Sir Peter Tilliol, also called Peter de Tilliol (1299-1348) was a Cumberland landowner, politician and judge; he was High Sheriff of Cumberland,andserved briefly asLord Chief Justice of Ireland.
He was born at Scaleby Castle, Cumberland, son of Sir Robert de Tilliol (died 1320) and Maud de Lascelles. The Tilliol family had been granted Scaleby by Henry I and over the centuries had become one of the leading landowning families in Cumberland.
In 1322 Tilliol wason military service onthe Scottish border under the command of Andrew Harclay, 1st Earl of Carlisle; this might well have been politically dangerous since Carlisle's decision to make a trucewith the Scots led to his downfall and execution for treason in 1323.Tilliol however seems to have escaped unscathed; he was twice High Sheriff of Cumberland in 1327 and 1329,and represented Cumberland as knight of the shire in the House of Commons of England. He sat regularly as aCommissioner for oyer and terminer,and in 1341hewas given a special commission by Parliament to punish rebels and suppress trespasses inCumberland.
This judicial experience may explain the decision to send him to Ireland as Lord Chief Justice, where two rival officeholders Thomas Louth and Elias de Asshebournham spent most of the 1330s contending for the position. Tilliol may have been a compromise candidate;he went to Ireland inthe spring of 1331but returned to England almost at once.
By his wife Isabel he was the father of Sir Robert de Tilliol; Robert and his son Peter continued the family tradition of serving as High Sheriffs of Cumberland.The male Tilliol line died out in 1435.