Walter de Cusack was a younger son of Sir Andrew Cusack of Gerrardstown, County Meath.[2] He belonged to a leading Anglo-Irish family, the Cusacks, who came to Ireland soon after the Norman invasion in the late twelfth century and settled mainly in County Meath. Sir Andrew was a younger son of Geoffrey de Cusack, Lord of Killeen.[2]Nicholas Cusack, Bishop of Kildare 1279-99, was a cousin, as presumably was the earlier Sir Walter Cusack who with his wife Elizabeth was ordered in 1392 to make a payment which they had promised under a writ of covenant to Walter Kerdiff of Ratoath.[3]
Military and State service
Walter was summoned by King Edward I for military service in the First War of Scottish Independence in 1303 and 1307, and probably on two or three later occasions.[4] He sat in the Irish Parliament in 1310.[1] He was appointed Chief Justice in Eyre (i.e. Chief Itinerant justice) in 1308,[4] and was reappointed an itinerant justice in 1310, for County Dublin only (the eyre system was quickly being wound down).[5] There is an interesting instruction in the Patent Roll to Walter and his fellow justices to decide cases concerning real property according to Irish law rather than English law: this is evidence that the two legal systems were already quite distinct.[5] Shortly afterwards the eyre was cancelled, apparently due to continuing difficulties about which legal system was being used. He served as Deputy Justiciar of Ireland, and was a justice of the Justiciar's Court in 1317–18.[4]
He was politically a close ally of the Justiciar, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, in the years 1316-8, and was steward of his Irish estates.[6] For this reason his loyalty to King Edward II in the final crisis of his reign, which ended with the King's deposition and murder at Mortimer's hands, was questioned:[6] he was accused of plotting treason, but the charges did not stick.[6]
He may have seen military service during the Scottish Invasion of Ireland of 1315-18, as his son John undoubtedly did.[7] About a year after the final defeat of the invasion, John petitioned the Council for compensation for his own and his father's losses in the King's service. The Privy Council, noting that John, but not apparently his father, was present at the Battle of Faughart in October 1318, where Edward Bruce, the leader of the invading army, was killed, recommended that John be awarded 50 marks (half what he had asked for).[7]
Personal life and legacy
He married firstly Matilda, daughter and co-heiress with her sister Isabella (who married Adam, eighth Lord of Howth[8]) of William Pylate of Pylatestown (now Pelletstown, near Cabra, Dublin).[2] He married secondly, after 1310, Amicia, widow of Nigel le Brun of Roebuck, Dublin, Escheator of Ireland.[1] Through his second marriage he acquired Knocktopher Castle in County Kilkenny, which Nigel and Amicia had purchased from Sir Walter de la Haye, the former Justiciar of Ireland, in 1309. It passed to the Butler dynasty soon after his death. His marriage to Amicia was technically an offence since it seems that he did not have the King's permission to marry, which was required in the case of a widow. However, obtaining a pardon for this transgression was easy enough, and was quickly issued in this case.
He died in 1334, leaving issue from his first marriage, including Simon Cusack, Lord of Dangan Castle, and John Cusack of Belpere.[2] His descendants were mainly associated with Cushinstown in County Meath.[2] They included Sir Thomas Cusack, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who died in 1571.[9]
Dangan Castle, nineteenth century
Sources
Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland London Henry Colburn 1850
Dodd, Gwilym and Musson, Anthony, ed. The Reign of Edward II: New Perspectives York Medieval Press 2006
Lodge, John Peerage of Ireland Moore and Co College Green Dublin 1789
Patent Roll Edward II
Smith, Brendan Colonisation and Conquest in Medieval Ireland: The English in Louth 1170-1330Cambridge University Press 1999
William Tany or Tani was Prior of the Order of Hospitallers in Ireland; he also served as Justiciar of Ireland 1373-1374, and as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1374 to 1377, and again from 1382 to 1384.
Walter de Thornbury was an English-born statesman and cleric who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the 14th century. His efforts to secure confirmation of his election as Archbishop of Dublin ended in tragedy with his death in a shipwreck.
James Cornwalsh was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was a political figure of considerable importance in fifteenth-century Ireland, and a supporter of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. He was murdered as a result of a feud over the possession of Baggotrath Castle, near Dublin.
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.
Nicholas Fastolf was an English-born judge who was a leading member of the early Irish judiciary; according to the most reliable source, he was the first judge to hold the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was probably the direct ancestor of Sir John Fastolf, who is generally thought to have inspired Shakespeare's character Falstaff.
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.
The Lordship of Meath was an extensive seigneurial liberty in medieval Ireland that was awarded to Hugh de Lacy by King Henry II of England by the service of fifty knights and with almost royal authority. The Lordship was roughly co-extensive with the medieval kingdom of Meath. At its greatest extent, it included all of the modern counties of Fingal, Meath, Westmeath as well as parts of counties Cavan, Kildare, Longford, Louth and Offaly. The Lordship or fiefdom was imbued with privileges enjoyed in no other Irish liberty, including the four royal pleas of arson, forestalling, rape, and treasure trove.
Peter Rowe was an Irish judge who held the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland intermittently between 1388 and 1397.
Thomas Bache was an Anglo-Italian cleric and judge who held high office in Ireland in the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He served one term as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and three terms as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.
Sir John de Sotheron was an English landowner, lawyer and judge, who served briefly as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.
John de Ponz, also called John de Ponte, John Savan, or John of Bridgwater (c.1248–1307) was an English-born administrator, lawyer and judge in the reign of King Edward I. He served in the Royal Household in England for several years before moving to Ireland, where he practised in the Royal Courts as the King's Serjeant-at-law (Ireland). He later served as a justice in eyre, and then as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). He was a gifted lawyer, but as a judge was accused of acting unjustly. A case he heard in Kilkenny in 1302 can be seen as a precursor of the Kilkenny Witchcraft Trials of 1324, and involved several of the main actors in the Trials.
Hugh Canoun, or Hugh Canon 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. As a judge he was praised for his good and faithful service to the English Crown, and as a lawyer he was known as "a man very knowledgeable about all the King's business". On the other hand, his loyalty to the Crown during the Scottish Invasion of Ireland in 1315-18 was said to be extremely doubtful, although he was saved from disgrace by his influential connections. He was murdered by Andrew de Bermingham of Athenry in 1317/18, during the last months of the Bruce Invasion, in the course of a private feud, of which little is known.
Sir Robert Bagod was a judge, Crown servant and military commander in fourteenth-century Ireland.
Sir Walter de la Haye or de Haye was an English-born statesman and judge in Ireland of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, who served for many years as Sheriff of County Waterford and as Chief Escheator of Ireland, and briefly as Justiciar of Ireland.
William Alysaundre or Alesander was an Irish judge and Crown official in the reigns of King Edward I of England and his son Edward II.
David le Blond was an Irish judge in the reign of King Edward II of England, who was notorious for corruption.
Waleran de Wellesley was a judge, statesman and landowner in thirteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. He was the ancestor of the Duke of Wellington, and was the first of the de Wellesley family to settle in Ireland.
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.
Sir Walter l'Enfant the younger, lord of Carnalway, County Kildare was an Irish judge and landowner.
Sir Thomas Fitzadam was a leading Irish administrator and judge during the reigns of King John and his son Henry III of England. He held a wide variety of official positions, including military commander, Constable of Dublin Castle, Chief Escheator of Ireland and Chief Forester of the Royal Forest of Glencree. He was one of the first three judges to be appointed an itinerant justice in Ireland.
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.
