Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/328

 its last days. Bere was buried under a plain slab of marble in the south aisle of the body of his church, near by the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre which he built.

 BEREBLOCK, JOHN. [See .]

BEREFORD, RALPH (fl. 1329), judge, was of a legal family possessing large estates in the midland counties. He may have been a son of Osbert de Barford, or Bereford, chief gentleman to Ranulf of Hengham, justice of the common pleas, who was probably son of Walter de Barford of Langley in Warwickshire, and brother of [q. v.], chief justice of the common pleas in 1309. Ralph was possessed of land in three Oxfordshire townships in 1315, viz. Bourton, Milcome, and Barford (Parly. Writs, vol. ii. div. 3, p. 526), and in the same year was one of the custodes of the vacant bishopric of Winchester. He was summoned to the great council at Westminster for 27 May 1324. He was on several occasions in commissions of oyer and terminer in Southampton and Surrey in 1314, in Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Southampton, and Gloucester in 1316, on special commissions to try persons who had spoiled Hugh le Despenser's manors, and Robert Lewer and his accomplices, who had attacked Odiham Castle in 1322, and in 1324 in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. In 1329 or 1330 he was the second of five justices itinerant, of whom another was Adam de Brome, for Nottingham and five other counties.  BEREFORD, RICHARD (fl. 1283–1317), judge, was contemporary with, the chief justice [q. v.], but their relationship, if any, is not known. He first appears early in 1283 as a collector of the thirtieth in Worcestershire. On 3 June 1300 he was appointed treasurer of the Irish exchequer (Fin. 28 Ed. I, m. 8), received letters of protection as 'Richard de Bereford clk.' 12 June, and reached Dublin on 7 July. He was at once joined with the justiciar and three others in a royal commission to treat with the Irish magnates for the Scottish war (Claus. Ed. I, No. 223, m. 12 dors.; Fin. 28 Ed. I, ro. 17; Pat. 29 Ed. I, m. 20, &c.). He still occurs in that capacity in 1305 (Plac. Trin. 33 Ed. I, ro. 53), but was named as a justice of assize for six English counties in 1310. In 1314 he was made chancellor of Ireland (Pat. 7 Ed. II, m. 16), and occurs as such at his last appearance, August 1317.

 BEREFORD, WILLIAM (d. 1326), judge, son of Walter de Bereford and brother of Osbert de Bereford, chief gentleman to the chief justice, Ralph de Hengham, succeeded his brother as tenant-in-tail of certain estates in Warwickshire, a fact which may account for the father and brother being confounded as they are in the pedigree given in Ferrers's 'Manuscript of Antiquities.' This judge appears to be first mentioned in a lengthy document contained in the roll of parliament for 1291, which, after setting forth that the prior of Tynemouth had been charged with certain encroachments upon the royal prerogative and the rights of the burgesses of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and had pleaded a certain charter in justification, concludes by referring the charter to three judges (Bereford being one) for their opinion. In the following year he was associated with Robert de Hertford, Robert Malet, and William de Gyselham in a special commission to investigate the murder of Roger de Dreiton, treasurer of the Earl of Cornwall, which, occurring while he was on his way to attend parliament at Westminster, was regarded by the king as more than a breach of his peace, an outrage upon his royal dignity. That about this time he was acting as one of the regular justices itinerant seems probable from the fact that in 1293 two brothers, Eustace and John de Paries, were committed to the Tower for publicly insulting him in the Aula Regis 'in the presence of the king and of many nobles and others the king's liege subjects,' by accusing him of partiality in the administration of justice in Staffordshire, his colleagues satisfying the king of his innocence, and the parties having their legal remedy by way of plaint (querela) to the king. In the preceding year, however, he seems to have been removed for a time from office, Peter de Mallore being commissioned in his stead. Dugdale records his appointment as justice of the common bench under date 1294. In 1293 we also find mention of him as assigned, with Gilbert de Roubery, to try certain 