 Sir John had also been Recorder of Bristol, Attorney-General and Chief Baron of the Exchequer.According to William Roper's "Life of Sir Thomas More", when Lord Chancellor Thomas Audley was challenged by More as to the sufficiency of the indictment under which he was condemned at his trial for treason on July 1, 1535, the Chancellor (who, according to Roper, wished to avoid all the blame for More's condemnation being imputed to himself) consulted with Fitzjames, "who, like a wise man answered, 'My Lords all, by St. Julian,' (that was ever his oath) 'I must needs confess that if the act of parliament be not unlawful, then is the indictment in my conscience not insufficient,' whereupon the Lord Chancellor said to the rest of the Lords, 'Lo, my Lords, lo!you hear what my Lord Chief Justice saith,' and so immediately gave judgment against him."