Hugh Canoun, or Hugh Canon (died December 1317/January 1318) was an English-born judge in early fourteenth-century Ireland. He was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and served as Deputy Justiciar of Ireland. [1] As a judge he was praised for his good and faithful service to the English Crown, [2] and as a lawyer he was known as "a man very knowledgeable about all the King's business". [3] On the other hand, his loyalty to the Crown during the Scottish Invasion of Ireland in 1315-18 was said to be extremely doubtful, [4] although he was saved from disgrace by his influential connections. [3] He was murdered by Andrew de Bermingham of Athenry in 1317/18, during the last months of the Bruce Invasion, [5] in the course of a private feud, of which little is known. [6]
He was a native of the parish of Woodford, Somerset (now Nettlecombe), where he owned a "house and close (enclosure)"; he later complained that his house had been ransacked during his long absence abroad. [1] He was in Ireland, presumably practising law, by 1294. [1] He was High Sheriff of Kildare in 1306, and apparently aimed to become a substantial landowner in County Kildare. [2]
He was appointed to the Irish Court of Common Pleas (which was then usually called "the Bench") in 1308, on the nomination of Piers Gaveston, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and prime Royal favourite. [3] He was also made Chief Escheator of Ireland in 1310 [7] and a justice in eyre i.e. an itinerant justice, in the same year, along with Walter de Cusack and David le Blond, though he seems to have sat only in County Dublin. [3] This may have been the last Dublin eyre (circuit): the system gradually fell into disuse in Ireland from about 1280 onwards and was obsolete by 1325. [8] In any case, the Dublin eyre ended the following year after objections from the litigants that the judges were applying English law, rather than local customary law. In 1310 and again in 1311 he was hearing the assizes in County Carlow. [9]
In 1311 he was "impleaded", i.e. prosecuted, at Westminster on charges connected to the conduct of his judicial duties. [3] He took the precaution of obtaining letters of protection from several of the leading figures in Ireland, including the Earl of Ulster and the Justiciar of Ireland, John Wogan, and their support resulted in the charges being dropped. [3] He was held in high regard by his judicial colleagues, one of whom, possibly Sir Richard de Exeter, wrote a letter describing Hugh as "the man most knowledgeable in the various kinds of business which concern the King". [3]
He resigned, or was removed, from the Court of Common Pleas in 1315, and was replaced by William of Bardfield. [10] He was appointed a justice of the Justiciar's Court in the same year, and served as Deputy Justiciar in 1316. [1] He was also appointed Chief Justice in Eyre. [3]
During the Scottish Invasion of Ireland of 1315-18, his loyalty to the English Crown was deeply suspect. He was a supporter of Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, who had shown his regard for him in 1311, when Hugh was impleaded at Westminster. [3] Ulster's daughter Elizabeth had married the Scottish King, Robert the Bruce, raising inevitable suspicions about her father's loyalties, although in fact the Earl opposed the Bruces, and fought for the Crown during the Invasion. [4] In 1317 it was rumoured that Canoun had ordered his brother-in-law to guide Robert's brother Edward Bruce, who led the invading forces, through County Kildare. [4]
There appears to be no firm evidence of Canoun's disloyalty to the Crown. Similar accusations were made against his colleague Sir Richard de Exeter, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, whose daughter had married Walter de Lacy, a known rebel and supporter of the Bruces. A petition asking for Exeter to be removed from office was not acted on. [4]
No proceedings were taken against Canoun, and he received a pardon in 1317 covering all his alleged acts of treason. [11] As on previous occasions, he could rely on his powerful connections for protection, [3] but his career ended abruptly when he as murdered shortly afterwards, in a private feud with the de Berminghams of Athenry. [6]
In 1316 Canoun petitioned the Crown for a grant of the lands of Rathcoffey, County Kildare, and also Clane, Mainham and other lands in the barony of Ikeathy and Oughterany, which had reverted to the Crown on the death of Isabel, widow of Henry de Rochford. [2] The official endorsement on the petition praised Hugh for his good and faithful service as a judge in Ireland (this was evidently before he fell under suspicion of disloyalty during the Bruce Invasion), but the relevant official, John Hotham, Bishop of Ely, clearly had doubts about the propriety of making the grant in question, since John Wogan, the former Justiciar of Ireland, already held the lands. The grant to Wogan was confirmed shortly afterwards, and his descendants built Rathcoffey Castle on the lands.
