Richard de Soham (died after 1305) was an English-born Crown official and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

who held high office in Ireland in the reign of King

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

. He was a Baron 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 ...

and briefly Deputy

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 ...

. He was a native of

Soham Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census. History Archaeology The region between Dev ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, and took his name from the town. He is first heard of as a Crown official in 1286, as a

tax collector A tax collector (also called a taxman) is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations. The term could also be applied to those who audit tax returns. Tax collectors are often portrayed as being evil, and in the modern wo ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, charged with levying "the tenth": he was assistant to

William de Beverley William de Beverley, Le Buerlaco, or de Burlaco (died 1289 or 1292) was a senior English Crown official and judge of the reign of King Edward I of England. He held high public office, and spent his last years in Ireland as Lord Chancellor of Irela ...

, a future

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

. He was sent to Ireland for the first time in 1288 to survey

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

, and evidently settled in Ireland. After a brief return home in 1294, he came back to Ireland as a Baron of the recently founded Court of Exchequer in 1295. He was only the second judge appointed to the Court, joining Sir

David de Offington Sir David de Offington (died c.1312) was an English-born Crown official in late thirteenth-century Ireland. He was one of the earliest recorded holders of the office of High Sheriff of County Dublin and the first recorded Baron of the Court of Exc ...

(died 1312), another English-born official who had long been resident in Ireland. He served as Deputy Treasurer of Ireland in 1304, and retired from the Bench in 1305. Like most judges of the time, he was in holy orders. He was appointed

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

Waddington, Lincolnshire Waddington is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated approximately south of Lincoln on the A607 Grantham Road. The village is known for its association with RAF Waddington. At the 2001 Ce ...

in 1303, and presumably spent his last years there.

Sources

*Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926 Barons of the Irish Exchequer People from Cambridgeshire