William Fortescue

Sir William Fortescue, (1687 – 16 December 1749) of Buckland Filleigh, Devon, was a British judge and Master of the Rolls 1741–1749.

Origins Fortescue was the only son and heir of Henry Fortescue (1659–1691) of Buckland Filleigh by his wife Agnes Dennis, daughter of Edward Dennis of Barnstaple, North Devon. The manor of Buckland Filleigh had been acquired by his 6-times great-grandfather William Fortescue (d.1548), the 2nd son of Martin Fortescue (d.1472), who had married the heiress of Filleigh (later the seat of his descendant Earl Fortescue) and Weare Giffard. Martin was the son and heir of Sir John Fortescue ( 1394 – c. 1480) of Ebrington in Gloucestershire, Chief Justice of the King's Bench of England and the author of De Laudibus Legum Angliæ and was the nephew of the latter's elder brother Sir Henry Fortescue (fl. 1426), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland.

Education Fortescue was educated at Barnstaple Grammar School in North Devon, where he met the poet John Gay (1685–1732), who become a lifelong friend. He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1705.

Judicial career The early death of Fortescue's wife prompted him to become a barrister, and he was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1714, and transferred to the Inner Temple later in the same year before his call to the Bar in July 1715. and on 5 November 1741 he succeeded Sir John Verney as Master of the Rolls and became a Privy Councillor on 19 November.

Marriage and children On 7 July 1709 he married his cousin, Mary Fortescue (d.1710), daughter of Edmund Fortescue (1660–1734) of East Allington, from a junior branch of the Fortescues of Fallapit in the parish of East Allington, Devon, descended from Sir Henry Fortescue (fl. 1426), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, who had married the heiress of Fallapit. Mary and William had a daughter, who was their sole heiress: orders = other_elements = bannerimage = banner = badgeimage = badge = symbolism = previous_versions =