Roger of Seaton was a British justice. He studied canon law

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

 at Oxford University, and by 1258 he was a qualified magister, a rarity for British justices of the time; of the sixty or so justices who had served under Richard I

Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...

 only three held such a title, with ninety and eight respectively for those who had served under John of England

John of England

John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

. By 1260 he was using his knowledge of Canon law as the commissary-general for Walter of Kirkham, the Bishop of Durham, as well as his immediate successor, Robert Stitchill

Robert Stitchill

Robert Stitchill was a medieval Bishop of Durham in England.-Life:Stitchill probably came from the village of Stitchill in Roxburghshire. His father was a priest, and may have been the William Scot who was elected to the see of Durham in 1226. William Scot was never confirmed as bishop, for his...

, serving as one of his chancellors and also his executor.

In 1268 he switched from an ecclesiastical career to a judicial one, and was appointed as a justice with the Court of Common Pleas

Court of Common Pleas (England)

The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common...

. He left the court in 1271 to lead an Eyre

Eyre (legal term)

An Eyre or Iter was the name of a circuit traveled by an itinerant justice in medieval England, or the circuit court he presided over , or the right of the king to visit and inspect the holdings of any vassal...

 circuit that travelled through south-eastern and eastern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, although the circuit was brought to an end in 1272 by the death of Henry III

Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

. After the premature end to the Eyre Roger was reappointed as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and became the Chief Justice

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas

The Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, was the second highest common law court in the English legal system until 1880, when it was dissolved. As such, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was one of the highest judicial officials in England, behind only the Lord...

 of that court in 1274 after the death of Gilbert of Preston

Gilbert of Preston

Sir Gilbert of Preston was a British justice. He was the son of Walter of Preston, who was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire between 1206 and 1208...

, serving until 1278. During this period he served as an Assize judge in 1273 and 1274 and the judge of an Eyre circuit in Middlesex in 1274 and again in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

 in 1276. From late 1272 until October 1274 he served as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire

High Sheriff of Northamptonshire

This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire.The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been...

, and gave a speech at the 1275 Parliament explaining the king's need for money.

Soon after his 1278 retirement Roger suffered a stroke, and in 1279 entered the Augustinian house in Thornton

Thornton, Lincolnshire

Thornton, or Thornton by Horncastle, is a small hamlet about south of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, in the civil parish of Roughton.The village was mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086, when it had 19 households, and the Lord of the Manor was Robert the bursar.The greenstone parish church is dedicated...

. He appointed several executors to pay his debtors and distribute his estate, including Oliver Sutton

Oliver Sutton

Oliver Sutton was a medieval Bishop of Lincoln, in England.Sutton was the nephew of Henry of Lexington, Bishop of Lincoln from 1253 to 1258. He was Dean of Lincoln before 30 June 1275....

and Nicholas of Higham. He died soon after, and left his remaining possessions to his brother, Richard of Seaton.