Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Style, William
STYLE, WILLIAM (1603–1679), legal author, eldest son of William Style of Langley, Beckenham, Kent (grandson of Sir Humphrey Style, esquire of the body to Henry VIII), by his second wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Clarke [q. v.], was born in 1603. He matriculated at Oxford, from Queen's College, on 12 June 1618, and resided for a time at Brasenose College, but left the university without a degree. He was admitted in November 1618 a student at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1628. After the death without issue (1659) of his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Style, bart., gentleman of the privy chamber to James I, and cup-bearer to Charles I, he resided on the ancestral estate of Langley. He died on 7 Dec. 1679, and was buried in Langley church. By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Duleing of Rochester, he had issue two sons: William, who died in his lifetime unmarried, and Humphrey, who died without male issue. The present baronet, Sir William Henry Marsham Style of Glenmore, co. Donegal, is descended from Sir Humphrey Style's second son, Oliver, and thus represents a younger branch of the family.
Style translated from the Latin of John Michael Dilherr ‘Contemplations, Sighes, and Groanes of a Christian,’ London, 1640, 12mo. He compiled:
- ‘Regestum Practicale, or the Practical Register, consisting of Rules, Orders, and Observations concerning the Common Laws and the practice thereof,’ London, 1657, 8vo, 3rd edit. 1694.
- ‘Narrationes Modernæ, or Modern Reports begun in the now Upper Bench Court at Westminster in the beginning of Hilary Term 21 Caroli, and continued to the end of Michaelmas Term, 1655, as well on the criminal as on the pleas side,’ London, 1658, fol.
He also edited, with additions, Glisson and Gulston's ‘Common Law Epitomiz'd,’ London, 1679, 8vo. Style's Reports are the only published records of the decisions of Henry Rolle [q. v.] and Sir John Glynne [q. v.]
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Hasted's Kent, i. 86; Berry's County Geneal. (Kent); Inner Temple Books; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 470; Wallace's Reporters; Marvin's Legal Bibliography; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 22; Foster's Baronetage.]