknown author, Burke's Landed Gentry, 1936, p. 1413; The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, by Ronny O. Bodine, p. 47.
• 2.[S31] Unknown author, Wikipedia.
• 3.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 263.
• http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1071.htm#...
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• 'Sir Thomas Billing1
• M, #348740
• Last Edited=11 Apr 2009
• ' Sir Thomas Billing married Mary de Wesenham, daughter of Robert de Wesenham and Agnes de Brus, after 1455.1
• ' He held the office of Lord Chief Justice of England, during the reign of King Edward IV.1
• Citations
• 1.[S229] Burke John and John Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England (1841, reprint; Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985), page 136. Hereinafter cited as Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England.
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p34874.htm#i348740
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Source: www.familysearchpilot

(as to this source Sir Thomas Billing's birth occurred in 1395 , Northampton, Northamptonshire, England

Additional Information for Sir Thomas /Billing/

Notes (1)

_P_CCINFO 1-18437@NI17927_2595GM2@

Citing This Record

"Pedigree Resource File", database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/SRDJ-B3T : accessed 2013-01-09), entry for Sir Thomas /Billing/.

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