John Bysse

John Bysse (c.1602–1680) was a member of the Parliament of Ireland during the 1630s and 1640s, was excluded from office during the Interregnum and was one of the leading Irish judges after the restoration of the monarchy.

Biography

Bysse was born around 1602, to Christopher Bysse (dead by 1615), an official of the Exchequer (as was his grandfather), and Margaret Forster, daughter of John Forster, an alderman of Dublin.

Bysse was admitted a member of the King's Inns in 1632. He was elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Charlemont in 1634 and became Recorder of Dublin in the same year. He was re-elected to the Commons in 1640.

At the outbreak of Irish Rebellion of 1641 John Bysse, along with his younger brother Robert (who was Recorder of Drogheda) were among the leaders of the Protestants in Parliament.^[1]

During the Commonwealth he remained Recorder of Dublin,^[2] but he was twice recommended for appointment to the Bench and was elected to Parliament but excluded. At the Restoration was appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and held the office until his death. He is buried in St. Audoen's Church, Dublin.

Bysse became a substantial landowner, inheriting Preston's Inn,^[3] on the site of the present City Hall, Dublin where he built a substantial mansion, (demolished in the 1760s); and Brackenstown near Swords; later he was granted part of the freehold of Philipstown (now Daingean).

Personality and reputation

Elrington Ball remarks flippantly that Bysse had a kind of hereditary claim on the Exchequer as both his father and grandfather had been officials there.^[4] In fact the author makes it clear that Bysse was eminently qualified to be Chief Baron: he had been Recorder of Dublin for 25 years and had sat in two Parliaments; he was hard-working and conscientious and popular with all political factions. In religion he seems to have been tolerant for the time, causing a stir in 1665 when he acted as mourner at the funeral of a non-conformist minister.

Despite Bysse's virtues, within a few years serious complaints were being made of slowness, incompetence and even senility. These complaints were taken seriously and in 1669 and 1671 he was threatened with removal. He was fortunate in enjoying the friendship of the Lord Lieutenant, James, Duke of Ormonde, to whom loyalty was a cardinal virtue. Ormonde strongly defended Bysse; admitting he was slow in giving judgement but arguing that his integrity and capacity for hard work compensated for this; and denied any fall-off in Bysse's mental abilities. These arguments were presumably successful since he was not removed.

Family

John Bysse married Margaret Edgeworth (died 1676) daughter of Francis Edgeworth and widow of John King. They had many children who died young,^[5] and two surviving daughters:

• Judith, who married Robert Molesworth,^[2] and was mother of Robert, the 1st Viscount Molesworth,
• Catherine who married the politician Sir Richard Bulkeley, 2nd Baronet.

Notes

References

• Ball, F. Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921. London: John Murray. 
• Gilbert, John Thomas (1859). A history of the city of Dublin 2. J. McGlashan. p. 22. 
• Hayton, David; Cruickshanks, Eveline; Handley, Stuart, eds. (2002). The House of Commons, 1690-1715 1. Stuart Handley. p. 826. ISBN 0-521-77221-4. 
• Perceval-Maxwell, M (1994). The outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 (illustrated ed.). McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 75. ISBN 0-7735-1157-1.