John Giffard, or Gyffard (died after 1396) was an English-born lawyer and cleric in Ireland in the late fourteenth century, who served briefly as

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 ...

. Little is known of his life before 1377, when he appeared in Ireland as a Crown official. He is known to have travelled through the country on official business, which took him to

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

in 1383. He was presented to a

living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * Hu ...

in the diocese of Cloyne in 1382 and to another living at Church Lawford, Warwickshire, in 1386. He was appointed Keeper of the Writs in the

Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) The Court of Common Pleas was one of the principal courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror image of the equivalent court in England. Common Pleas was one of the four courts of justice which gave the Four Courts in Dublin, which is still ...

,''Patent Roll 15 Richard II'' which was then based in

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

, and held the position until 1391 when he was replaced by Thomas Gower. In 1383 he spent more than two months in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

administering the Court's business, and was awarded an extra payment of 40 shillings.''Close Roll 8 Richard II'' In 1385 he was appointed a justice in eyre (itinerant justice) for three counties, to act with Edmund de Clay, the then Chief Justice.''Patent Roll 9 Richard II'', where his first name is given as Richard They were also appointed to a Commission of Oyer and Terminer.Smyth p.114 He was appointed Chief Justice of the

in 1396 but Elrington Ball tells us that he was removed from office a few days later, for unknown reasons. It is unclear whether he had any connection with the Irish branch of the ancient Giffard family of Devon, who acquired the title Earl of Halsbury. The Irish branch was based at Dromartin,

Dundrum, Dublin Dundrum (, ''the ridge fort''), originally a town in its own right, is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The area is located in the Dublin postal districts, postal districts of Dublin 14 and Dublin 16. Dundrum is home to the Dundrum Town Centr ...

. There was also a Gyffard family in

County Louth County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...

in the early 1440s.

References

*Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 *''Patent Rolls Richard II '' *Smyth, Constantine Joseph ''Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland'' London Butterworths 1839

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giffard, John 14th-century Irish judges Chief Justices of the Irish Common Pleas