Peter Rowe (died c. 1401) was an Irish judge who held the office of

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

intermittently between 1388 and 1397. Elrington Ball states that he was born in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, to a family which was of English origin, but which had long been settled in Ireland.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p.167 According to MacLysaght, the leading expert on Irish

surnames In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

, the name Rowe or Roe, has several different origins in Ireland, some Gaelic and some English, and is mainly associated with

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

. He seems unlikely to have been the Peter Rowe who was indicted for

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that res ...

in 1375. He was in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, probably qualifying as a barrister, in 1377. He became friendly with

Robert Braybrooke Robert Braybrooke was a medieval Dean of Salisbury and Bishop of London. Biography Braybrooke was the son of Sir Gerard Braybrooke of Horsenden, Buckinghamshire & Colmworth, Bedfordshire and his wife, Isabella, the daughter of Sir Roger Dakeny ...

, later

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...

and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who exercised considerable influence over Irish affairs. He returned to Ireland before 1380, and held office as

King's Serjeant A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are w ...

from 1381 to 1387. In 1386, on the Crown's instructions, he conveyed the lands of

Laracor Laracor, in Irish Láithreach Cora, is a civil parish which is located in County Meath in Ireland, south of Trim. It overlaps with the electoral division of the same name. The civil parish consists of the 21 townlands of Adamstown, Ballinrig, B ...

in County Meath to Thomas Cusack. He was appointed Lord Chief Justice in September 1388 and was given custody of the

Great Seal of Ireland The Great Seal of Ireland was the seal used until 1922 by the Dublin Castle administration to authenticate important state documents in Ireland, in the same manner as the Great Seal of the Realm in England. The Great Seal of Ireland was used fro ...

. In 1390 he and his future colleague

John Fitzadam John Fitzadam (died c.1419) was an Irish judge of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. He is notable for his very long tenure as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas; he held the office for twenty-three years, in the reigns of three ...

, together with Richard Cruys, heard a case of

novel disseisin In English law, the assize of novel disseisin ("recent dispossession"; ) was an action to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been disseised, or dispossessed. It was one of the so-called "petty (possessory) assizes" established by Henry II ...

brought by Nicholas Forster against William Waffre (Fitzadam was an interesting choice as he had not yet qualified as a lawyer). He was briefly transferred to the office of

Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the ...

in 1391, on the urging of Bishop Braybrooke.''Patent Roll 15 Richard II'' He was removed from office in 1395, briefly restored, and finally dismissed in 1397. He died before 1402, when his widow married Sir Jenico d'Artois. Throughout his career he continued to enjoy the powerful patronage of Bishop Braybrooke, who was Chancellor of Ireland in the late 1390s. Rowe was ex officio a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

, and we have a record of his attendance at the Council meeting in October 1391. There is a brief glimpse of his career in the

Close Rolls The Close Rolls () are an administrative record created in medieval England, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands by the royal chancery, in order to preserve a central record of all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the C ...

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

, in a case in which the English Crown had an interest, since the feudal overlord of the lands in question was the King's cousin Edmund Mortimer, then a

royal ward In law, a ward is a minor or incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a legal guardian or government entity, such as a court. Such a person may be referenced as a "ward of the court". Overview The wardship jurisdiction is an ancient jur ...

.''Close Rolls 14 Richard II'' Two citizens of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Richard Dunart and Thomas Cusack, each claimed the right to hold part of the Mortimer lands at

Trim, County Meath Trim () is a town in County Meath, Ireland. It is situated on the River Boyne and has a population of 9,194. The town is noted for Trim Castle – the largest Norman castle in Ireland. One of the two cathedrals of the United Dioceses of M ...

. Rowe, who as Lord Chief Justice presided over the hearing, was commanded by the King to "do justice according to the laws and customs of Ireland". He married Joan, or Joanne Taaffe, daughter of Sir Nicholas Taaffe of Liscarton Castle, County Meath. They had at least one son, Nicholas, who inherited Liscarton from his mother, and was given full possession of the lands in 1427. The Rowe estates eventually passed by marriage to the Barnewalls of Roseland, a junior branch of the family of

Baron Trimlestown Baron Trimlestown, of Trimlestown in County Meath, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. History The title was created in 1461 for Sir Robert Barnewall, who was the younger brother of Nicholas Barnewall, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, ...

. Joan married secondly the leading military commander, statesman and landowner Sir

Jenico d'Artois Sir Jenico d'Artois, Dartas, Dartass or Dartasso (c.1350 – November 1426) was a Gascony-born soldier and statesman, much of whose career was spent in Ireland. He enjoyed the trust and confidence of three successive English monarchs, and became a ...

(died 1426), a native of

Gascony Gascony (; french: Gascogne ; oc, Gasconha ; eu, Gaskoinia) was a province of the southwestern Kingdom of France that succeeded the Duchy of Gascony (602–1453). From the 17th century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), it was part ...

, by whom she had at least three more children, Jenico d'Artois the younger, Sir John d'Artois and Jane, Lady Gormanston. She and her second husband are known to have been engaged in a private war in 1402 to protect her lands in Meath. She died about 1413.''Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, Peter 14th-century Irish judges Lords chief justice of Ireland Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)