Patrick Burnell

Patrick Burnell (died 1491) was an Irish judge and Crown official of the fifteenth century.

He was amember of the prominent Burnell family, who were Lords of the Manorof Balgriffinin County Dublinfor severalgenerations, andwho produced several distinguished judges; in Patrick's own generation his cousin John Burnell was brieflyChief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

He is first heard of in 1467, when he was servingas a clerk in the Exchequer of Ireland; in 1477 he was described as giving evidence to the English Chancery.In 1478 he was appointeda Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland),following the death ofNicholas Sutton, whose widow,Anne Cusacke,Burnelllater married.He was made Chief Chamberlain of Irelandin 1484, and owned several properties in Dublin, includinghousesat Fishamble Street.

In commonalmost all of theIrishjudges of the time he was a client of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, who was for many yearsthe dominant force in Irish political life.Likehisjudicial colleagues he meekly agreed,at Kildare's insistence,to support the claim of the pretenderLambert Simnel to bethe rightful King of Englandin 1487: Kildare had Simnelcrowned in Dublin andhe invaded England with an Irish army.

When Simnel's cause was crushed at the Battle of Stoke Field, the victorious King Henry VIIshowed remarkable clemency to the rebels (including Simnel himself, who became a servant in the Royal household), and Burnell shared in the general royal pardonissued in 1488. He died in 1491.