Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saham, William de
SAHAM, WILLIAM de (d. 1304?), judge, is said by Foss (Judges, iii. 146) to have been the son of Robert de Saham, but his father's name seems to have been Ralph (Abbrev. Placit. p. 255). William was probably a native of Saham Toney, Norfolk, where he had property; he became a clerk, and was, in the beginning of the reign of Edward I, made a judge of the king's bench. He was constantly employed in judicial itinera, as at Northampton in 1285 (Cont. Flor. Wig. ii. 336) and in Bedfordshire in 1286–7 (Annals of Dunstable, pp. 326, 334), until 1289, when he shared in the disgrace of many other judges, was removed, and, though innocent of any wrong, had to pay a fine of three thousand marks to the king (Parl. Writs, i. 15). About ten years later he appears as defendant in an action for damages to property at Huningham in Norfolk. He granted lands to the abbey of Wendling, Norfolk, for the erection and maintenance of the chantry chapel of St. Andrew at Saham. He probably died in or about 1304, leaving his brother John le Boteler his heir (Abbrev. Placit. u. s.). Another brother, Richard de Saham, was sworn a baron of the exchequer in Ireland in 1295 (Foss; Sweetman, Cal. Doc. relating to Ireland).
[Foss's Judges, iii. 146–7; Abbrev. Placit. pp. 206, 242, 255, Parl. Writs, i. 15 (both Record publ.); Blomfield's Norfolk, ii. 320; Flor. Wig. Cont. ii. 236, Ann. Dunstapl. ap. Ann. Monast. iii. 326, 334 (both Rolls Ser.).]