Jerome Alexander


Sir Jerome Alexander was an English-born barrister, judge and politician who spent much of his career in Ireland and became a substantial Irish landowner. He was a noted benefactor of Trinity College Dublin. As a judge he was so ruthless in securing guilty verdicts in criminal cases, and in imposing the death penalty on the guilty party, that for many years after his death "to be Alexandered" was an Irish synonym for being hanged.

Early career

His precise date of birth is uncertain, but he was stated in 1637 to be several years older than Sir Maurice Eustace, who was born in the early 1590s. He was born at Gressenhall, Norfolk, the eldest son of Jerome Alexander senior of Thorpland, an employee of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel; the younger Jerome was also employed for a time as steward and bailiff to the Earl, and remained on friendly terms with him in later life. Elrington Ball states that the Alexander family were of Jewish origin. He was educated at Aylsham school, and then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1609. He entered Furnivall's Inn and then proceeded to Lincoln's Inn in 1617, and was called to the bar in 1623.

Disgrace

His legal career in England was destroyed by a finding of professional misconduct against him: unusually, this did not arise from his services to a client. He was, unlike most barristers, very litigious on his own behalf, and in 1626 the Star Chamber found him guilty of tampering with evidence in one of his own lawsuits; he was disbarred, fined and given a prison sentence. He moved to Ireland, where he entered the King's Inn and began to practice at the Irish Bar. It is unclear if the Benchers of the King's Inn were aware of his criminal record; if not, they certainly learned of it within the next few years. In 1633 he received a Royal pardon, on condition that he did not return to legal practice in England, although he was permitted to continue practice in Ireland. In 1644 he published his Breviate, a 100-page pamphlet in defence of his actions. It gives a valuable, if inevitably slanted picture of his early life, and describes all his misfortunes as being due to the machinations of his enemies.

Politics

He entered politics, and sat in the Irish House of Commons as MP for Lifford in the Parliament of 1634–5 and that of 1639–49. He was a friend and client of the wealthy and influential young nobleman James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, who granted him the impressive dwelling of Kilcooly Abbey in County Tipperary; he was also granted lands near Kells, County Meath.
He was also befriended by other influential figures in Ireland, including James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh: but his hope of further career advancement was destroyed by the arrival in Ireland of the new Lord Lieutenant, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who despised Alexander and described him with contempt as "a scurvy puritan". Strafford, who became almost all-powerful in Ireland, and who was well aware that Alexander had been professionally disgraced in England, vetoed his appointment as an extra judge of assize in 1637: the ostensible reason was that only Sir Maurice Eustace, the King's Serjeant, was qualified to act as an extra judge, but Strafford's references to Eustace as a "man of integrity" can also be read as an attack on Alexander's character. He refused him leave to go to England, and when Alexander went anyway he was imprisoned in the Fleet Prison, nor following his release was he able to return to Ireland until after Strafford's downfall. Given the enmity between the two men, it is not surprising that Alexander was active in the impeachment of Strafford in 1641.
, which was granted to Alexander.

Civil War

He returned briefly to Ireland after Strafford's death, but on the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 went back to England. He was an active Royalist, and attempted to raise troops to subdue Ireland; at the same time he was among those who urged the King, if necessary, to make an alliance with the Irish Confederacy. For attempting to arrange such an alliance he was briefly imprisoned by Parliament in 1643, and on his release he went abroad. He was in the service of Charles II at the Hague in 1650, and was active in raising money for his cause, but he returned to Ireland in 1655. He made his peace with the new regime, and acquired an estate in County Westmeath; but in view of the rewards he received in 1660,, there is no reason to doubt that he remained a Royalist at heart.

Restoration

At the Restoration of Charles II, Alexander claimed to have played a major part in securing the support of the Irish Government for the new regime, and he complained at length about the great losses he had suffered during the Interregnum. He was rewarded with a knighthood and a place on the Court of Common Pleas, no doubt largely though the influence of the Duke of Ormonde, who had the last word on appointments to the Irish Bench after the Restoration, and was always loyal to old friends like Alexander. Nonetheless Alexander was plainly dissatisfied at being only second justice of the Court: he claimed that he should have been given the office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, and quarreled with Sir William Aston, justice of the Court of King's Bench over which of them had precedence. Rumour had it that he challenged Aston to a duel on the issue, but to Alexander's disgust Aston refused the challenge. He also acted as legal adviser to the future King James II on his Irish affairs.

