Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seton, Thomas de
SETON or SETONE, THOMAS de (fl. 1344–1361), chief justice of the king's bench, appears as a counsel in the ‘Year-Books’ from 1344 onwards, and was one of the king's serjeants in 1345, when he applied before the council that the iter in the bishopric of Durham might be foregone for that year. He was appointed to a judgeship, probably in the king's bench, previously to April 1354, when he was a trier of petitions in parliament (Rolls of Parliament, ii. 254). He was a judge of the common pleas in Michaelmas 1355. In 1356 he recovered damages from a woman for calling him ‘traitor, felon, and robber’ in the public court. On 5 July 1357 Setone was made chief justice of the king's bench, ad tempus; the temporary character of the appointment is shown by the fact that Setone continued to act as judge of common pleas till Michaelmas 1359, and he is so styled when admitted to the king's secret council in the same year. But he must have soon afterwards been raised permanently to the chief-justiceship, which office he held till 24 May 1361, when Henry Green [q. v.] was appointed his successor.
[Foss's Judges of England.]