Thomas Bache (judge)

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Thomas Bache (died c.1410) was an Anglo-Italian cleric and judge who held high office in Ireland in the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He served one term as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and three terms as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

The Bache family came originally from Genoa.[1] They had a long-standing connection with the English Court: for several decades two "merchants of Genoa", who were both named Antonio Bache, and who were presumably father and son, supplied the Royal Household with spices and other luxuries, and also loaned the English Crown substantial sums of money.[2] There is a record of a loan of £500 to the Crown by Antonio Bache in 1334. [3]Thomas was almost certainly a member of this family, although his exact relationship with the two Antonios is unclear.[1]

Thomas entered the Church. He served as a Crown official in England in an unspecified capacity, before coming to Ireland in the late 1360s.[1] He did not reach the highest ranks of the Church, but he was appointed Archdeacon of Dublin, then Archdeacon of Meath; he was also given the livings of Kilberry, County Meath, and Brington, Northamptonshire, and was prebendary of Lusk, Dublin.[1]

He achieved high office in the political and judicial spheres, being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland in 1376, and serving as Lord Treasurer 1400–1402.[1] He was appointed a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) in 1380, and became Chief Baron the following year, with the proviso that he held the office "so long as he was of good behaviour".[4]He was twice superseded as Chief Baron, but was reappointed on both occasions before retiring for good in 1405. He also served as Deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1398. He probably died in 1410.[1]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p.164
  2. ^ Steel, Anthony The Receipt of the Exchequer 1377-1485 Cambridge University Press 1954 p.146
  3. ^ National Archives E43/138
  4. ^ Barker, Travis R. ed. "Law and Society in Later Medieval England and Ireland: Essays in honour of Paul Brand" Routledge Oxford 2018 fn.141


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