Richard Plunkett (c.1340-1393) was an eminent Irish judge and statesman of the fourteenth century, who held the offices of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His descendants held the titles Baron Dunsany, Baron Killeen and Earl of Fingall.
He was born about 1340, the son of John Plunkett of Rathregan (or Rathgreen), County Meath and Alicia d'Arcy (or Alicia de Trim). [1] The Plunketts were a long-established Anglo-Irish family of the Pale, who originally settled at Beaulieu in County Louth about 1200: his mother Alicia is also described as being "of Beaulieu". Another branch of the family, descendants of Richard's brother, another John, later held the title Baron Louth. [2]
He was considered to be one of the best lawyers of his generation, and was appointed King's Serjeant in 1372. [3] He was already sufficiently well respected by 1364 to form part of the powerful delegation sent to England to describe the state of the Irish government and to complain to King Edward III about the corruption and maladministration of certain officials of the Crown in Ireland; the complaints were directed in particular against Thomas de Burley, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. [4] Richard sat on a Royal Commission which was set up to examine and remedy the abuses complained of. [4] He was also a noted Parliamentarian; he sat in the Irish House of Commons and took a leading part in the Kilkenny Parliament of 1374. He was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland and attended several meetings of the Great Council. [5] He became a judge of the Irish Court of Common Pleas in 1376. In 1381 he was appointed to try an action for novel disseisin against Richard Dowdall and his wife Isabella. In July 1388 he was promoted to Chief Justice of the King's Bench, on the same terms enjoyed by John Keppock, [6] and the following September he was made Lord Chancellor. [7] He had already been acting as Chancellor for some months, due to the pressure of business on his predecessor, and was specially authorised to seal Court writs without affixing the Great Seal of Ireland to them. [8] Elrington Ball [3] puts his death around 1389, but O'Flanagan [9] states that he was still alive in 1393, when Richard Northalis succeeded him as Lord Chancellor.
O'Flanagan [9] calls him one of the most eminent Irishmen of his time, a lawyer of great distinction and equally distinguished for his Parliamentary career.
Richard married Margaret, widow of Robert Burnell, of the leading Anglo-Irish Burnell family of Balgriffin, County Dublin. They had three children, Christopher, John, and Anne. Christopher was the father of the first Baron Killeen. [10]
The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to the end of 1800, it was also the highest political office of the Irish Parliament: the Chancellor was Speaker of the Irish House of Lords. The Lord Chancellor was also Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Ireland. In all three respects, the office mirrored the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
Alexander Plunket was an Irish statesman and judge of the fifteenth century.
Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester was an Irish peer, statesman and judge. He was one of the dominant political figures in late fifteenth-century Ireland, rivalled in influence probably only by his son-in-law Garret FitzGerald, the "Great" Earl of Kildare.
Plunkett is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic Ó Pluingceid. It is associated with Ireland, and possibly of Norse or Norman origin; it may be spelled O'Plunket, Plunket, Plunkit, Plunkitt, Plonkit, Plonkitt, Plonket, Plonkett, or Ó Plunceid, and may refer to:
Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton, PC (Ire) was a leading Irish lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the Parliament of Ireland between 1692 and 1715 and in the British House of Commons from 1717 to 1728. He was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Although he was a man of great gifts, he was so hot-tempered that even Jonathan Swift is said to have been afraid of him.
John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimleston, was an Irish nobleman, judge and politician. He was the eldest son of Christopher Barnewall, 2nd Baron Trimlestown and his wife Elizabeth Plunket, daughter of Sir Thomas Fitz-Christopher Plunket of Rathmore, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland and his second wife Marian Cruise. He succeeded his father as 3rd Baron in about 1513. His father, like most of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, had supported the claim of the pretender Lambert Simnel to the English throne in 1487. After the failure of Simnel's rebellion, he received a royal pardon.
Alexander de Balscot, also known as Alexander Petit was one of the leading Irish clerics and statesmen of the late fourteenth century, who held the offices of Bishop of Ossory, Bishop of Meath, Treasurer of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Thomas Cantock, Quantock or Cantok was an English-born cleric and judge in medieval Ireland, who held the offices of Bishop of Emly and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth was a leading nobleman and statesman in 15th-century Ireland who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Through his second marriage, he was a close connection to the new Tudor dynasty, to which his son was staunchly loyal.
Nicholas St Lawrence, 4th Baron Howth was a leading Irish nobleman, soldier and statesman of the early Tudor period, who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Walter Fitzsimon or Fitzsimons was a statesman and cleric in Ireland in the reign of Henry VII, who held the offices of Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Robert Wikeford or de Wikeford was an English-born diplomat, lawyer and judge, who became Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin.
John de Bothby, or Boothby was an English-born cleric and judge who became Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Sir Robert FitzEustace (c.1420–1486) was an Irish landowner and politician of the fifteenth century.
Sir James Dowdall was an Irish judge of the Elizabethan era who briefly held office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He should not be confused with James Dowdall, the Catholic martyr, who was his cousin.
John Keppock was an Irish judge of the late fourteenth century, who held the offices of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and Deputy Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He became a politician of some importance.
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.
Sir Thomas Fitz-Christopher Plunket (c.1407–1471) was a leading Irish lawyer and judge of the fifteenth century who held office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was an ancestor of the Duke of Wellington in the female line. His second marriage to the heiress Marian Cruise inspired the ballad The Song of Mary Cruys.
Edward Somerton, or Somertoune was an Irish barrister and judge who held the offices of Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) and judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) and the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). He was born in Ireland, possibly in Waterford, although he lived much of his life in Dublin. By 1426 he was a clerk in the Court of Chancery (Ireland), and was paid 26 shillings for his labours in preparing writs and enrolment of indentures,. In 1427 he is recorded in London studying law at Lincoln's Inn. He returned to Ireland and was again in the Crown service by 1435, when he was ordered to convey lands at Beaulieu, County Louth to Robert Chambre, one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). He was appointed King's Serjeant for life in 1437; he also acted as counsel for the city of Waterford, a position subsequently held by another future judge, John Gough.
William de Beverley, Le Buerlaco, or de Burlaco was a senior English Crown official and judge of the reign of King Edward I of England. He held high public office, and spent his last years in Ireland as Lord Chancellor of Ireland.