| Notes |
- Knight of the shire for Nottinghamshire, 1324.
Biography of Sir Richard Willoughby (c. 1290-1362), from the University of Nottingham website:
"Richard was the son of Sir Richard Willoughby of Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, a lawyer who served as Chief Justice of the Bench in Ireland from 1323-1325. Richard attended Parliament in 1324 and inherited the estate from his father the following year. Richard was a successful lawyer and increased his wealth greatly by his legal career. He was appointed one of the justices of Common Pleas in 1328 and one of the justices of King's Bench in 1330. He was briefly Chief Justice between 1338-1340, but was demoted and charged with corruption. He threw himself on the King's mercy and was pardoned on payment of 1200 marks. In 1343 he was re-appointed as a justice, and served until 1357.
"His father had purchased Wollaton Old Hall and its estate from Roger Morteyn in around 1314-1319. Through his marriage to Roger's daughter, Richard acquired land in Derbyshire and in Dunsby, Lincolnshire. He also purchased additional land in Nottinghamshire and other counties.
"Sir Richard was buried at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, where there is a monumental effigy. The core of the family estates at Willoughby and Wollaton were inherited by his son Edmund, but the Risley estate in Derbyshire passed to his son Hugh and his descendants."
From a post to soc.genealogy.medieval by Robert O'Connor, 16 Jun 1999:
"Sir RICHARD WILLOUGHBY, Kt., M.P., of Willoughby & Wollaton, Notts., & Risley, Derbys. Appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland by Edward II. M.P. for Notts., 1323. Appointed Judge of the Court of King's Bench in England, 6 March 1328, & appointed Chief Justice of that Court, 1338. He was kidnapped by the criminal bands of Folville & Coterel, Jan. 1332. Dismissed from the office of Chief Justice of King's Bench for allegedly selling the laws 'as if they had been oxen or cattle', July 1340. M 1310 1st Isabel (d 1332), d. of Sir Roger Morteyn, Kt., of Dunsby, Lincs. M 2nd Joan Charron (widow of Sir Bertram Monbourcher, Kt. She died 1342). [...] Died 1362."
"The story of the career of this younger Sir Richard, who followed his father into the law, is well known. His kidnap by the criminal bands of Folville and Coterel in January 1332 and his dismissal from the office of chief justice of the king's bench in July 1340 for allegedly selling the laws 'as if they had been oxen or cattle', were the most notable incidents in a noteworthy career. What is less well known is the remarkable volume of purchases he made on the land market: through purchase alone he increased the landed income of his family from about £140 per annum on the death of his father in 1325 to more than £500 per annum on his own death in 1362, in the process making the Willoughbys comfortably the wealthiest non-baronial family with lands in the county." [Political Society in Lancastrian England: The Greater Gentry of Nottinghamshire by Simon J. Payling, citation details below.]
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Abt 1290 - 1362 (~ 72 years)
[3, 4, 5]