He was born in Ireland, the son of William Cornwalsh: as their name suggests, the Cornwalsh family had come to Ireland from Cornwall in the fourteenth century.[3] The name has several alternative spellings, such as Cornwalysch and Cornwallis. He was probably descended from Sir John de Cornwall or Cornwaille, Constable of Carlow Castle in the time of Edward III. In 1358, Sir John petitioned the Crown for redress, on the ground that his castle of Kylebelle (now vanished, it is thought to have been near Leighlinbridge), had been burned by the Irish of Leinster. He was granted £40 for repairs.[4] John le Cornwaleys of Dublin was described as an attorney in 1310. A William Cornwall of Dublin, possibly a brother of James, was living in 1423.[5]
James lived mainly at Dunboyne in County Meath until he moved to Dublin in his last years. He married Matilda Rochfort and by her was the father of John Cornwalsh, himself a future Chief Baron.[6]
Cornwalsh was suspended from office in 1423 and replaced by Richard Sydgrave, with whom he had contested the right to hold the office for several years, but he was restored in 1425.[1] In the same year, the Irish Council sent him to London to give a favourable report on Ormond's tenure as Lord Lieutenant.[3] He later petitioned the Council for payment of his expenses, in the amount of £36, and was duly reimbursed.[7] In 1427, he was forgiven all his debts to the Crown,[8] and in the same year, he was awarded 20 marks by the Crown for his labours "on the King's business" in Leinster and Munster. In 1423, he was granted a two-third share of the manor of Rathfarnham in south Dublin (Rathfarnham Castle was not yet built).[9] In 1426, he was granted the manor of Crumlin, Dublin for eight years.[8]
In 1434, he was placed on a high-powered judicial commission, whose members included his fellow Chief Justice, John Blakeney of the Common Pleas and his junior Baron, Reginald de Snyterby, to inquire into all suspected cases of treason in Dublin and the Pale.[10] The same judges had sat on previous commissions, notably in 1426/7, when they tried a charge of felony against the Bishop of Meath, Edward Dantsey, who was accused of stealing a chalice from a Church in "Taveragh" (probably Tara). The Bishop vigorously maintained his innocence and was acquitted, after the case was removed to the Irish Parliament. One John Penthony later confessed to the theft, and received absolution for his sins.[11]
In 1420, when his predecessor as Chief Baron James Fitzwilliam died, Cornwalsh was appointed guardian to Fitzwilliam's young son, Phillip; in hindsight, this was an ironic choice in light of his later murderous feud with Phillip's family.
Death-the Baggotrath Castle feud
Baggotrath Castle, built by Sir Robert Bagod in about 1280, was bought by Sir Edward Perrers in about 1403. Perrers was an English-born military commander and an influential statesman, who acted as Deputy to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and was a close associate of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond. He owned substantial lands in County Meath and Newcastle, County Wicklow, as well as Baggotrath. He died sometime after 1424. After their only son's death in 1428, possession of Baggotrath Castle and her husband's other lands passed to Sir Edward's widow, Joanna.[12] Under her will, made in 1440, she appointed Cornwalsh her executor, along with her chaplain Nicholas Furlong.[12] She died at year's end 1440, and Cornwalsh entered into possession of the castle.[12] The Crown paid him a debt of £10 charged on lands at Leixlip and Chapelizod, which had been owing to Lady Perrers at the time of her death.[12]
His occupation of Baggotrath was deeply resented by Sir Edward Perrers' daughter Ismaye and her husband William Fitzwilliam (a cousin of Cornwalsh's former ward Phillip FitzWilliam). The Fitzwilliam family, for centuries, were the principal landowners in Dundrum and adjoining parts of Dublin, and constantly sought to expand their holdings. On 28 September 1441, when Cornwalsh had come up to Baggotrath to hold the Michaelmasassizes Fitzwilliam, according to the subsequent charges, assembled a large military force, seized the castle and murdered the Chief Baron, who was at supper with some members of his household, seemingly unaware of any danger.[13]
Ruins of Baggotrath Castle, c.1791
Aftermath
Given the gravity of the crime and the social prominence of the victim, it is surprising that Fitzwilliam and Ismaye were soon pardoned for killing Cornwalsh, and were even allowed to retain possession of Baggotrath Castle in the short term. Elrington Ball speculated that the Crown was not satisfied as to their guilt (although public opinion at the time was clear that FitzWilliam "wickedly slew Cornwalsh")[14] or possibly Cornwalsh's actions were seen as sufficient provocation for the crime.[13] It was in any case quite easy to get a royal pardon from Henry VI, even for crimes as notorious as the 1455 murder of the Devonshire lawyer Nicholas Radford by Thomas Courtenay, 6th Earl of Devon, which gravely shocked English public opinion.[15]
Elrington Ball drew the inference that "violence is indigenous to the Irish soil".[16] There is no doubt that murder and other violent crimes were all too common in fifteenth-century Ireland, even among the ruling class: Cornwalsh's son and heir John later married Matilda, widow of Thomas Hussey, 5th Baron Galtrim, who was reputedly murdered on his own wedding day, an episode which inspired the nineteenth-century ballad "The Bride of Malahide". On the other hand, given the number of equally heinous crimes in England, such as the Radford killing, it is perhaps fairer to conclude that there was a serious breakdown of law and order in both kingdoms, which greatly weakened the authority of the Crown.[15]
It is unclear if William and Ismaye gained anything from the crime. An inquisition of 1448 found that Ismaye was not the heiress to the Perrers estate, which should rightfully pass to the next male heir, John Hall of Southwark. William outlived Ismaye and remarried: he was dead by 1453, when his widow Joan received the King's licence required for her own remarriage.[17] His son and heir, Thomas, was still a minor when his mother remarried.[17]
Related Research Articles
Sir Laurence Merbury was an English-born statesman in Ireland who held the office of Treasurer of Ireland and was also Deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
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.
