Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer

The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (judge) who presided over the Irish Court of Exchequer. This was a mirror of the equivalent court in England, and was one of the four courts which sat in the building in Dublin which is still called The Four Courts.

The title Chief Baron was first used in 1309 by Walter de Islip. In the early centuries of its existence, it was a political as well as a judicial office, and as late as 1442 the Lord Treasurer of Ireland thought it necessary to recommend that the Chief Baron should always be a properly trained lawyer (which Michael Gryffin, the Chief Baron at the time, was not). There are two cryptic references in the Patent Rolls, for 1386 and 1390, to the Liberty of Ulster having its own Chief Baron.

The last Chief Baron, The Rt Hon. Christopher Palles, continued to hold the title after the Court was merged into a new High Court of Justice in Ireland in 1878, until his retirement in 1916, when the office lapsed.

Chief Barons of the Irish Exchequer