Sir Anthony, a learned lawyer in the reign of Henry VIII. was descended from an ancient family, and born at Norbury in Derbyshire, but in what year is not known. After receiving the rudiments of his education in the country, he was sent to Oxford, on leaving which he entered himself in one of the inns of court, and appears in due time to have been called to the bar. By talents and diligence, united with judgment, he soon distinguished himself in his profession, and in 1511 he became a serjeant at law. In 1516 he received the honour of knighthood, and the year after was made one of the king's counsel. And in 1523 he was raised to the bench as a puisne judge of the court of common pleas, in which honourable station he spent the remainder of his life. Fitzherbert was deservedly respected for his ability and integrity as a judge; and, at a time when judicial independence was a rare virtue on the bench, he opposed the court in some of its favourite projects, particularly regarding the alienation of church lands. He died on the 27th of May 1538, and was buried in the parish church of Norbury, the place of his birth. The works of this learned lawyer are,

1. The Grand Abridgment collected by that most reverend judge Mr Anthony Fitzherbert, lately conferred with his own manuscript corrected by himself, together with the references of the cases to the books, by which they may be easily found, printed in folio by Rynson in 1514; by Wynken de Worde in 1516, and again in 1577; 2. The Office and Authority of Justices of Peace, 1538, but often reprinted, the last edition being dated 1617; 3. The Office of Sheriffs, Bailiffs of Liberties, Escheators, Constables, Coroners, and others, 1539; 4. Of the Diversity of Courts, 1529; 5. The New Natura Brevisum, 1534, to which, in the last edition, published in 1794, 2 vols. 8vo, is added a commentary supposed to have been written by Chief-Justice Hale, with notes, references, and an enlarged index; 6. Of the Surveying of Lands, 1539; 7. The Book of Husbandry, 1534, reprinted several times in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. Of these works, five, in the order in which they are here enumerated, were, with the exception of part of the second, originally written in French.