Henry Spigurnel

Sir Henry Spigurnel (–1328) was an English judge. He was summoned to parliaments of Edward I and Edward II, and was made a justice of oyer and terminer in 1300. He was sent on a mission to papal court in 1311 and interpreted the ordinances in 1312. He retired in 1327, and died the next year.

Life

Henry Spigurnel, born in or before 1261, or perhaps about 1263, was very probably a son or grandson of Godfrey Spigurnel, who, in a grant to him in 1207 (9 John) of five bovates of land and a mill at Skegby in Nottinghamshire, is styled 'serviens noster de capella nostra'. On 12 March 1300 he received protection for one year on going beyond seas on the king's service. In February 1311 he was sent by the king on a mission to the papal court, along with John de Benstede. On 8 March 1312 he was sent with twelve others to the bishops and earls and barons of the province of Canterbury about to assemble at London to explain certain matters touching the ordinances. he and William Inge, when on circuit in May 1312, had Piers Gaveston brought before them by the Earl of Warwick, and condemned him by the authority of the 'ordinances', 'whose repeal was not fully known to that county'.

Spigurnel lived at Kenilworth, and, according to his own return in 1316, was lord or joint lord of various townships in the counties of Bedford, Buckingham, Oxford, and Northampton. He had also property in Essex and Leicestershire. His sons represented the county of Bedford in the parliaments of 1 and 14 Edward II.