Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas
The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the senior judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland), which was known in its early stage as the Common Bench or simply the Bench. It was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland, and was a mirror of the Court of Common Pleas in England. Common Pleas comprised one of the "four courts" which sat in the building in Dublin still known as the Four Courts.
According to Elrington Ball the court was functioning by 1276, with a Chief Justice, of whom Robert Bagod was the first, and two or three associate justices.[1] The Court functioned until the passing of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877, when it was merged into the new High Court of Justice. The last Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, Sir Michael Morris, continued to hold the title until 1887, when he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, at which point the earlier title became obsolete.
Chief Justices of the Irish Common Pleas[2]
- 1274 Robert Bagod
- 1298 Simon de Ludgate
- 1302 Richard de Exeter
- 1308 William de Devenys
- 1308 Richard de Exeter
- 1325 Henry de Hambury
- 1327 Nicholas Fastolf
- 1329 William de Rodyard
- 1335 Simon Fitz-Richard
- 1338 John de Rees
- 1338 Simon Fitz-Richard, second term
- 1341 John Gernoun
- 1344 Thomas de Dent
- 1378 Henry Mitchell
- 1380 Henry Bray
- 1383 William de Langham
- 1385 John de Shriggeley
- 1385 Edmund de Clay
- 1386 John Tirel
- 1396 John Giffard
- 1396 John Fitzadam
- 1419 William Tynbegh
- 1420 John Blakeney
- 1424 William Tynbegh, second term
- 1424 John Blakeney, second term
- 1428 John Alleyn
- 1430 John Blakeney, third term
- 1438 Robert Dowdall
- 1482 Thomas Plunket
- 1494 John Topcliffe
- 1496 Thomas Bowring
- 1498 Thomas Plunket, second term
- 1514 Richard Delahide
- 1534 Thomas Luttrell
- 1554 John Bathe
- 1559 Robert Dillon
- 1580 Nicholas Nugent
- 1581 Robert Dillon
- 1593 William Weston
- 1594 Robert Dillon
- 1597 Nicholas Walsh
- 1634 Gerard Lowther
- 1660 James Donnellan
- 1665 Sir Edward Smith or Smythe
- 1670 Robert Booth
- 1679 John Keating
- 1691 Richard Pyne
- 1695 John Hely
- 1701 Richard Cox
- 1703 Sir Robert Doyne
- 1714 John Forster
- 1727 William Whitshed (died just after taking office)
- 1727 James Reynolds
- 1740 Henry Singleton
- 1761 Richard Aston
- 1765 Richard Clayton
- 1770 Marcus Paterson
- 1830 John Doherty
- 1850 James Henry Monahan
- 1876 Michael Morris