Sir John Cornwalsh, or Cornwalysch was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. His tenure was notable for the fact that he succeeded his father as Chief Baron, and for his long struggle to retain the office in defiance of a rival claimant, Michael Gryffin. He is also remembered as the builder of Dardistown Castle in County Meath.
Christopher Bernevall, or Barnewall (1370–1446) was an Irish politician and judge of the fifteenth century, who held the offices of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was deeply involved in the political controversies of his time, and was a leading opponent of the powerful Anglo-Irish magnate James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. His elder son Nicholas also held office as Lord Chief Justice, and his younger son Robert was created the first Baron Trimleston.
Sir Robert Bagod was an Irish judge who was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1276. He built Baggotrath Castle, which was the strongest fortress in Dublin: it was located on present-day Baggot Street in central Dublin. He also founded the Carmelite Friary in Dublin.
William Tynbegh, or de Thinbegh (c.1370-1424) was an Irish lawyer who had a long and distinguished career as a judge, holding office as Chief Justice of all three of the courts of common law and as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland. His career is unusual both for the exceptionally young age at which he became a judge, and because left the Bench to become Attorney General for Ireland, but later returned to judicial office.
Robert de Holywood was an Irish judge and landowner who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was the ancestor of the Holywood family of Artane Castle, and of the St. Lawrence family, Earls of Howth. He was a substantial landowner with property in Dublin, Meath and Louth. He became extremely unpopular, and was removed from office after numerous complaints of "oppression and extortion" were made against him. These were apparently inspired by his close association in the mid-1370s with Sir William de Windsor, the embattled Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Richard Sydgrave or Segrave was an Irish judge who held office as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and served as deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His family became among the foremost landowners in County Meath, and also held lands at Newry and at Carlingford, County Louth.
James Uriell was an Irish landowner and judge who held office very briefly as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.
The Burnell family were a Dublin family who were prominent in Irish public life and in the arts from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. They acquired substantial estates in County Dublin, and married into the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. They produced several judges and politicians, a leading playwright, and one of the first female Irish poets. They were staunch Roman Catholics, who opposed the Penal Laws, and supported the Irish Confederacy in the 1640s. They forfeited most of their lands after the failure of the Confederate cause, and never recovered them.
James Fitzwilliam was an Irish landowner and judge who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was the ancestor of the prominent Dublin landowning family which acquired the titles Viscount FitzWilliam and Earl of Tyrconnell.
William Chevir, or Chevyr was an Irish politician and judge, whose career was marked by accusations of oppression and corruption.
Peter Rowe was an Irish judge who held the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland intermittently between 1388 and 1397.
Richard Rede was a leading Irish statesman and judge of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He held office as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Deputy Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Deputy Treasurer of Ireland.
Thomas Talbot was a wealthy landowner and judge in fifteenth-century Ireland. He was the head of the prominent Talbot family of Malahide Castle. His descendants acquired the title Baron Talbot de Malahide, and he himself was recognised by the Crown as Lord of Malahide, although this was not a hereditary title. He was also Admiral of the Port of Malahide. By the time of his death he held lands in four counties and was one of the principal landowners in the Pale. After his death, there was a lawsuit between his widow Elizabeth and a Talbot relative, James, over possession of some of his properties.
Robert Dyke, Dyck or Dyche was an English-born cleric and judge who held high office in fifteenth-century Ireland. He was appointed to the offices of Archdeacon of Dublin, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, and Master of the Rolls in Ireland, as well as holding several Church benefices.
John Blakeney was an Irish judge of the fifteenth century, who served three times as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
Reginald de Snyterby was an Irish judge of the fifteenth century, from a family of English origin which produced several Irish judges.
Sir John Cruys or Cruise was a prominent Irish military commander, diplomat and judge of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He was one of the most substantial landowners in County Dublin and County Meath and built Merrion Castle near Dublin City in the 1360s. His marriage to the heiress of the powerful Verdon family of Clonmore brought him in addition substantial lands in County Louth. He sat in the Irish Parliament and was a member of the King's Council. He was a highly regarded public servant, but also a determined and acquisitive man of business, who fought a ten-year battle to establish his wife's right to her inheritance.
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 Beresford, David "Cornwalsh, James Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography 2009
↑ Smith, J. Huband "The Castle and Manor of Baggotrath" (1856) Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869) Vol.6 p.306
1 2 3 Otway-Ruthven, A.J. History of Mediaeval Ireland Barnes and Noble 1993 p.115
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
