By the Rev. W. P. 8. Bingham, 93 
your presence at our sermons, defending of our just causes, stirring 
up of our auditors, and making yourself and your family a worthy 
pattern and example of all Christian duties.” 
Lady Ley, whose useful influence is thus described by the Vicar 
of Steeple Ashton, did not long survive, for she died and was buried 
in Westbury Church, October 5th, 1613. The eldest son, Henry, 
was then eighteen years old, and the youngest, William, was a baby, 
having been baptized March 1Uth, 1612. Sir James was thus left 
with three sons and eight daughters, and it was probably the serious 
charge of so large a family which soon induced him to marry again. 
His second wife was Mary, widow of Sir William Bowyer, 
In 1620 he was created a baronet, when the King, to get money 
for the colonization of Ulster, instituted an hereditary order of 
knighthood, which must have seemed in those days as great an 
innovation as life peerages did in our own. When Sir James Ley 
returned to England, he returned also to the House of Commons, 
and sat for Westbury from 1609 to 1621, when he vacated the seat 
on being appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. In 
the representation of Westbury, he was succeeded by his son-in-law, 
Sir Walter Long, of Draycot, to whom some of us may still feel 
grateful, as he is said to have been the first person who introduced 
tobacco into Wiltshire. 
Sir James was installed as Chief Justice of England on February 
1st, 1621, and before long he gave two judgments, which, though 
criticised by Lord Campbell as bad law, will I think, commend 
themselves as good sense to most of us. An innkeeper had been 
indicted for exacting an exhorbitant price for oats. The indictment 
stated that he had charged 2s. 8d. when the ordinary price was not 
more than twenty pence. Objection was taken that the exact price 
should have been stated in the indictment, but on appeal the Lord 
Chief Justice decided that the words used— not more than twenty 
pence ”—were sufficient. 
The other case was that of a woman, who had said to a neighbour, 
in the hearing of others, “ Thou perjured beast, I’ll make thee stand 
upon a scaffold in the Star Chamber.” The question arose whether 
this was a libel or not, as the words “ perjured beast” were used not 
