he was despatched to the north with Thirleby, bishop of Ely, to inquire into the cause of quarrel between the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland.
Queen Elizabeth, though she removed him from the privy council, continued him in the office of master of the rolls, and he was in the ecclesiastical commission. In the course of this reign he was a member of various important royal commissions. He was M.P. for Middlesex in the parliament which met on 11 Jan. 1562–3. In 1569 he subscribed a declaration of his obedience to the Act of Uniformity. He was returned by the city of Westminster to the parliament which assembled on 2 April 1571. On 4 Aug. 1578 he most sumptuously entertained the queen in his house at Long Melford. He died at the Rolls House in Chancery Lane, London, on 17 May 1581, and was buried in Long Melford church, where a fine marble monument was erected to his memory.
He married Mary, daughter of Richard Clopton, esq., but, leaving no children, Joan, his sister, the wife of Richard Allington, esq., became his heir. By his will he made provision for the foundation at Long Melford of a hospital, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, for a warden, twelve brethren, and two sisters. He evinced much interest in the progress of Merchant Taylors' School, and rendered very essential assistance in the foundation of St. John's College, Oxford, of which he was visitor for life. In that college is a curious portrait of him by Cornelius de Zeem.
[Baga de Secretis; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 431, 568; Davy's Suffolk Collections, ii. 51, 93, 99, 100, 124–30; Foss's Judges of England, v. 476; Fuller's Worthies (Suffolk); Manning's Speakers, 214; Strype's Works (general index); Wilson's Merchant Taylors' School.]
CORDEN, WILLIAM (1797–1867), china and portrait painter, was born at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, 28 Nov. 1797, and served his apprenticeship at the china works at Derby under Mr. Bloor; here he was employed in painting flowers and portraits. At the close of his apprenticeship he set up for himself as a portrait-painter, commencing with portraits of his employer's family. His early works in this line were mostly miniatures on ivory, but later he reverted to painting on china and also on enamel. He often attained a delicate and beautiful finish, but spoilt many pieces by carelessness and haste in firing them. In July 1829 he received a commission to paint the portrait of Mr. Batchelor, one of the king's pages, at Windsor. This led to his securing the patronage of the royal family, and he received commissions from George IV, and in 1843 from Queen Victoria. In 1844, at the wish of the prince consort, he was sent to Coburg to copy the family portraits at the castle of Rosenau. In 1836 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a portrait of Sir Walter Scott on china, copied from the portrait at Windsor by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Corden died at Nottingham on 18 June 1867. William Corden, jun., of Windsor, who exhibited various pictures at the Royal Academy from 1845 to 1855, was in all probability his son.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Wallis and Bemrose's Pottery and Porcelain of Derbyshire; Royal Academy Catalogues.]
CORDER, WILLIAM (1804–1828), murderer, was a young man of some property. He had become the father of an illegitimate child by Maria Marten, a native of Polstead, Suffolk, who had before borne children to at least two other men, but who still continued to live with her parents. Corder frequently promised to marry Marten, and at length arranged that she should leave her home on 18 May 1827, dressed in male attire, and join him at a place known as the Red Barn, whence they would proceed together to Ipswich to be married on the following morning. Maria Marten left her home as desired, and was never again seen alive. At first no suspicion was aroused, for Corder paid frequent visits to his wife's parents, telling them that their daughter was living happily as companion to a lady. He kept them regularly informed of his wife's supposed movements, and wrote many letters, in which he professed great surprise that her letters to her mother had never reached Polstead, and mentioned his inquiries on the subject at the post-office. Matters continued thus till the following April, when the body of Maria Marten was discovered buried beneath the floor of the Red Barn, a search having been made at the instigation of the girl's mother, who, as was said at the time, repeatedly dreamed that her daughter lay buried in the place in question. It was found that Maria Marten had been shot through the head and stabbed in the heart. Corder was at once arrested, and in the August following was brought up for trial at Bury St. Edmunds. Conclusive evidence was adduced to prove that he had committed the murder. Corder, however, protested his innocence and addressed the jury in his own defence, alleging that he had quarrelled with the deceased in the barn and had then left her; that he stopped on hearing the report of a pistol, and going back found that she had shot herself; and that in the fear of being charged with murder
