William Ryves

Sir William Ryves (c.1570-1648) was a member of a distinguished Dorsetshire family who enjoyed a successful legal career in Ireland, holding office as Attorney General for Ireland and justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland), and for a time acting as Deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Family and early career

He was born around 1570, sixth son of John Ryves of Damory Court, near Blandford, Dorset, and Elizabeth Mervyn. He belonged to a gifted family : one brother, Sir Thomas Ryves, was the leading expert on ecclesiastical and Admiralty law of his time, and another brother George was Master of New College, Oxford.^[1] Dr. Bruno Ryves, royal chaplain and later Dean of Windsor, was his first cousin, and Sir John Davies, whom he replaced as Irish Attorney General, was his uncle by marriage.^[2]

William entered Middle Temple in 1593 and was called to the Bar in 1600, and was made a bencher of Middle Temple in 1619. He lived for some years at Oxford and owned property at St. Giles. His first judicial appointment was as a justice on the Carmarthen circuit.

Irish career

William and his brother Thomas both made use of the connection with Sir John Davies, and on Davies' recommendation William succeeded him as Attorney-General for Ireland in 1619 with a knighthood. In that office he acted regularly as an extra judge of assize, and sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Belturbet. He was granted the right to hold a fair and weekly market at Rathsallagh, County Wicklow in 1632, and became Treasurer of the King's Inns in 1639.

While he had depended on the Davies connection for his early advancement, subsequent promotion was due to the patronage of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, the all-powerful Lord Deputy of Ireland.^[3] On Strafford's recommendation Ryves became second justice of the King's Bench in 1636. Strafford's downfall in 1640-41 did not damage Ryves' career as it did those of some of his colleagues, notably Sir Richard Bolton, the Lord Chancellor. Parliament resolved in May 1641 that Bolton was unfit to preside as Speaker of the Irish House of Lords, and Ryves was appointed to act in his place. He acted in this capacity in 1641-2 and again in 1644. He visited England for the last time in 1643. He died in Dublin in 1648 and was buried in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Dublin.

Character

Ryves has been called one of the most gifted members of a gifted family. Elrington Ball^[4] criticises him as one of those judges who owed their careers to Strafford, but later betrayed his trust in them by working closely with Parliament. This is perhaps too severe a judgment: Ryves was powerless to help Strafford, or prevent the disgrace of Richard Bolton; he was an old man and no doubt wished to avoid trouble in his last years.

Family

Little is known of Ryves' first wife: her family name is variously given as Jackson and Latham. By this marriage he had three daughters and six sons, including Charles, father of Sir Richard Ryves, Commissioner of the Great Seal for Ireland. Ryves' second wife was Dorothy Waldron.

References