In 1317 Hugh received a full royal pardon for all "trespasses" committed by him, in consideration of his good services to the Crown. This is almost certainly a reference to his equivocal role during the Scots invasion. [11]
Grace's manuscript Annales Hiberniae and several other sources agree that Canoun was assassinated in late 1317 or early 1318 by Andrew de Bermingham, a younger son of Rickard de Bermingham, Lord of Athenry, as a result of a long-standing feud, of which few details survive. The murder took place between Naas and Castlemartin in County Kildare. [6] The news reached the authorities in Dublin "at the Feast of the Epiphany" (6 January 1318), so the killing probably occurred at the end of the previous year. De Bermingham himself was murdered a few years later, in the course of an unrelated feud with the O'Nolans family. Curiously, no action seems to have been taken against him for Canoun's murder, despite the victim's eminence. [6]
Hugh's wife was called Albreda. [1] It is likely that they had sons, as in his petition for possession of Rathcoffey he specified that the lands should descend by entail male, i.e. to his male heirs, but nothing seems to be known of them.
He has been described as a figure of very considerable importance in early fourteenth-century Ireland. [3]
Sir Richard de Exeter was an Anglo-Norman knight and baron who served as a judge in Ireland.
John FitzThomas was an Anglo-Norman in the Peerage of Ireland, as 4th Lord of Offaly from 1287 and subsequently as 1st Earl of Kildare from 1316.
Rickard de Bermingham, otherwise Rickard Mac Fheorais, was Anglo-Irish lord of Athenry.
Bermingham is the Gaelicised version of 'De Birmingham' and is descended from the family of Warwickshire, England. The Irish version of the name MacFeorais/MacPheorais is derived from Pierce de Bermingham. The first recorded Bermingham in Ireland, Robert de Bermingham accompanied Richard de Clare or 'Strongbow' in Henry II's conquest of Ireland in 1172. On arrival he received: "an ancient monument, valued at 200 pounds, on which was represented in brass the landing of the first ancestor of the family of Birmingham in Ireland."
John de Bermingham, 1st and last Earl of Louth was an Irish peer. He was the commander of the Anglo-Irish army in the Battle of Faughart, the decisive battle in the Irish Bruce Wars 1315–1318. In this battle, Edward Bruce was killed, and Bermingham had Bruce's severed head 'salted in a chest' and transported to England to be put on display before Edward II. He was briefly Viceroy of Ireland in 1321.
Rathcoffey is a village in County Kildare, Ireland, around 30 km west of Dublin city centre. It had a population of 271 as of 2016 census. The village church, Rathcoffey Church, is part of the Clane & Rathcoffey Parish, and was built in 1710. Rathcoffey National School, a co-educational Catholic primary school, is the only educational institution in the village. Rathcoffey GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club based in Rathcoffey. The club was founded in February 1888. Teams representing the club play hurling, camogie and Gaelic football.
Richard Wogan was an Irish judge and cleric who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and also served as a soldier.
Sir John Wogan or John de Wogan, styled lord of Picton was a Cambro-Norman judge who served as Justiciar of Ireland from 1295 to 1313.
Sir Robert Dowdall was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas for more than forty years. He is mainly remembered today for the murderous assault on him by Sir James Keating, the Prior of Kilmainham, in 1462.
Nicholas de Balscote was an English-born official and judge in fourteenth-century Ireland. He attained high judicial office, but his career was damaged by a quarrel with King Edward II.
Robert Preston, 1st Baron Gormanston was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, statesman and judge of the fourteenth century. He held several senior judicial offices including, for a brief period, that of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was the founder of the leading Anglo-Irish Preston family whose titles included Viscount Gormanston and Viscount Tara.
Thomas Dowdall, also spelt Dowdale, Douedall, or Dowedall, was an Irish barrister and judge who held the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland.
Rathcoffey Castle is a 15th-century castle in Rathcoffey, County Kildare, Ireland. It is a National Monument.
William of Bardfield, William de Berdefeld or William de Bardesfeld was an English-born lawyer of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century who enjoyed a successful legal career in England before moving to Ireland, where he was successively Serjeant-at-law (Ireland), justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland), and justice of the Court of the Justiciar of Ireland.
Walter de Cusack was an Anglo-Irish judge, magnate and military commander of the fourteenth century.
Walter de Wogan was a Welsh-born Irish administrator, soldier and judge of the early fourteenth century.
Sir Robert Bagod was a judge, Crown servant and military commander in fourteenth-century Ireland.
David le Blond was an Irish judge in the reign of King Edward II of England, who was notorious for corruption.
Sir John de Fressingfield (c.1260-c.1323) was an English knight, judge, diplomat and Privy Councillor, much of whose career was spent in Ireland. Though he is almost entirely forgotten now, he was a figure of some importance in English and Irish public life in the first 20 years of the fourteenth century. He also held judicial office in Jersey and Guernsey.
Sir Walter l'Enfant the younger, lord of Carnalway, County Kildare was an Irish judge and landowner.