By the Rev. W. P. S. Bingham. 



93 



your presence at our sermons, defending 1 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 lUth, 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. SS. 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 



