Sir William, chief justice of the court of king's bench under Henry IV. A most learned and upright judge; who being insulted on the bench by the prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V. with equal intrepidity and coolness committed the prince to prison; and by this seasonable fortitude laid the foundation of the future glory of that great monarch, who from this event dated his reformation from the licentiousness of his youth. It is not well authenticated that the prince struck Sir William, as recorded by Shakespeare; but all authors agree, that he interrupted the course of justice to screen a lewd servant. Sir William died in 1413.

George, an English poet of some fame in the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was born at Walthamstow in Essex, of an ancient family, and educated at both universities, but principally at Cambridge. From thence he removed to Gray's Inn, and commenced student of the law; but having a genius too volatile for that study, he travelled abroad, and for some time served in the army in the Low Countries. He afterwards went to France; where he became enamoured of a Scottish lady, and married her. Being at length, says Wood, weary of those vanities, he returned to England; and settled once more in Gray's Inn, where he wrote most of his dramatic and other poems. The latter part of his life he spent in his native village of Walthamstow, where he died in the year 1578. He had the character of a polite gentleman, an eloquent and witty companion, et vir inter poetas sibi falcis praestantissimus. His plays, first printed separately, were afterwards, with several other poems, &c. reprinted in two volumes 4to; the first volume in 1577, the second in 1587.