Surname Index

to

William Hankford

In Judges of England: Sketches of their Lives, and Miscellaneous Notices Connected with the Courts at Westminster from the Time of the Conquest, Vol IV

by

Edward Fosse, FSA

London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans (1851), pp. 323-326.

Prepared by Michael Steer

Sir William Hankford (or Hankeford), (ca. 1350 - 1423) was a lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1413 until 1423. His parentage is not known, but he came from a family of gentry from Hankford, near Bulkworthy in Devon. He was educated at the Middle Temple, appointed serjeant-at-law in 1388 and king's serjeant in 1389. He was employed by the Earl of Devon from 1384, and repeatedly as a royal justice and commissioner in southern England. In 1394 he accompanied Richard II to Ireland. Hankeford died on 12 December 1423, while still in office. He was buried in Monkleigh church, to which he had contributed towards extensively rebuilding. This rare book was produced from a digital copy held by the University of Michigan Library that can be downloaded from Google Books. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. Those on which copyright has expired are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.