Gascoigne, William (c. 1350-1419)

English lawyer. In 1397 he became one of the King's serjeants and was appointed attorney to the banished Duke of Hereford, who was later to become Henry IV. He was made chief justice of the King's Bench in 1400, and in 1403 was commissioned to raise forces against the insurgent Earl of Northumberland.

The probably apocryphal stories told about him, that he committed Prince Henry for contempt of court and that he refused to judge Archbishop Scrope on the ground that he had no jurisdiction over spiritual persons, exemplify his justness, his high sense of the dignity of his office, and his indifference to his personal interest in the pursuit of duty.