Richard Plunkett


Richard Plunkett was an eminent Irish judge and statesman of the fourteenth century, who held the offices of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His descendants held the titles Baron Dunsany, Baron Killeen and Earl of Fingall.

Family background

He was born about 1340, son of Richard Plunkett of Rathregan, County Meath. The Plunketts were a long-established Anglo-Irish family of the Pale, who originally settled at Beaulieu in County Louth about 1200. Another branch of the family later held the title Baron Louth.

Career

He was considered to be one of the best lawyers of his generation, and was appointed King's Serjeant in 1372. He was already sufficiently eminent by 1364 to form part of the powerful delegation sent to England to describe the state of Irish government and to complain to King Edward III about the corruption and maladministration of certain officials of the Crown in Ireland, in particular Thomas de Burley, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He sat on a
Royal Commission which was set up to examine and remedy the abuses complained of. He was also a noted Parliamentarian; he sat in the Irish House of Commons and took a leading part in the Kilkenny Parliament of 1374. He became a judge of the Irish Court of Common Pleas in 1376. In July 1388 he was promoted to Chief Justice of the King's Bench and the following September he was made Lord Chancellor. Elrington Ball puts his death around 1389, but O'Flanagan states that he was still alive in 1393, when Richard Northalis succeeded him as Lord Chancellor.

Character

O'Flanagan calls him one of the most eminent Irishmen of his time, a lawyer of great distinction and equally distinguished for his Parliamentary career.

Descendants

Richard married Margaret, widow of Robert Burnell, of the leading Anglo-Irish Burnell family of Balgriffin, County Dublin. They had three children, Christopher, John, and Anne. Christopher was the grandfather of the first Baron Killeen.