Robert Bagod the younger

Sir Robert Bagod (died after 1329) was a judge, Crown servant and military commander in fourteenth-century Ireland.^[1]

He was the eldest son of the judge and landowner Sir Robert Bagod, of a family which had been settled in Dublin since the twelfth century.^[1] The Bagods, later called Baggot or Bagot, gave their name to present day Baggot Street. At this site they built Baggotrath Castle, the strongest fortress in Dublin, of which no trace survives.

Ruins of Baggotrath Castle 1792: no trace of it survives today

At first he resolved on a clerical career, and advanced as far as canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, but then decided to follow his father into the service of the English Crown. His career followed his father's closely: he served as High Sheriff of County Limerick 1302–3, was knighted around 1308 and became a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1307.^[1]In 1306 he was appointed one of the collectors of the one-fifteenth i.e. one-fifteenth of the value of movable goods. He was summoned for military service in Scotland by King Edward I in 1302 but apparently did not serve. On the other hand, he rendered good service to the Crown during the Bruce campaign in Ireland in 1315, fighting mainly in Leinster. Some years later he sat on an important inquisition into claims by the citizens of Dublin to have been impoverished during the Scots invasion. He was Bailiff of Dublin in 1308 and was Chief Serjeant of Limerick in 1317.^[1] He either resigned from the Bench or was forcibly retired in 1324, possibly in connection with a "clean sweep" of the Irish judiciary. He died after 1329.^[1]

He married Avicia and they had at least four sons, Robert, Sylvester, Hervey and Thomas. The last two, like their father and grandfather, were High Court judges. ^[1]

Sources[]

• Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
• Mackay, Ronan "Bagot (Bagod), Robert" Cambridge Dictionary of National Biography

Notes[]