Edmund de Clay

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Edmund de Clay (died after 1389) was an English-born lawyer and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.[1]

He was born in Nottinghamshire, and later became a landowner there.[1] By 1383, he had the reputation for being "learned in the law" and in that year he became Serjeant-at-law.[2] He is known to have been most reluctant to take up this office, probably because it would involve him in heavy expenses, and he did so only after King Richard II issued a warrant commanding de Clay, along with two other leading advocates, John Hill and Sir John Cary,[3] to be admitted to that rank by a specified day.[2]

In 1385 he was sent to Ireland with a large retinue to take up office as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and was summoned to the Council meeting in September 1386 when Sir John Stanley, the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, read out his letters patent of appointment.[4] He had transferred to the more senior office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland earlier that year.[1] He had returned to England by 1389, when he was living on his estates in Nottinghamshire; later he is recorded as sitting on a commission of oyer and terminer. His date of death is not recorded,[1]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p. 166
  2. ^ a b Foss, Edward The Judges of England Longmans London 1851 Vol.4 pp.16-21
  3. ^ Cary later became the English Chief Baron of the Exchequer- see Foss "Judges of England" p.16
  4. ^ Patent Roll 10 Richard 11 18 September 1386
Legal offices
Preceded by Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland
1386–1388 		Succeeded by
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