Sir William Cordell was Solicitor General

Solicitor General for England and Wales

Her Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, often known as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law...

 and Master of the Rolls

Master of the Rolls

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice. The Master of the Rolls is the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal...

 during the reign of Queen Mary I

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

 and Speaker of the House of Commons

Speaker of the British House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

.

Following the dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

, Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 granted the manor of Long Melford

Long Melford

Long Melford is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately from Colchester and from Bury St. Edmunds...

 to Cordell. Knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed in 1558, a member of Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 1538, called to the Bar

Call to the bar

The Call to the Bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party, and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar"...

 1544, bencher 1553, reader 1554, a founding member of the Russia Company, received a grant of arms for his father in 1548 and one for himself (quartering Webb) in 1549, Solicitor General

Solicitor General for England and Wales

Her Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, often known as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law...

 to Mary I 1553, Master of the Rolls and a member of the privy council

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

 1557, sat in five parliaments between 1545 and 1571, Speaker of the House of Commons 1558, executor to Queen Mary I, Cardinal Pole, and Archbishop Parker, founded a hospital; the Holy Trinity at Long Melford

Long Melford

Long Melford is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately from Colchester and from Bury St. Edmunds...

, first visitor and supporter of the foundation of St John's College, Oxford

St John's College, Oxford

__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...

,

By his will it is found that he left charitable bequests to Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

 and Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 including £20 to be distributed among the poor scholars of the universities ‘unto suche as be moste towardes in vertewe and learninge’.

Cordell married Mary Clopton (d. 1584), the daughter of Richard Clopton of Groton

Groton, Suffolk

Groton is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Located around a mile north of the A1071 between Hadleigh and Sudbury, it is part of Babergh district....

.

Sources

• J. H. Baker, ‘Cordell, Sir William (1522-1581)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 11 May 2005
• T. C., Original date of publication: 1887, © Oxford University Press 2004–5
• Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 25, pp. 1–47 (1920)
• STAFFORDSHIRE RECORD OFFICE D615/D 45 (1)1, STAFFORDSHIRE RECORD OFFICE D615/D 45 (1) 2, STAFFORDSHIRE RECORD OFFICE D615/D 45 (1) 3, STAFFORDSHIRE RECORD OFFICE D615/D 45 (1) 5, SRO D615/D48(8-24)10
• (Glover and Flower's Visitations).
• The 1567 will of HENRY SAVILE, Esq., of Lupset and Barrowby, will 5 Jan., 1568-9, proved 16 May 1569 (Reg. Test., xviii, 11 York, and Sheffield 2, P.C.C.); Inq. p. m. 7 Sept., 12 Eliz. (1570).