William Meade (Irish judge)

William Meade (died after 1611) was an Irish lawyer and judge of the Elizabethan era who held office as Recorder of Cork. He was a popular and controversial public figure who was accused of leading an abortive revolt against the English Crown in 1603: as a result he was tried for treason but acquitted. Soon afterwards he fled the country and died in exile.

Early life

The Meade family, who were originally called Meagh, had by the late sixteenth century become one of the most influential families in Cork, and were prominent in both law and politics. John Meade, an earlier Recorder of Cork, was ancestor of the Meade Baronets; William apparently belonged to another branch of the same family.

William is first heard of in London studying law at the Middle Temple in 1580. His open adherence to the Roman Catholic faith, at a time when religious tensions between England and the Catholic powers, France and Spain, were rising, brought him to the attention of the authorities. Together with a number of other Irish students, he was arrested and interrogated, and his chambers were searched for seditious materials.^[1] This caused something of a panic among other Irish law students in London: those of them who like Meade inclined to the Roman Catholic faith felt it wiser to absent themselves from their studies for a time. ^[2]

Presumably William was able to convince the Crown of his loyalty, since he was called to the Bar and returned to practice in Cork. When he was appointed Recorder of Cork he must, to have qualified for the office, have sworn the usual oath acknowledging Elizabeth I as Head of the Church of Ireland.

Rebellion

On the Queen's death in March 1603, the throne of England passed smoothly and peacefully to her cousin James VI of Scotland. In Ireland by contrast there was serious trouble, especially in the southern towns. Historians have referred to the revolt contempuously as a "foolish and unpremeditated" rising with no clear motive.^[3] So far as one can discern any motive it was a vague hope that pressure could be brought on the Crown to relax the Penal Laws.^[4]

The agitation was at its strongest in Cork, where it was led by Meade and the Mayor of Cork, Thomas Sarsfield. When Sir George Thornton and Sir Gervase Wilmot arrived to proclaim the new King, Sarsfield and Meade refused to permit them to issue the proclamation.^[5] Meade reportedly referred to the pretender Perkin Warbeck, whose attempt to seize the Crown in the 1490s had the backing of some of the Anglo-Irish nobility: the implication, presumably, was that the Irish could choose a different King from the English if they so wished. Rioting broke out, in which it was said that three Englishmen died. Wilmot and Thornton were expelled from the city, the gates were barred and Meade was accused of urging the citizens to demolish the recently built fort at Haulbowline.^[6]

The Lord President of Munster, Sir George Carew, on being informed of the riot, sent troops to Cork to restore order. In defiance of Meade the citizens prudently opened the gates, and he and Sarsfield were arrested.^[7] In early May 1603 the Lord Deputy, Mountjoy, arrived to personally take charge of the situation. Sarsfield wisely made a full recantation, and was pardoned by Mountjoy: Meade was recalcitrant, maintaining that he had acted lawfully, and had not committed treason. As a result he remained in prison while the authorities considered what to do with him.

In hindsight it was said that Mountjoy might as well have pardoned Meade too; the Crown must have known that he was very popular in Cork, and that whereas an English jury could usually be trusted to return a guilty verdict in a treason trial, an acquittal was a very real possibility in Ireland. The suggestion was made that he be tried in England, but eventually it was decided to try him at Youghal, presumably in the hope that he was less well known and popular there than in Cork city.^[8]

Trial

These hopes were illusory, although an impressively strong Bench sat to try Meade, headed by the Lord President of Munster, assisted by several senior judges, including William Saxey, the Chief Justice of Munster, and Sir Nicholas Walsh, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. Meade, who pleaded not guilty and insisted that he had never disputed the new King's authority, challenged all jurors of English birth - the jury in the end comprised nine Protestants and three Catholics. Great pressure was put on them to convict, and evidence was brought not only of the refusal to proclaim the King, but also of the attempted destruction of Haulbowline fort, and Meade's supposed complicity in the deaths of three men during the riot.

Fynes Moryson, secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, wrote drily that no one who knew anything about Ireland could possibly believe that any Irish jury would condemn Meade.^[9] They did not, maintaining that they knew that "he had not intended treason in his heart". For this verdict they felt the full weight of the law : they were prosecuted in the Court of Castle Chamber, heavily fined, and ordered to stand outside the courthouse in Cork holding papers proclaiming their offence.^[10]

Later life

Meade, who was "not one to press his luck"^[11] left Ireland for good shortly after his acquittal and eventually settled in Italy. He justified the Crown's suspicions about his loyalty by accepting a pension from Philip III of Spain. He continued to agitate for the repeal of the Penal Laws, and published an influential tract, Advice to the Catholics of Munster, in 1611 arguing that the laws in question had lapsed on the death of Elizabeth I.^[12] In the same year he was sent to Rome in a fruitless attempt to persuade Hugh O'Neill to return to Ireland. He died in Naples; the precise date is unknown.^[13]

References