Bartholomew Dillon

Sir Bartholomew Dillon (died 1533) was a leading Irish judge of the sixteenth century who held the offices of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland.

He was born at Riverstown, County Meath, eldest son of Sir James Dillon, Baron of the Exchequer, and his wife Elizabeth Bathe, daughter of Bartholomew Bathe of Dollardstown Castle, Athy, County Kildare. Sir Robert Dillon (died 1580), Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, was his younger brother.

He married twice: his first wife was Elizabeth Barnewall, daughter of Thomas Barnewall of Irishtown, and his second wife was Elinor Plunkett, daughter of Edmond Plunkett, 4th Baron Killeen.^[1] He had one son, Thomas, father of Sir Robert Dillon, and a daughter, Ismay, who married James Fleming, a grandson of James Fleming, 7th Baron Slane, and was the mother of Thomas Fleming, 10th Baron Slane.

His younger brother Robert founded the branch of the family which held the title Earl of Roscommon. By birth and marriage the Dillon brothers belonged to the small Anglo-Irish ruling class of the Pale.

He was an official in the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) by 1505 and became a Baron of the Exchequer in 1507. He was appointed Chief Baron in 1514 but removed after a year, for reasons which are unclear. He was Deputy Treasurer of Ireland from 1516 to 1522, when he became a judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland). In 1533 he was made Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland but died suddenly soon after.^[2]

According to Elrington Ball, at a time when the Irish ruling class were deeply split between supporters (the so-called Geraldines) and opponents of the 9th Earl of Kildare, Dillon was one of the most CB committed Geraldines, and spent much of his time in England defending the Earl of Kildare's interests.^[3]

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