John Southcote (died 1585)

He was a member of the Middle Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1556, and again on his call to the degree of serjeant-at-law, April 1559.

He sat with Chief-justice Sir Robert Catlin on the trial (9 February 1572) of Robert Hickford, a retainer of the Duke of Norfolk, indicted for adhering to the queen's enemies; and as assessor to the peers on the trial of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

[1] While Southcote conformed to the Elizabethan settlement of the Church of England, his children were Catholic recusants.

[4] His daughter Ann(e) married Francis Curson of Waterperry: she sheltered John Gerard in the periods 1589–1595 and 1597–1605.

[1] A great-great-grandson of the judge, Sir Edward Southcote of Witham Place, wrote a family memoir that was published in the 19th century.