page_title: Walter de Thornbury
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Walter de Thornbury / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Wolferlow Church Viewed from the small christmas tree plantation near Upper House Farm.
context_page_description: Walter de Thornbury was an English-born statesman and cleric in 14th century Ireland who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His efforts to secure confirmation of his election as Archbishop of Dublin were cut short by his death in a shipwreck.
context_section_description: Walter de Thornbury was  born in Herefordshire, where he  was later  granted  the manor of Wolferlow by the Mortimer family, with whom he  was always closely  associated.  He was  an executor  of the will  of  Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer, and  was appointed  guardian to his son Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Given Roger's later role as the usurper,  and   probably the  killer of King Edward II, it is  ironic that Walter owed his rise largely to  his friendship with the King's favourite Piers Gaveston, who was Roger's co-guardian. He was much at   Court in the years 1305-6.
  He was sent to Ireland as Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland in 1308 and became Lord Chancellor of Ireland the following year, on Piers Gaveston's recommendation. He was Deputy  Treasurer of Ireland in 1311, and   Treasurer  and Chanter of St. Patrick's Cathedral. He accompanied Gaveston on his  successful campaign to restore the Crown's authority in Leinster in 1309, in which he defeated the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow   and restored order in the neighbourhood of Glendalough. The downfall and execution of  his patron Piers Gaveston in June 1312  does not seem to have injured Thornbury's career.
  In 1313 he was one of two candidates for the  Archbishopric  of Dublin, the other being Alexander de Bicknor.  Thornbury, quicker off the mark than his rival,  set out for Avignon to secure Papal confirmation of his election. The ship sank in a storm with the loss of all lives on board : the dead were  reported to  have numbered more than 150.
caption: A distant view of Wolferlow Church- the manor of Wolferlow  was granted to Walter by the Mortimer family  c.1300
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