William Drury

William Drury (died 1589), civilian, third son of John Drury of Rougham, Suffolk, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Goldingham of Belstead, Suffolk. Education Drury was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he took the degree of LL.B. in 1553. He was appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Cambridge, with a salary of £40 per annum, on 30 January 1558–9, and took the degree of LL.D. in 1560. Early posts Admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons on 5 May 1561, he shortly afterwards became secretary to Archbishop Parker. In 1562 Parker appointed him his commissary for the faculties. He was also a member of the ecclesiastical commission as early as 1567, and on 28 June of that year was appointed visitor of the churches, city, and diocese of Norwich. Civilian Drury was one of the civilians consulted by Elizabeth in 1571 on the important points of international law raised by the intrigues of John Lesley, the Bishop of Ross on behalf of Mary Stuart. Briefly stated, the questions were firstly whether an ambassador plotting insurrection, or aiding and abetting treason against the sovereign to whom he was accredited, did not forfeit his privileges as an ambassador and become amenable to the ordinary law of the land; and secondly whether a deposed and refugee sovereign was capable by international law of having an ambassador in his land of asylum in such sense as to clothe the ambassador with the personal inviolability ordinarily belonging to his rank.