Introduction
Sir John Cornwalsh (died 1472) was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. His tenure was notable for the fact that hesucceeded his father as Chief Baron, and for his long struggle to retainthe officeagainsta rival claimant, Michael Gryffin.
Background
He was probably born at Dunboyne in County Meath,and he later livedat Dardistown in the same county. He was the son of James Cornwalsh and Matilda Rochfort; the Cornwalsh family were originally from Cornwall. His father was Chief Baron of the Exchequer, with intervals, from 1420 to 1441, when he was murdered by the Fitzwlliam family. John followed his father into the legal professionand went to London to study law;he was living at Tower Hill in 1434. He is next heard of "fighting the King's enemies in Ossory" in 1441. In September of that year his father was murderedat the instigation of William Fitzwilliam and his wife Ismay,in a feud over thepossession of Baggotrath Castle near Dublin. Thefact that Fitzwilliam and Ismay received a royal pardon for the crime gives us a vivid glimpseof the lawless condition of Ireland at the time (although it must be said thatthe condition of England, under the inept rule of King Henry VI,was not much better).
Career
He wasappointed Chief Baron soon after his father's death,probably on the advice ofthe powerfulAnglo-Irishmagnate James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, who had beena close associate of his father. However a few weeks later a patentwas issued in London appointing Michael Gryffin to the same office. For five years Gryffin's supporters contrived to keep Cornwalsh out of office; finally in 1446 he obtained a declaration that his rival's letters patent had been obtained illegally.
Thisconflict reflected the wider political divisions of the time, but Elrington Ball suggests that there were also validobjections to Cornwalsh's appointmentas a judge. Despitehis being the son of a long-serving juristand despite hishaving studiedlaw at the Inns of Court,his legal knowledge was thoughtto be insufficient to become a judge, although in his defenceit maybe said thathis rival Gryffinapparently had no legal training at all.In addition Cornwalshwas a turbulent and unpopular individual: in the 1450s he quarreled with the Duke of York, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and withhisPrivy Council, and was accused of inciting the citizens of Dublin to rebellion.During York's final Irish Parliament in 1460, Cornwalsh was one of his few opponents, and an Act of Resumption, declaring his estates liable to forfeiture,was passed. After York's death at the Battle of Wakefield no further action seems to have been taken against Cornwalsh, despite the triumph of York's sonKing Edward IV, the following year.Edward was generally inclined to seek reconciliation with his former opponents: Cornwalsh remained in office until his death in 1472, and he was knighted around 1466.
Family
He marriedin1444 Maud (or Matilda)Plunkett,widow of RichardTalbot of Malahide Castle, andalso widow of Thomas Hussey, 5thBaron Galtrim, who was murdered on their wedding day,thus inspiring thenineteenth-century ballad"The Bride of Malahide". She was the daughter of Christopher Plunkett, first Baron Killeen. She died in 1482.
Cornwalshbuilt Dardistown Castle, County Meath,in about 1465, and had possession of Malahide Castle and the Galtrim estates (roughly modern Summerhill, County Meath) for his lifetimein right of his wife. He had no children,and his estates passed to his stepson Thomas Talbot.
