Edward Somerton

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Edward Somerton (died 1461) was an Irish barrister and judge who held the offices of Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) and judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland).

He was born in Ireland, but little is known of his life before 1427 when he is recorded in London, where he was studying law at Lincoln's Inn. He returned to Ireland and was appointed King's Serjeant for life in 1437; he also acted as counsel for the city of Waterford.[1]

His duties as Serjeant were onerous (he was effectively the equivalent of a Government minister nowadays), and he complained that his salary of £9 per annum was entirely inadequate, given his workload. The Crown quickly agreed to his demands, and in 1440 his salary was supplemented by an additional 100 shillings a year.[1] His successor, Thomas Snetterby (in office 1447-55), later made similar complaints about the low pay for a Law Officer, as did the Attorney General for Ireland, Robert FitzRery (in office 1450-63), and both men received the same additional payment, which was charged on certain lands at Chapelizod and Leixlip.[1]

His period as King's Serjeant, then the Crown's senior legal adviser,[2] was one of great political turbulence, marked by fierce conflict between the rival Butler and Talbot factions contending to dominate the Government, and his name appears frequently in the Patent Rolls in connection with the various political controversies of the time. There is good reason to think that he personally tried to stay neutral in the conflict, and to maintain friendly relations with men on both sides of the dispute. Although Robert Dyke, the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was a firm supporter of the Butler side in the feud and therefore an opponent of the Talbot faction, Somerton valued him highly as an "honest and honorable man" who had given many years of good service to the Crown, and it was on his nomination that Dyke was made Lord Treasurer of Ireland in 1444.[3] Both of them were witnesses to the Royal Charter of 1446 whereby the liberties of Dublin Corporation were confirmed.[4]

He was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.[5] In that capacity he "spoke as the mouth of the Council" at its meeting at Trim, County Meath on 5 June 1442, when Richard Wogan, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, a prominent member of the Talbot faction, was questioned about certain articles he had sent to the Parliament of England denouncing his political enemy, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde, the head of the Butler faction. After the Council, in Wogan's absence, had examined the articles, Somerton, who was described as the Prolocutor (or Chairman) of the Council, declared that the Council found the charges against Ormonde to be false, and further declared that Wogan had acted without their authority in sending the articles to the English Parliament.[6]

In 1447 he was appointed second justice of the Court of King's Bench; unusually he was appointed by Act of Parliament.[7] In 1457 he asked for permission to found a chantry at the Church of St. Nicholas Within, Dublin (which has largely disappeared), and Parliament granted his request the following year.[8]He died in 1461.

Church of St Nicholas Within, Dublin: Somerton applied for and was granted permission to found a chantry here

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Hart p.21
  2. ^ The Attorney General for Ireland was then a junior office; it is unclear if the position of Solicitor General for Ireland, first referred to in 1511, existed at that date.
  3. ^ Patent Roll 22 Henry VI
  4. ^ Morrin Vol.2 p.455
  5. ^ Patent Roll 22 Henry VI
  6. ^ Graves, James, editor A Roll of Proceedings of the King's Council in Ireland for part of the year 1392-3 Cambridge University Press Reprinted 2102
  7. ^ Statute 25 Henry VI c.5
  8. ^ Statute 36 Henry VI c.11

Sources[]

  • Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
  • Hart, A.R. A History of the King's Serjeant-at-law in Ireland Dublin Four Courts Press 2000
  • Morrin, James "Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland of the 18th to the 45th Queen Elizabeth" Dublin Alexander Thom and Co 1862


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