page_title: Master of the Rolls in Ireland
section_title: List of Masters of the Rolls in Ireland
hierarchical_section_title: Master of the Rolls in Ireland / List of Masters of the Rolls in Ireland
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster (1749-1804), half-length, wearing the Order of St. Patrick
context_page_description: The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was responsible for the safekeeping of the Chancery records such as close rolls and patent rolls. The office was created by letters patent in 1333, the first holder of the Mastership being Edmund de Grimsby. As the Irish bureaucracy expanded, the duties of the Master of the Rolls came to be performed by subordinates and the position became a sinecure which was awarded to political allies of the Dublin Castle administration. In the nineteenth century it became a senior judicial appointment, ranking second within the Chancery behind the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The post was abolished by the Courts of Justice Act 1924, passed by the Irish Free State established in 1922.
context_section_description: 1333 Edmund de Grimsby
  1334 William de Bardelby
  1337 Robert de Hemmingburgh
  1346 William de Whithurst
  1350 Robert de Leycestre
  1356 Thomas de Cottingham
  1372 Thomas de Thelwall
  1377 Robert Sutton
  1386 Thomas de Everdon, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
  1395 Robert de Faryngton, or de Farrington
  1395 Robert Sutton, second term
  1398 John de Kirkby
  1404 Robert Sutton, third term
  1430 William Sutton
  1436 Robert Dyke
  1450 John Chevir
  1461 Patrick Cogley
  1461 Peter Trevers
  1471 Thomas Dowdall
  1492 Thomas Butler
  1496 John Payne, Bishop of Meath
  1513 Thomas Rochfort, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
  1521 Walter Wellesley, Bishop of Kildare
  1522 Thomas Darcy, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
  1523 John Rycardes, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral
  1528 Thomas Darcy, second  term
  1530 Anthony Skeffington
  1533 John Alan
  1539 Robert Cowley
  1542 Thomas Cusack
   
  1550 Patrick Barnewall
  1552 John Parker
  1566 Henry Draycott
  1572 Nicholas White
  1578 Edward Fitz-Symon
  1578 Nicholas White second term
  1593 Anthony St Leger
  1609 Francis Aungier, 1st Baron Aungier of Longford
  1633 Christopher Wandesford
  1641 Sir John Temple
  1677 Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet
  1689 Sir William Talbot, 3rd Baronet
  1690 Sir William Temple , second  term
  1696 William Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton
  1731 Thomas Carter
  1754 Henry Singleton
  1759 Richard Rigby
  1788 William Robert Fitzgerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster
  1789 John Crosbie, 2nd Earl of Glandore and John Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort jointly
  1801 Sir Michael Smith, 1st Baronet
  1806 John Philpot Curran
  1814 Sir William MacMahon, 1st Baronet
  1837 Sir Michael O'Loghlen, 1st Baronet
  1842 Francis Blackburne
  1846 Thomas Berry Cusack Smith
  1866 John Edward Walsh
  1870 Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet
  1883 Sir Andrew Porter, 1st Baronet
  1906 Richard Edmund Meredith
  1912 Charles Andrew O'Connor (last holder)
   
  Office  abolished 1924.
caption: 2nd Duke of Leinster, Master of the Rolls 1788-9
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