- Master of the Rolls in Ireland
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The office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland originated in the office of the keeper of the Rolls in the Irish Chancery and became an office granted by letters patent in 1333. It was abolished in 1924.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was notoriously a sinecure for politicians and some of the appointments have been described as "farcical". Richard Rigby is said never to have set foot in Ireland during the 30 years he held the office, and the 2nd Duke of Leinster, who succeeded him, had no qualifications whatever. In the nineteenth century however the office became a full-time judicial position of importance, and a series of gifted judges like Edward Sullivan and Andrew Marshall Porter enhanced its reputation. Michael O'Loghlen was notable not only as a fine judge but as the first Roman Catholic appointed to the Bench since 1688. Charles Andrew O'Connor, the last holder of the office, was sufficiently highly regarded to be appointed a judge of the new Supreme Court of the Irish Free State. The office was the equivalent of the President of the High Court.
List of Masters of the Rolls in Ireland
- 1333 Edmund de Grimsby
- 1334 William de Bardelby
- 1337 Robert de Hemmingburgh
- 1346 William de Whithurst
- 1350 Robert de Leicester
- 1356 Thomas de Cottingham
- 1372 Thomas de Thelwall
- 1377 Robert Sutton
- 1386 Thomas de Everdon
- 1395 Robert de Faryngdon
- 1395 Robert Sutton
- 1398 John de Kirkeby
- 1404 Robert Sutton
- 1430 William Sutton
- 1437 Robert Dyke
- 1450 John Chevir
- 1461 Patrick Cogley
- 1461 Peter Trevers
- 1471 Thomas Dowdall
- 1492 Thomas Butler
- 1496 John Payne, Bishop of Meath
- 1513 Thomas Rochfort
- 1521 Walter Wellesley, Bishop of Kildare
- 1522 Thomas Darcy, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
- 1523 John Ricard, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
- 1528 Thomas Darcy again
- 1530 Anthony Skeffington
- 1533 John Alan
- 1539 Robert Cowley (Irish judge)
- 1542 Thomas Cusack (Irish judge)
- 1550 Patrick Barnewall (Solicitor General)
- 1552 John Parker ( Irish judge)
- 1566 Henry Draycott
- 1572 Nicholas White
- 1578 Edward Fitzsimons
- 1578 Nicholas White again
- 1593 Anthony St Leger
- 1609 Francis Aungier, 1st Baron Aungier of Longford
- 1633 Christopher Wandesford
- 1641 Sir John Temple
- 1677 Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet
- 1689 Sir William Talbot
- 1690 Sir William Temple (2nd time)
- 1696 William Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton
- 1731 Thomas Carter
- 1754 Henry Singleton
- 1759 Richard Rigby
- 1788 William Robert Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster
- 1789 John Crosbie, 2nd Earl of Glandore and John Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort jointly
- 1801 Michael Smith
- 1806 John Philpot Curran
- 1814 William MacMahon
- 1837 Michael O'Loghlen
- 1842 Francis Blackburne
- 1846 Thomas Berry Cusack Smith
- 1866 John Edward Walsh
- 1870 Edward Sullivan
- 1883 Andrew Marshall Porter
- 1906 Richard Edmund Meredith
- 1912 Charles Andrew O'Connor
See also
Source
The Oxford Companion to Law, ed David M Walker, 1980
Categories:- Political office-holders in pre-partition Ireland
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