Bracton, Henry De, Lld

Bracton, Henry De, LL.D., a learned ecclesiastic, was chief justiciary in the reign of Henry III. He was probably a native of Bretton-Clovelly, in Devonshire. He studied at Oxford, and is believed to have delivered lectures in that university. He was appointed a justice itinerant for the counties of Nottingham and Derby in 1245. In 1254 the king assigned to him by letters patent the use of a house in London belonging to William, late earl of Derby, during the minority of the heir, and in 1263 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Barnstaple. In 1265 he was appointed chief justiciary, and held that office until the end of 1267, when all notice of him ceases. He wrote a learned work, entitled De Legibus et Consuetudinibus (first printed in 1569), modelled after the Institutes of Justinian. See Encyclop. Brit. (9th ed.), s.v.; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.