John Fitzadam

John Fitzadam (died c.1419) was an Irish judge of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. His is notable for his very long tenure as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas; he held office for twenty-three years, in the reigns of three English Kings.^[1]

He was a member of a Dublin city family. He is first heard of in England, where he lived from 1379 to 1383, and then returned to Ireland.^[2] He appears to have held some official position in Ireland, and he sat on a commission concerning Dublin Castle in 1384. He then decided to study law and went to England for that purpose in 1392 (Ireland did not then have its own law school). He was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1396, and held office until 1419.^[3]

That he was held in high regard by the English Crown is shown by the grant to him and his heirs in 1410, in consideration of his long and faithful service, by King Henry IV of a parcel of land at Stackallen, County Meath, together with the advowson (the right to present the parish priest), which had been forfeited in the 1340s from the former Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Elias de Asshebournham, who was then in disgrace.^[4] The grant was conditional on payment of a rose every year.^[4] The reference to his heirs may suggest that he was married with children.^[4]

There is a glimpse of him in his official role in 1414, when he persuaded the Crown "out of pity" to reverse the sentence of outlawry imposed on John Philpot of Drogheda for failure to appear in Court to answer a claim for debt, as Philpot had now appeared and submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court.^[5]

Sources[]

• Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
• Mason, William Monck The History and Antiquities of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Dublin Folens 1820
• Patent Rolls Henry IV
• Patent Rolls Henry V

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