Sir John Catesby
Sir John kept out of trouble in perilous times. He was a member of the Inner Temple, then called the Inner Inn, and his name first appears in the Year Books in 1458. He received the coif in 1463 and was made King's Sergeant on 18 April 1469. On 20 November 1481, he was appointed Justice of the Common Pleas and knighted during the next year. His name appears in the Commissions for the Western circuit as well as those in Northampton. His practice must have been profitable along with well-paid appointments because he invested in real estate. He purchased the Manor of Hooberne near Luton in 1475 and is known to have acquired the Manor of Wroxhill, both in Bedfordshire. He also bought land in Warwickshire, Fleckhampstead, and jointly with his wife, a house in Orpington, Kent. Generally he was described as being of Arthingworth until he bought the small Manor of Whiston, about six miles east of Northampton.
The judge was a very religious man with friends in high places, a special one being Bishop Waynflete of Winchester, who named his as his first executor. The bishop had founded Magdalen College, Oxford in 1448, where Sir John frequented as a guest of honor.
At the accession of Henry VII, his reappointment was delayed about a month after other judges, probably because of his relationship with the discredited William "the Cat" Catesby, but he was individually mentioned to attend the first Parliament of the new reign along with other judges and Crown lawyers by writ of 15 September 1485.
Sir John married Elizabeth Green in 1455 in Bridgenorth, Shropshire, England. They had two daughters and eight sons. John died in 1486 and was buried in the Abbey of St. James, Northampton.