Judge

He was a stern enforcer of religious conformity: in his will he refers to the Church of England as "the best form of Government in all this world". On the Ulster assizes, to which he was regularly assigned, he became noted for severity against non-conforming Protestants: his ally John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry wrote that if the non-conformists "could not love him, they began to fear him".

Religious beliefs and attitudes

It has been suggested that he had an equally harsh attitude towards Roman Catholics, but that he was unable to show similar severity towards them, due to the relaxed attitude of the Duke of Ormonde, now Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Ormonde recognised that since Catholics were a large majority of the Irish population, a generous if unofficial measure of toleration of that faith was inevitable. However Alexander's attitude to Roman Catholics was perhaps more complex than this: he was, for example, on friendly terms with the well-known Catholic barrister Patrick D'Arcy, who reportedly offered to act as his second in the abortive duel with Sir William Aston. Through marriage Alexander himself had Catholic connections: his wife Elizabeth Havers belonged to a staunchly Roman Catholic family . Her ancestor Mr Havers of Thelton Hall built a chapel on the grounds of Thelton Hall which became the hub of the Catholic community in and around Diss, Norfolk, before during and after the period of the Penal Laws. Elizabeth's elder brother William Havers, who inherited Thelton in 1651, and who died in 1670, was a known recusant. This suggests that Alexander, like many Protestants of his time, was prepared to turn a blind eye to recusancy when it was practiced by his own friends or relatives, and even to marry into an openly Catholic family himself.

"Alexandered"

The Duke of Ormonde, who was a merciful man by the standards of the time, is known to have disapproved of Alexander's notorious severity in criminal trials. This attitude was in notable contrast to the conduct of most other Irish judges of the time who were, like Ormonde, inclined to clemency. Where Ormonde would always reprieve a man where he could, Alexander, it was said, would hang as many men as he could : on one occasion he sentenced fourteen men to death at a single assize. His reputation for severity became such that for many years after his death "to be Alexandered" was widely used in Ireland as a synonym for "to be hanged".

Death and will

He died in the summer of 1670, and was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Much of his property, including Kilcooley Abbey, passed to his daughter Elizabeth, on condition that she did not marry an Irishman ; he also left £100 to each of the three children of his eldest surviving daughter Jeromina Langham. His law books and other texts he left to Trinity College Dublin, with enough money to pay for a librarian,. His friend Sir Edward Massey received many of his personal valuables and curiosities, such as "my cane with the silver head of a rhinoceros". As he had done in his Breviate, he dwelt in his will on the machinations of his enemies, and rejoiced that God's grace had enabled him to triumph over them. More humanely, he noted that God in return required him to help the poor and needy.
Ball suggests that he would have been most unhappy had he known that his place on the Bench would be taken by Oliver Jones, who was noted for his impartiality towards Roman Catholics, and was widely suspected of being a secret Catholic himself. However it seems that Alexander, whose wife was a member of a notable Roman Catholic family, may have been more tolerant of the Catholic faith in private than his severe public stance suggested.

Family

Alexander married Elizabeth Havers, a daughter of John Havers of Shelfhanger, a noted recusant, who like Alexander's father was an employee of the Earl of Arundel, and his wife Elizabeth Tindal of Banham; she died in 1667. They had sixteen children, many of whom died young. At least three of his daughters survived their father:
Elrington Ball describes Alexander as a "strongly complex character". He was a bitter enemy but a good friend; he was merciless towards criminals, but charitable towards the poor. Throughout his life he was inclined to blame his misfortunes on the machinations of his enemies, even blaming them for those disasters which to any detached observer would seem to be entirely his own fault. As a young barrister he was found guilty of misconduct, but as a judge prided himself on not taking bribes. He publicly called for the persecution of Roman Catholics, but married into an openly Catholic family. Burke called him a man of strong passions, but also a man of great integrity and public spirit.

Published works