The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who presided in the equity court and answered the bar i.e. spoke for the court." [1] Practically speaking, he held the most important office of the Exchequer of Pleas.
The chief baron, along with the three puisne barons, sat as a court of common law, heard suits in the court of equity and settled revenue disputes. A puisne baron was styled "Mr Baron X" and the chief baron as "Lord Chief Baron X".
From 1550 to 1579, there was a major distinction between the chief baron and the second, third and fourth puisne barons. The difference was in social status and education. All of the chief barons had been trained as lawyers in the inns of court. With the exception of Henry Bradshaw and Sir Clement Higham, both barristers-at-law, all of the chief barons who served Queen Elizabeth I, had attained the highest and most prestigious rank of a lawyer, serjeant-at-law.
In 1875, the Court of Exchequer became the Exchequer Division of the High Court. Following the death of the last chief baron in 1880, the division and that of Common Pleas were merged into the King's Bench Division. [2]
Chief Baron | Title | Created | Current status | Other Judicial Roles |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sir James Scarlett | Baron Abinger | 12 January 1835 | Extant | None |
The Exchequer of Pleas, or Court of Exchequer, was a court that dealt with matters of equity, a set of legal principles based on natural law and common law in England and Wales. Originally part of the curia regis, or King's Council, the Exchequer of Pleas split from the curia in the 1190s to sit as an independent central court. The Court of Chancery's reputation for tardiness and expense resulted in much of its business transferring to the Exchequer. The Exchequer and Chancery, with similar jurisdictions, drew closer together over the years until an argument was made during the 19th century that having two seemingly identical courts was unnecessary. As a result, the Exchequer lost its equity jurisdiction. With the Judicature Acts, the Exchequer was formally dissolved as a judicial body by an Order in Council on 16 December 1880.
The Barons of the Exchequer, or barones scaccarii, were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (inferior) barons. When Robert Shute was appointed second baron in June 1579 the patent declared "he shall be reputed and be of the same order, rank, estimation, dignity and pre-eminence to all intents and purposes as any puisne judge of either of the two other courts." Exchequer of Pleas cases were formally taken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but in practice were heard by the Barons of the Exchequer.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the office was sometimes called the Chancellor of the Green Wax. In the early centuries, the Chancellor was often a highly educated cleric with knowledge of Finance. In later centuries, when sessions of Parliament had become regular, the Chancellor was invariably an MP in the Irish House of Commons. Walter de Kenley, Chancellor from 1292 until his death, was both a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and a distinguished military commander who gave good service against the Gaelic clans of County Wicklow.
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 Pleas served as one of the central English courts for around 600 years. Authorised by Magna Carta to sit in a fixed location, the Common Pleas sat in Westminster Hall for its entire existence, joined by the Exchequer of Pleas and Court of King's Bench.
Sir Robert Atkyns (1620–1710) was an English Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Member of parliament, and Speaker of the House of Lords.
Sir George Carey, JP, DL, of Cockington in the parish of Tor Mohun in Devon, England, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from May 1603 to February 1604.
Sir Edward Atkyns SL (1587–1669) was an English judge, a baron of the exchequer of the Commonwealth period.
The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland, and was a mirror of the Court of Common Pleas in England. The Court of Common Pleas was one of the "four courts" which sat in the building in Dublin which is still known as the Four Courts, apart from a period in the fourteenth century when it relocated to Carlow, which was thought, wrongly as it turned out, to be both more central and more secure for the rulers of Norman Ireland.
Sir Edward Atkyns was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660. He was the Chief Baron of the Exchequer from 1686 to 1689.
Sir Jeffrey Gilbert (1674–1726) was an English barrister, judge and author who held office as Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in both Ireland and England. While he was serving as a judge in Ireland, a routine judgment he delivered unexpectedly led to a major political crisis, as a result of which he was briefly imprisoned. He later became renowned for his legal treatises, none of which were published in his lifetime.
Baron Sir Thomas Street, MP, KB, JP was an English judge and politician who became a Baron of the Exchequer in 1681. He represented Worcester in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1679. In 1667, he became the Mayor of Worcester, as his father had been before him. In 1677, he became the Chief Justice of Brecknock, Glamorgan and Radnor.
Sir Bartholomew Dillon was a leading Irish judge of the sixteenth century who held the offices of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and Lord Justice of Ireland.
Nicholas Nugent was an Anglo-Irish judge, who was hanged for treason by the government that appointed him. He had, before his downfall, enjoyed a highly successful career, holding office as Solicitor General for Ireland, Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer, and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, but he was ruined by the rebellion of his nephew William Nugent, which he was accused of supporting.
The Court of Exchequer (Ireland), or the Irish Exchequer of Pleas, was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was the mirror image of the equivalent court in England. The Court of Exchequer was one of the four royal courts of justice which gave their name to the building in Dublin in which they were located, which is still called the Four Courts, and is in use as a courthouse.
Robert de Emeldon, or Embleton was an English-born Crown official and judge who spent much of his career in Ireland. He held several important public offices, including Attorney-General for Ireland, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was a turbulent and violent man, who was guilty of at least one homicide, was imprisoned for a number of serious crimes including rape and manslaughter, and had a reputation for corruption: but he was a royal favourite of King Edward III and was thus able to survive his temporary disgrace in the early 1350s.
William de Skipwith was a fourteenth-century English judge, who also served as a judge in Ireland. He held the office of Chief Baron of the Exchequer 1362-5. He suffered temporary disgrace when he was removed from office for corruption, but he was restored to favour, became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland 1370-2, and later returned to the English bench. He appears to have been the only High Court judge to have escaped impeachment by the English Parliament of 1388.
Sir John Cary, of Devon, was a judge who rose to the position of Chief Baron of the Exchequer (1386–88) and served twice as Member of Parliament for Devon, on both occasions together with his brother, Sir William Cary, in 1363/64 and 1368/69.
Sir William Hody of Pilsdon in Dorset, was an English lawyer, judge and politician who served as Attorney General of England and Chief Baron of the Exchequer under King Henry VII.
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