Sir Thomas Rochfort (c.1450-

1522 __NOTOC__ Year 1522 ( MDXXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1522nd year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 522nd year of the 2nd millenn ...

) was a distinguished Irish

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 ...

and cleric who held the offices of

Solicitor General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On rar ...

(he was the first recorded holder of that office),

Master of the Rolls in Ireland The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was respons ...

, and

Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral is the senior cleric of the Protestant St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, elected by the chapter of the cathedral. The office was created in 1219 or 1220, by one of several charters granted to the cathedral by Ar ...

. He was born at Killadoon, near

Celbridge Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

, the second son of Roger Rochfort, Lord of the Manor of Killadoon, and his wife Catherine Read.Lodge, John and Archdall, Mervyn ''The Peerage of Ireland'' Volume 3 Dublin 1789 The Rochfort family had come to Ireland around 1240; they were descended from Sir Milo de Rochfort, who held lands in Kildare in 1309. Roger's elder brother Robert was the ancestor of another distinguished judge,

Robert Rochfort Robert Rochfort (9 December 1652 – 10 October 1727) was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, a ...

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 ...

under Queen Anne, whose descendants held the title

Earl of Belvedere Earl of Belvedere (alternative spelling: ''Belvidere'') was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created in 1756 for Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere, Robert Rochfort, 1st Viscount Belfield. The title and its subsidiaries became extinct in 1814 ...

. Little is known of his life before 1502, when he became

Precentor A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is ''præcentor'', from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" (or alternatively, "first ...

of St. Patrick's Cathedral; he became Dean in 1505. He was an active and reforming Dean who laid down important new rules on the jurisdiction and discipline of the Cathedral, and it was during his tenure as Dean that the Cathedral College of Minor Canons and Choristers was incorporated. He was reputed to be "a man learned in the law": possibly for that reason, and rather unusually for a cleric at the time, he became

Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) This is a list of lawyers who held the rank of serjeant-at-law at the Irish Bar. Origins of the office of serjeant The first recorded serjeant was Roger Owen, who was appointed between 1261 and 1266, although the title itself was not commonly ...

and Solicitor General in 1511. He is the first person named as holding the office of Solicitor General for Ireland, but no conclusions can be drawn about the earlier existence of that office, as many of the records have disappeared. Subsequently, he became clerk of the Irish

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

, and then Master of the Rolls in Ireland. As often in this period, the exact dates he held office are uncertain. He was certainly still Master in 1520, but was superseded the following year. He remained Dean of St. Patrick's until his death in June 1522. Hart'' History of the King's Serjeants-at-law in Ireland'' describes Rochfort's judicial career as unique in his lifetime, as he was the only cleric of his generation who held any judicial office other than that of

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 received a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

, not a common honour for a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rochfort, Thomas Deans of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin People from County Kildare 1522 deaths Year of birth uncertain 15th-century Irish judges 16th-century Irish judges Masters of the Rolls in Ireland Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)