(b) virtute officii--i.e. the Lord Chancellor, Lord President of the
Privy Council, Lord Privy Seal, Justices of the Supreme Court, etc.

(c) holders of minor judicial offices, county judges, etc.

Of those named in the list of Justices of the Peace for Kent in 1386 at
least four fall under class (b); Robert Tresilian, Robert Bealknap,
David Hannemere, and Walter Clopton were at that time Justices in the
King's courts and their names occur (evidently ex officio) in the lists
of justices for many of the counties of England. Since they very likely
never sat with the Justices of the Peace in Kent, they may, for our
purposes, be disregarded.

We cannot be sure that Chaucer ever actually sat on this commission or
that he knew personally any one of his fellow justices. Consequently
there is no intrinsic interest in a study of their individual careers
and personalities. But a few notes about them will give us some
impression of the type of men with whom Chaucer was associating and the
importance of his social position.

In the fourteenth century the name of the Constable of Dover and Warden
of the Cinque Ports always heads the list of justices in Kent. The
holder of that office in 1387 was SIMON DE BURLEY, one of the most
influential men in Richard II's court. This man was not of noble birth.
Barnes (quoted by Kervyn de Lettenhoeve) [Footnote: Froissart XX, 487.]
says that Walter Burley was so renowned for his learning at Oxford that
he became the almoner of the queen (Philippa (?)) and the tutor of the
prince of Wales. One of his relatives, Simon de Burley, was included
among the group of young people brought up with the prince, and soon he