Master of the Rolls (Ireland)

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The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the

close rolls and patent rolls. The office was created by letters patent in 1333, the first holder of the office being Edmund de Grimsby. As the Irish bureaucracy expanded, the duties of the Master of the Rolls came to be performed by subordinates and the position became a sinecure which was awarded to political allies of the Dublin Castle administration. In the nineteenth century, it became a senior judicial appointment, ranking second within the Court of Chancery behind the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The post was abolished by the Courts of Justice Act 1924, passed by the Irish Free State
established in 1922.

History of the Office

Until the sixteenth century, the Master of the Rolls was always a

Justiciar of Ireland
.

The Master might act through a Deputy if he was incapacitated or absent on official business, although no actual office of Deputy Master is known to have existed. William Sutton acted as Deputy to his uncle Robert Sutton in the 1420s and Thomas Archbold deputised for Thomas Dowdall in 1479.

Francis Blackburne, Master of the Rolls 1842-6

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the office of Master was notoriously a sinecure for absentee politicians, some of them British. Some of the appointments have been described as "farcical". Richard Rigby is said never to have set foot in Ireland during the 30 years he held the office, and William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster, who succeeded him, had no qualifications whatever for judicial office.

Nineteenth-century reforms

In the nineteenth century, the office became a full-time judicial position: the Master acted as Deputy to the

Charles Andrew O'Connor, the last holder of the office, was sufficiently highly regarded to be appointed a judge of the new Supreme Court of the Irish Free State
.

Supersession

The 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State prescribed a new court system for the new State but allowed the existing system, based on the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877, to persist as a transitional measure.[1] In 1923, Charles Andrew O'Connor as Master of the Rolls participated in the Judiciary Committee established by the Free State Executive Council which planned the Courts of Justice Act 1924.[2] In this capacity he caused controversy by refusing to admit an affidavit written in Irish because he did not know the language.[2] When the 1924 Act was passed, O'Connor became a judge of the new Supreme Court.[2] The officers of the Chamber of the Master of the Rolls were transferred in 1926 to the Examiner's Office.[3]

List of Masters of the Rolls in Ireland

2nd Duke of Leinster, Master of the Rolls 1788-9, which was a sinecure position, as he lacked legal qualifications

The office was abolished in 1924.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Constitution of the Irish Free State". Irish Statute Book. 1922. Articles 64–72, 75–76. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Dougherty, James I. (22 April 2009). From the Ashes Arose Justice: The Creation of an Irish Judiciary, 1922–1924 (PDF) (Thesis). Carnegie Mellon University: Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  3. ^ "Court Officers Act, 1926 section 13". Irish Statute Book. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.

Sources

  • The Oxford Companion to Law, ed David M Walker, 1980
  • The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921, F. Elrington Ball, 1926
  • Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland Constantine Joseph Smyth 1839
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