William of Drogheada
Irish academic and ecclesiastical lawyer
William of Drogheda (died 1245) was an Irish academic and ecclesiastical lawyer.
Life
A native of Drogheda, Ireland, William was the best known Oxford lawyer of the 13th century. He seems to have often pleaded cases at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. His posts included rector of the church of Petha (Petham, Kent?) and in 1245 the rector of Grafton Underwood, Northamptonshire. He described himself as a regent in law.
His single work, Summa aurea, is concerned solely with legal practise, procedures and forms for canon law, presenting and winning a case. A recent description states that "The author's aim seems to have been to give a complete guide to every sort of action which an eccleiastical lawyer might have to deal."
William outlines procedures for:
calling witnesses
what to do if any – including the judge – fail to appear
liability
punishment
behaviour of advocates and judges
the question of fees
the issuing of legal documents
The Summa is very incomplete, and appears to consist of the first of the six projected books of the work. This incompleteness may be due to it being abandoned due to its scale, rather than William's death.
Drogheda was murdered by his squire, Ralph de Boklande, at this house in the parish of St Peter-in-the-East, Oxford; it is now known as Drawda Hall, on High Street, Oxford.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William of Drogheada” is irish academic and ecclesiastical lawyer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Drogheada and Irish, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q13522545. VIAF identifies the subject as 267932715. The Library of Congress control number is no2007036475. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1245.
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This entry incorporates text from “William of Drogheada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.