This is a list of lawyers who held the rank of serjeant-at-law at the Bar of Ireland.
Contents
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 used in Ireland until about 1388. The earlier terms were "serviens", "King's Narrator" "King's Pleader" or "Serjeant Pleader". The term King's Pleader was still in use in the 1470s. There is a reference to Richard le Blond as the King's "Serjeant Pleader" in 1305 or 1306. In the early years of the office, appointment as serjeant might be temporary and might cover only a part of the country, although John de Neville was acting as Serjeant in 1295-6 "for all parts of Ireland". Roger l'Enfant in the late 1370s pleaded mainly in Cork City, and Walter Cotterell in Munster As a rule, the Serjeant was licensed to appear in all of the Royal Courts, although John Haire in 1392 was described as "Serjeant-at-law of our Lord the King in the Common Pleas".
The role of the Serjeant-at-law
The serjeant's duties were numerous and varied. Early serjeants spent much time suing to recover Royal lands which had been unlawfully disposed of, and recovering other Crown property like weirs and fisheries. They also spent a surprisingly large amount of time protecting the Crown's right of advowson: i.e. the right of nomination of a parish priest to a particular church (many private landowners also acquired the right).
In 1537 a Royal Commission on law reform considered recommending the abolition of the office of Serjeant, and the transfer of his functions to the Attorney General, but nothing came of the proposal, probably due to firm opposition from the Serjeant-at-law of the day, Patrick Barnewall, who argued that the Serjeant-at-law had argued in Court on the Crown's behalf for 200 years, and that the existing system worked perfectly well.
In 1597 the Serjeant was called "a principal officer by ancient custom", although the meaning of "principal officer" is unclear.
In contrast to England, for many years there was only one serjeant-at-law in Ireland, who was known as the "king's serjeant" or simply "serjeant". In 1627 another officeholder was appointed, and the two were known as the "prime serjeant" and "second serjeant". In 1682 a "third serjeant" was appointed. In 1805 the prime serjeant became known as "first serjeant."
Until the nineteenth century, the need for three serjeants was often questioned, especially as the office of Third Serjeant was often left vacant for several years. The position of third serjeant was created simply as a form of "consolation prize" for Sir John Lyndon, the first holder of the office, who had been passed over as both a High Court judge and as second serjeant, and that no particular duties attached to the office. Certainly, Sir Richard Ryves, the Recorder of Dublin, was able to combine the notoriously gruelling office of recorder with the position of third serjeant, and later second serjeant. This suggests that he was not overworked in his role as serjeant, despite the chronic ill-health which eventually incapacitated him. Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton, who was removed from his office of third serjeant in 1692, complained that his dismissal was unwarranted, but admitted that in his two years in the office, he had almost no work to do. Hewitt Poole Jellett, second serjeant in the early 1900s, was so old that his office was clearly an honorary one.
Emoluments
The position was extremely lucrative, at least until the late eighteenth century. Although in theory the salary in the 1690s was fixed at £30 a year (it had been £20 in 1620), it was well known that in practice the various perquisites attached to the office brought it up to between £900 and £1000 a year, in addition to what the office holder earned from private fees, as it was the serjeant's right to continue to take briefs on behalf of clients other than the Crown. In the early centuries, it was apparently normal procedure for the Serjeants to take private work, although it was understood that Crown work took precedence: a retainer agreement made between William of Bardfield, King's Serjeant, and his client Nicholas, son of John of Interberge, in the early 1300s spells this out. In the early centuries the Serjeant might be paid for his Crown work in a single session of the Court, as for example, Roger L' Enfant was in 1377.
By the late nineteenth century, according to Maurice Healy, the rule had grown up that the Serjeants could not take cases against the Crown, and by then they had ceased to receive a salary; the assurance of a steady supply of Crown work was felt to be a sufficient reward.
Politics and precedence
From the fourteenth century on, the serjeant usually had a seat in the Irish House of Commons. As a government officeholder, he was expected to manage parliamentary business in the Commons on the government's behalf. Because he was a government appointment he was liable to summary dismissal on a change of government, as happened most notably in 1714, on the accession of the House of Hanover. In the early centuries he was invariably a member of the Privy Council of Ireland; later the attorney general took his place (as early as 1441 Stephen Roche, the king's attorney, is recorded as a member of the Council). In 1441 it was noted that the Serjeant-at-law must attend at his own expense all meetings of Council and Parliament "wherever they are held in Ireland".
The serjeants-at-law ranked ahead of the Attorney-General for Ireland and the Solicitor-General for Ireland (on several occasions one man held both the offices of Serjeant and Solicitor General) until 1805, when the law officers took precedence, the office of prime serjeant being downgraded to first serjeant, with precedence over the other two serjeants but not the law officers. From about 1660 onwards they were expected to consult with the Attorney General and were discouraged from acting on their own initiative: in 1692 the prime serjeant, John Osborne, was dismissed for repeatedly acting in opposition to Crown policy. From the 1560s on the serjeants acted as "messengers" to the Irish House of Commons i.e. they were summoned to advise the House on points of law, just as the High Court judges advised the Irish House of Lords. The role of messenger lapsed around 1740.
