Godfrey Boate (1673/1676 - 1722) was an Irish judge: he is mainly remembered now for incurring the enmity of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...

, who celebrated Boate's death with the mocking ''Quibbling Elegy on Judge Boat''.

Biography

He was born in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...

, the eldest son of Godfrey Boate senior. There is some doubt about his year of birth: his memorial, which gives his age as 46, suggests that it was 1676, but it is usually given as 1673. His father was a clerk in the

Court of Chancery (Ireland) The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting plac ...

, but this position may have been a sinecure, since the Boate family were substantial landowners in Tipperary. These lands had been granted to Catharina (or Katherine) Menning (or Manning), widow of

Gerard Boate Gerard Boate (also Gérard de Boot, Bootius or Botius) (1604, Gorinchem – 1650, Dublin) was a Dutch physician, known for his ''Natural History of Ireland''. Life Boate was born Gerrit/Gerard Boot, in Gorinchem, son of the knight Godfried de Boot ...

(1604-1650), author of ''The Natural History of Ireland''; Gerard and Katherine were Godfrey's grandparents. The Boate family, originally called de Boot, came to Ireland from

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( or ), also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. It had a population of in . The municipality of Gorinchem al ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the 1640s. Godfrey himself does not seem to have been a wealthy man, and died heavily in debt.

Career

Godfrey went to school in Dublin and attended

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

where he matriculated in 1692.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.1 p.194 He entered

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

the same year and was called to the

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...

. He seems to have had no interest in politics, and was the only Irish judge of his generation never to have sat in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fran ...

. After a brief period as Master in Chancery, he became Prime Serjeant in 1716. The following year he became third justice of the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The King's Be ...

;

Francis Elrington Ball Francis Elrington Ball, known as F. Elrington Ball (1863–1928), was an Irish author and legal historian, best known for his work ''The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921'' (1926). Life A younger son of John Thomas Ball (1815 to 1898), the Lord C ...

, in his definitive study of the pre-independence Irish judiciary, thought that Boate was unqualified to be a judge, an opinion with which Jonathan Swift, who knew and loathed Boate, would most certainly have agreed.

Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet (2 May 1656 – 13 July 1724) was an Irish politician and judge, who played a leading part in Irish public life for more than 30 years. Background Levinge was born at Leek, Staffordshire, the second son of Ric ...

, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, also had a very poor opinion of Boate, as he did of almost all of his colleagues on the Bench.

Death and family

Boate died of

dropsy Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

in the summer of 1722, apparently while visiting his wife's relatives in England. He was buried in All Saints' Church, Hillesden, Buckinghamshire, where his memorial still exists. He married Cary Denton, eldest daughter of Alexander Denton of Hillesden, Buckinghamshire and Hester Herman, and sister of Sir Edmund Denton and the judge Alexander Denton. She died in 1739, and is buried beside her husband They had at least two daughters: *Lucy, who married the Rev. Thomas Hemsworth of

Abbeville Abbeville (, vls, Abbekerke, pcd, Advile) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the chef-lieu of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of ...

, vicar of Birr. They inherited the Boate estates in Tipperary; however it appears that the lands were heavily encumbered by her father's debts. In 1728 a

Private Act of Parliament Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...

was passed vesting the Tipperary lands in

trustees Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

to be sold "for the payment of the late Judge Boate's debts".''2 George II c.17 (Private Act)'' *Mary, who married Godfrey Clayton (who died in 1745, when still only in his early 20s); she died in 1772 and is buried beside her husband, father and mother in All Saints' Church, Hillesden.

Waters' case

In 1720 the Crown moved against Edward Waters, the printer of Swift's ''Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture''. He was tried for

seditious libel Sedition and seditious libel were criminal offences under English common law, and are still criminal offences in Canada. Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection ...

before a Court presided over by Boate and William Whitshed, the

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

. Boate appears to have played a very minor role at the trial, as Whitshed, the senior judge, dominated the proceedings. Whitsed's conduct of the trial was much criticised: on no less than nine occasions he refused to accept a verdict of not guilty, claiming that Walters and Swift were part of a Jacobite conspiracy. After eleven hours the jury finally brought in a guilty verdict.

Swift's ''Elegy''

Swift developed a deep hatred of Chief Justice Whitshed, with whom he clashed again over the '' Drapier Letters'', and he did not forget or forgive Boate either. Shortly after Boate's death, he wrote a mocking satire, consisting largely of puns on the judge's name:Scott p.282 "To mournful ditties

Clio In Greek mythology, Clio ( , ; el, Κλειώ), also spelled Kleio, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre playing. Etymology Clio's name is etymologically derived from the Greek root κλέω/κλεί ...

, change thy note Since cruel fate hath sunk our Justice Boat... Behold the awful Bench on which he sat He was as hard and ponderous wood as that... Charon in him will ferry souls to Hell A trade our Boat hath practiced here so well.... A Boat a judge! Yes, where's the blunder? A wooden judge is no such wonder...."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boate, Godfrey People from County Tipperary 1673 births 1721 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of Gray's Inn Irish people of Dutch descent 18th-century Irish judges Justices of the Irish King's Bench Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)