Hugh de Burgh (; ; died 1352) was an Irish lawyer, Crown official and judge who held the offices of

Lord Treasurer of Ireland The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, chief financial officer of the Kingdom of Ireland. The designation ''High'' was added in 1695. After the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain a ...

(1340–44 and 1349–52) and

Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (judge) who presided over the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). The Irish Court of Exchequer was a mirror of the equivalent court in England and was one of the four courts which sat in the buildin ...

(1337–39 and 1344–51),Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.i pp.75-8 and was praised for his good service to the

English Crown This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Sax ...

and pardoned of accusations of maladministration.

Background

Although he is said to have been born in England, he was a member of the leading

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

de Burgh dynasty and was a cousin of

William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster and 4th Baron of Connaught (; ; 17 September 1312 – 6 June 1333) was an Irish noble who was Lieutenant of Ireland (1331) and whose murder, aged 20, led to the Burke Civil War. Background The grandson ...

. He later acted as attorney for the Earl's daughter and heiress Elizabeth, Duchess of Clarence. Her mother, Maud of Lancaster, who was a second cousin to King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

, used her considerable influence at Court on Hugh's behalf. Despite the later complaints about his misconduct, he was a professional

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and, as such, better qualified for appointment to the Bench than some of his colleagues: the Barons of the

Court of Exchequer (Ireland) The Court of Exchequer (Ireland) or the Irish Exchequer of Pleas, was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was the mirror image of the equivalent court in England. The Court of Exchequer was one of the four royal courts of justic ...

in that era were often accused of being deficient in their knowledge of the law. As was then usual when seeking an appointment to the Bench, he took holy orders.

Service

De Burgh was in the service of the Crown in 1331 when he came to Ireland. He later became the Irish attorney to Queen

Philippa of Hainault Philippa of Hainault (sometimes spelled Hainaut; Middle French: ''Philippe de Hainaut''; 24 June 1310 (or 1315) – 15 August 1369) was Queen of England as the wife and political adviser of King Edward III. She acted as regent in 1346,Strickla ...

. In 1335, he became third Baron of the

. In 1337 he was continued in office for four years, in consideration of his past good service to the Crown, and shortly afterwards he became Chief Baron. He was appointed Keeper of the

Great Seal of Ireland The Great Seal of Ireland was the seal used until 1922 by the Dublin Castle administration to authenticate important state documents in Ireland, in the same manner as the Great Seal of the Realm in England. The Great Seal of Ireland was used fro ...

, and was its custodian on 23 February 1341 until he relinquished the office on 23 May that year, and became

in 1340. He was reappointed Chief Baron in 1344. In 1347, he was accused of misconduct, and a

commission of oyer and terminer In English law, oyer and terminer (; a partial translation of the Anglo-French ''oyer et terminer'', which literally means "to hear and to determine") was one of the commissions by which a Assize Court#England and Wales, judge of assize sat. Apar ...

, headed by

Thomas de Dent Thomas de Dent, Thomas Dyvelyn, Thomas Denton, or Thomas of Dublin (died after 1361) was an English-born cleric and judge who held high office in Ireland during the reign of King Edward III, and was praised as a diligent and hard-working Crown off ...

, the

Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the s ...

, was set up to inquire into his "oppression". Precisely what form the alleged oppression (a term which has no precise modern equivalent) took is unclear. Similar charges against his successor, John de Burnham, were concerned with

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

and financial mismanagement, and it seems that the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

had some doubts about de Burgh's honesty. The complaints against him formed part of a wider pattern of general dissatisfaction with the King's Irish royal servants and, as a result, the commission's remit was soon extended into an examination of official wrongdoing more generally.Otway-Ruthven p.266

John de Burnham John de Burnham (died 1363) was an English-born cleric, judge and Crown official who spent much of his career in Ireland. He held office as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He spent many years trying to clear ...

, an English Crown official with long experience in financial administration, was sent to Ireland as Treasurer to reform de Burgh's alleged abuses, only to spend much of his career fighting charges of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

. In 1348, de Burgh went to England to plead his case; presumably, he made a convincing defence of his actions, since he received a

royal pardon In the English and British tradition, the royal prerogative of mercy is one of the historic royal prerogatives of the British monarch, by which they can grant pardons (informally known as a royal pardon) to convicted persons. The royal preroga ...

for any transgressions he had committed. He returned to Ireland, and remained Chief Baron until 1351; he died a year later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgh, Hugh de 14th-century Irish judges

Hugh Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

Normans in Ireland 1351 deaths Year of birth unknown Chief Barons of the Irish Exchequer Lord High Treasurers of Ireland