Many sixteenth-century serjeants, including Thomas Rochfort, Thomas Luttrell, Patrick Barnewall and John Bathe, were solicitors-general at the same time, suggesting that the latter office was the most junior of the Law Officers and that the duties were not very onerous. At least one serjeant of the era, Richard Finglas, combined the office of serjeant with the subordinate office of Principal Solicitor for Ireland.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the serjeants often acted as extra judges of assize, or in another minor judicial capacity. Although the practice had its critics, it survived intermittently into the nineteenth century: Walter Berwick was chairman of the East Cork Quarter Sessions from 1856 to 1859, while also serving as serjeant, and Sir John Howley was both serjeant-at-law and chairman of the County Tipperary Quarter Sessions for 30 years. Howley however was criticised for what was called his "legal pluralism". At least one serjeant, Sir John Bere (1609–17), went as a judge of assize while sitting as an MP in the Parliament of 1613-15, which would be considered grossly improper nowadays, although Irish judges then were often encouraged by the Crown to sit in the Commons.
Abolition of the office of serjeant
No serjeants were appointed after 1919, and on the establishment of the Irish Free State, the rank ceased to exist. The last surviving serjeant, Alexander Sullivan, moved to England where he practised at the English Bar, and as a mark of courtesy was always addressed as Serjeant Sullivan.
King's serjeants, 1261–1627
1261: Roger Owen
1270: Robert of St. Edmund
1281: John Fitzwilliam
1292: John de Ponz (also called John de Ponte or John of Bridgwater)
1293: John de Neville
1297: William of Bardfield
1297: Richard le Blond
1310: Matthew of Harwood
1316 Nicholas de Snyterby
1319: John of Staines
12 February 1326: Simon Fitz-Richard
29 September 1327 John of Cardiff, also called John de la Battalk
29 September 1327 John Gernoun
1331 Thomas de Dent
3 December 1341: Hugh Brown
1 June 1343: William le Petit
1348: Robert Preston, later 1st Baron Gormanston
1356: John Keppock
1358: Richard White
19 November 1363: Edmund de Bereford, or Edmund of Barford
1373/4: John Tirel, or Tyrell
18 April 1375: Richard Plunkett
Prime serjeants, 1627–1805
23 May 1627: Sir John Brereton
6 October 1629: James Barry
August 1634: Sir Maurice Eustace
20 September 1660: Sir Audley Mervyn
26 October 1675: Sir William Davys
by 1680: John Osborne (succeeded under a patent of reversion dated 29 August 1676; removed from office in 1686)
15 February 1687: Garrett Dillon
29 September 1690: John Osborne (restored to office in 1690, removed a second time in 1692)
29 December 1692: Nehemiah Donnellan
5 November 1695: Sir Thomas Pakenham
1 December 1703: Robert Saunders
28 February 1708: William Neave
8 December 1714: William Caulfeild
11 August 1711: Robert Blennerhassett
9 February 1712: Morley Saunders
13 June 1715: Godfrey Boate
23 June 1716: Robert Fitzgerald
26 January 1724: Francis Bernard
22 June 1726: Henry Singleton
14 January 1742: Arthur Blennerhassett
First serjeants, 1805–
25 July 1805: Arthur Moore
25 July 1816: William Johnson
28 October 1817: Henry Joy
13 May 1822: Thomas Lefroy
April 1830: Thomas Goold
February 1832: Edward Pennefather
23 May 1835: Richard Wilson Greene
November 1842: Joseph Stock
June 1851: Sir John Howley
27 February 1866: Richard Armstrong
25 October 1880: David Sherlock
20 May 1884: James Robinson
19 July 1885: Charles Hare Hemphill
17 November 1892: William Bennet Campion
5 December 1907: Charles Andrew O'Connor
14 January 1910: John Francis Moriarty
5 July 1913: Charles Louis Matheson
29 October 1919: Alexander Martin Sullivan – the last Irish serjeant
Second serjeants, 1627–
23 May 1627: Sir Nathaniel Catelyn
14 April 1637: Sir William Sambach
4 March 1661: Robert Griffith
6 April 1670: Henry Hene
10 May 1673: Sir Richard Reynell, 1st Baronet
26 May 1674: John Osborne
7 April 1680: Sir Richard Stephens (dismissed 1682)
24 October 1682: William Beckett
7 August 1683: Sir Richard Ryves (removed from office 1687)
May 1687: Sir Henry Echlin
14 November 1690: Sir Richard Stephens (restored)
5 January 1691: Sir Richard Ryves (restored)
8 February 1692: Sir Thomas Pakenham
13 January 1696: William Neave
1 December 1708: William Caulfeild (resigned)
14 August 1711: Morley Saunders
12 February 1712: John Cliffe
18 December 1714: Robert Fitzgerald
23 August 1716: John Witherington
23 December 1718: William Brodrick (politician), brother of Viscount Midleton who was Third Serjeant 1691-1711, (Plantation owner in Montserrat, West Indies), Attorney General of Jamaica 1692-1715
Third serjeants, 1682–
24 July 1682: Sir John Lyndon
19 February 1683: Sir Richard Ryves
3 August 1683: Sir Henry Echlin
6 May 1687: Sir John Barnewall
March 1688: Sir Theobald Butler
5 January 1691: Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton
29 November 1711: John Cliffe
25 February 1712: John Staunton
14 December 1714: John Witherington
28 March 1726: Robert Jocelyn
4 May 1727: John Bowes
October 1730: Henry Purdon
18 April 1737: Robert Marshall
21 January 1742: Philip Tisdall
28 October 1751: Richard Malone
24 November 1757: Marcus Paterson
10 October 1764: James Dennis
15 January 1767: Godfrey Lill
12 July 1770: Maurice Coppinger
20 July 1774: George Hamilton
15 May 1776: Hugh Carleton
6 November 1777: Attiwell Wood