Samuel Gorges (1635-1686) was an English-born

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and judge in seventeenth-century Ireland. His career has been described as "short and tragic".Ball p.304 He was a member of the famous

Gorges family The Gorges family was an Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman family with lands in the southwest of England. They obtained the manors of Wraxall, Somerset, Wraxall, Somerset and Bradpole in Dorset. Holdings of the family The family of Gorges derived its ...

Wraxall Court Wraxall Court (originally called Wraxall Lodge) is a historic building in Wraxall in the English county of Somerset. It is a Grade II listed building. Parts of the original 1658 building were incorporated into the current building when it was er ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. He was the younger son of Samuel Gorges of

Charlton Mackrell Charlton Mackrell is a village in civil parish of The Charltons, in the county of Somerset, England, situated east of Somerton in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 1,020. The parish consists of two villages, Charlton ...

and his wife Jane Cotterell, daughter of John Cotterell of Winford, and widow of George Allen of

Wrington Wrington is a village and a civil and ecclesiastical parish on the north slopes of the Mendip Hills in North Somerset, England. Both include nearby Redhill. Wrington lies in the valley of the Congresbury Yeo river, about east of Weston-super-M ...

. Edward Gorges (1631-1708), MP for

, was his elder brother. He matriculated from

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

in 1652 and entered the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1655. He was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1665 and became

King's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

in 1684.Ball p.360 Charlton Mackrell Church

He married in 1669 Margaret Pointz (or Poyntz), daughter of Sir

Robert Pointz Sir Robert Pointz or Poyntz (1588–1665) was an English landowner and politician. He sat in the House of Commons for , between 1626 and 1629. Life Pointz was the son of Sir John Poyntz, Lord of the Manor of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and his ...

Iron Acton Iron Acton is a village, civil parish and former manor in South Gloucestershire, England. The village is about west of Yate and about northeast of the centre of Bristol. The B4058 road used to pass through the village but now by-passes it jus ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and his first wife Frances Gibbons, and widow of Sir Richard Hastings, first and last of the Hastings baronets, of Redlinch. She died without issue in 1685. Margaret was a first cousin of

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde Lieutenant-General James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, KG, PC (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688), was a statesman and soldier, known as Earl of Ormond from 1634 to 1642 and Marquess of Ormond from 1642 to 1661. Following the failur ...

, the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...

, whose mother

Elizabeth, Lady Thurles Elizabeth Poyntz (1587 – May 1673), second daughter of Sir John Pointz (died 1633) of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire and his second wife Elizabeth Sydenham, became Lady Thurles in 1608 when she married Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, son of ...

was Sir Robert Pointz's sister.Ball p.295 Ormonde was always generous to his friends and relatives, and it may have been at the Duke's suggestion that Gorges came to Ireland in about 1680. In 1682 Gorges was appointed second justice, or Master of the Rolls, of Ormonde's own

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

court, the Palatine Court of

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

. The post of Palatine judge was generally regarded as a

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval chu ...

, and certainly the Court's workload would not seem to require two judges, but Gorges seems to have performed his duties adequately since in 1684 he was elevated to the far more onerous office of justice of 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 ...

. He died in 1686 and was buried in St Mary's Church,

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

. His last years were unhappy: his wife had died and he was heavily in debt. At his death, according to his last

will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

, he left only a

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

ring, a portrait, his pistols and his horse and carriage.

References

Sources

*Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926 *Henning, D. B. ed. ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690'' Boydell and Brewer 1983 *Townsend, Peter ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' 18th Edition 3 Volumes London 1965 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorges, Samuel 1635 births 1686 deaths People from North Somerset (district) Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple Justices of the Irish Common Pleas Justices of the Palatine Court of Tipperary