Edmund de Clay

Edmund de Clay 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.[2] By 1383, he was regarded as a man who was "learned in the law" and in that year he became Serjeant-at-law.[3] He is known to have been reluctant to take up this offfice, 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,[4] to be admitted to that rank by a specified day.[5]

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 transferred to the more senior office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1386.[6] He had returned to England and was living on his estates in Nottinghamshire by 1389; later he is recorded as sitting on a commission of oyer and terminer. His date of death is not recorded,[7]

References

  1. ↑ Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p. 166
  2. ↑ Ball p.166
  3. ↑ Foss, Edward The Judges of England London Longmans 1851 Vol.4 p.21
  4. ↑ Cary later became the English Chief Baron of the Exchequer- see Foss English Judges p.16
  5. ↑ Foss p.21
  6. ↑ Ball p.166
  7. ↑ Ball p.166
Legal offices
Preceded by
John Penros		 Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland
1386-1388 		Succeeded by
Richard Plunkett
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