COURT, John (c.1544-99), of North Petherton and Bridgwater, Som.

Court was a west country lawyer, whose father-in-law Popham, recorder of Bridgwater in 1584, probably suggested him as his successor. He subsequently became recorder also of Bath, and represented each borough once in Parliament. No details have been found as to whether he practised in London or in Somerset. At his father’s death he inherited North Petherton, and his will mentions also a town house at Bridgwater (left to the widow), leases at Tiverton and in Cockmarsh, Gloucestershire, and a parsonage at Woolavington. One of the two executors was his ‘cousin’ Henry Cheke. He died 7 Jan. 1599.1C142/258/129, 276/541; Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 18; OR, i. 415, 419; Bath Chamberlains’ Accts. (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxviii), 110; PCC 26 Wallop; Som. Wills (ser. 1), p. 44.