Anthony Fitzherbert

Born around 1470 at Norbury in Derbyshire, Sir Anthony Fitzherbert became an English judge, scholar, and legal author. He was associated with Gray’s Inn, rose in the law, and in 1523 was made a justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

He is especially known for major legal writings including La Graunde Abridgement and New Natura Brevium, books that helped organize and explain English law for later generations. Older reference works also credit him with a strong reputation for fairness and integrity as a judge.

Fitzherbert is also linked with early practical writing on rural life, including The Boke of Husbandry and The Boke of Surveyinge, which broadened his influence beyond legal circles. He died on May 27, 1538, leaving behind a body of work that connected everyday landholding and farming life with the formal world of Tudor law.