8i 



Sir asanuam Cabcutris!) 

 —1557. 



By Rev. F. Brodhurst, M.A. 



IR WILLIAM CAVENDISH was descended from 

 Chief Justice Cavendish, of Cavendish Manor, co. 

 Suffolk, near Bury St. Edmunds. In the year 1366 

 King Edward III. raised John de Cavendish to 

 the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, although he had 

 not filled the office of Attorney or Solicitor-General, or even 

 reached the dignity of the Coif. Lord Chief Justice Cavendish 

 held his office sixteen years, being re-appointed on the accession 

 of Richard II. About the year 1381 he received the appoint- 

 ment of Chancellor of the Universitj' of Cambridge ; and as 

 William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, was Chancellor, 

 and Spencer Compton Cavendish, the eighth and present Duke, 

 is now Chancellor of Cambridge, there have been three members 

 of this family who have borne the honour; the same can be 

 said probably of no other family. The Chief Justice at last fell 

 a victim to the brutality of the populace in Wat Tylers insur- 

 rection, after the terrible confusion which occurred in the land 

 owing to the visitation of the Black Death in the years 1349- 

 1350. After that rebel chief had been killed in Smithfield by 

 Sir William Walworth, to whom Sir John Cavendish, son 

 of the Chief Justice, and an Esquire of the King, had given the 

 coup de grace, there was a rising in Norfolk and Suffolk, under 

 the conduct of a leader much more ferocious, who called himself 

 Jack Straw. One of his sayings was — 



When Adam delved, and Eve span, 

 Who was then the gentleman? 



