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Legal history: England & common law tradition: Judges

Judges of the superior courts

Judges: first steps

Most English judges have risen through the lower ranks of the legal profession so

Holbourn's Sources of biographical information on past lawyers (1999)  Ref Bibl Cw UK H723b.

Brooks & Heber: My ancestor was a lawyer Ref Bibl Cw UK B814

are good starting points.

The LawBod's collection of  autobiographies & biographies of English judges is shelved on the main Reading Room Floor with shelfmarks beginning KB.

The judiciary have also been the subject of collective biographies - the boxes on this page show some of the most well-known.

You may also find some useful material in works looking at the judiciary as a body. These are likely to be either in the Legal Hist.section of the LawBod - or possibly even in the Bodleian's History Reading Rooms. For examples see the box called Texts on Topic on this page.

Don't forget articles in journals: use the Index to Legal Periodicals and Bibliography of British and Irish History to find them!

Lord Chancellors