50 



Westbury under the Plain. 



Heywood. 



This place, on the northern side of the parish, is more connected 

 than the rest of it with the names of men of eminence who have 

 filled high public offices, more especially as distinguished members 

 of the legal profession, for it has been the home of three judges, 

 besides a Governor of the Province of Bombay. In early days, 

 before famity names were settled, men, especially the clergy, were 

 known by their Christian name with that of the place of which 

 they were natives. By degrees the name of the place became the 

 family name. This was the case with William of Wickham, and 

 "William of Edington, both Bishops of Winchester; and here of 

 William of Westbury. He was of a family possessed of property 

 in this and neighbouring parishes, and he rose to be Chief Justice 

 of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry IV. He aud his 

 father built a chantry chapel on the north side of the Church, which 

 he endowed with lands, and then desired to be buried in it. In the 

 inquisition taken upon his death Heywood is mentioned as part of 

 his estates. The second judge, owner and occupier of Heywood, 

 was James Ley Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1620, created 

 by Charles I., Earl of Marlborough. His biography is given 

 succinctly on his monument in the Church, and some account of him 

 and his family is to be the subject of a paper from one of our col- 

 leagues. The third, whom, indeed, I need hardly name where he 

 is so well known, and known to be not less distinguished than any 

 of his predecessors, is the Right Hon. Lord Justice Lopes. Another 

 eminent lawyer, the late Lord Chancellor Bethel, paid your town 

 the compliment of taking it for his title, but he was not a native, 

 for he was born at Bradford, son of Dr. Bethel, a well-known physician 

 there at the beginning of this century : nor am I aware that Lord 

 Westbury had any kind of connection with this town, but Bradford 

 being already the title of one of the peers of the realm, he adopted 

 Westbury as the nearest to it in the same county. Before Heywood 

 became the property of the family of Ludlow, from which the 

 present owner derived it, it belonged to and was the residence of 

 William Phipps, Governor of Bombay, who died in 1 748. An in- 

 teresting relic is preserved at the house, the identical tablet of wood 



