At sessions there was he lord and sire,
Full often time he was Knight of the shire,
A Sheriff had he been, and a Countour.
The countour—a term which has been involved in some doubt, was probably a commissioner of taxes, who had to return his accompt to the royal exchequer.
[20] i.e. take a factious or unjust part.
[21] Sir Harris Nicolas, in his memoir on the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll (ii. 347), has remarked "the slighting manner in which the profession of the law is mentioned, in comparison with that of arms," in the deposition of sir William Aton. Speaking of sir Henry Scrope, that witness stated that he was come of noble and gentle ancestry, and yet by the consent of his parents was put to the law, and became the king's justice, but nevertheless used in his halls, on his beds, in windows, and on plate the arms of Azure, a bend or. At a much later date (1542) sir Edmund Knightley, though a younger brother and a serjeant at law, is represented in a full suit of armour at Fawsley, co. Northampton. His epitaph commemorates both his gentilitial and his professional merits:
Natus erat claro de stemmate et ordine equestri,
Qui fuit et gentis gloria magna suæ;
Legis erat patriæ gnarus, compescere lites
Assuetus vulgi et jurgia seva lenis.