Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Sir Roger Manwood
Sir Roger Manwood,
JUDGE,
Roger Manwood was a native of Sandwich, where he was born in 1525. His grandfather had been twice mayor of the place, and its representative in Parliament in 1523. He was educated at the Grammar School of the town, and subsequently studied law at the Inner Temple. On his call to the Bar he was made Steward and recorder of his town, and elected its representative in Parliament, a position he continued to occupy till his call to the judicial bench. He became a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1572, and chief baron of the Exchequer in 1578, with the honour of knighthood. He testified his affection for his native town by establishing and endowing a free school there, which was incorporated in 1503, and is still called by his name. He also contributed liberally to other charitable and useful works in the county. In his latter years he incurred the displeasure of Elizabeth, and was restricted to his own house in Great St. Bartholomew's. The grief and anxiety caused by this disgrace in all probability hastened his end, which occurred 14th December, 1593. He was a man of great activity and energy but his character as a Judge is not altogether free from reproach. He is said by Fuller to have been the author of a treatise on the Forest Laws, but as no such work is now in existence, it is probable that that writer credited him with the celebrated work of John Manwood on the subject, the writer of which was probably a member of the same family, if not, (as some suppose), his son.