Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hody, William
HODY, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1522?), chief baron of the exchequer, second son of Sir John Hody [q. v.], chief justice of the king's bench, was born before 1441. Perhaps he is the William Hody who represented Totnes in the parliament of 1472 (Members of Parl. Official Returns, i. 360). His name is first mentioned in the year-books in 1476. He was in parliament in 1483, and procured a reversal of the attainder of his uncle, Sir Alexander Hody of Bowre, Somerset, who had been attainted at Edward IV's accession for adherence to the house of Lancaster. In 1485, shortly after the accession of Henry VII, he became attorney-general, and was made a serjeant-at-law at the end of the year. On 29 Oct. 1486 he was appointed chief baron of the exchequer, was still a judge in 1516 (Cal. State Papers, 1515–18, p. 876), and probably died in 1522, when John Fitzjames became chief baron. He married Eleanor, daughter of Baldwyn Mallett of Corypool, Somersetshire, by whom he had two sons, Reginald and John, and two daughters, Joan, who married Richard Warr, and Jane, who married Lawrence Wadham.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Hutchins's Dorset, i. 317; Prince's Worthies.]