Thomas de Dent, Thomas Dyvelyn, Thomas Denton, or Thomas of Dublin (died after 1361) was an English-born cleric and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

who held high office in Ireland during the reign of King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

, and was praised as a diligent and hard-working Crown official, who damaged his health through overwork.''Close Roll 29 Edward III 30 July 1355'' He was born at Dent, then in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

(now in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

), and may have been the son of John de Dent.Ball p.74 During his years in Ireland he was sometimes known as Thomas Dyvelyn, which was an early form of "Thomas 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 ...

",''National Archives'' SC/8/44/2189 or as Thomas Denton. He took holy orders, and became a clerk in the Royal service. He is first heard of in 1331 as the defendant in a lawsuit for

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

and

trespass Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land. Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, woundi ...

at Ingleton, North Yorkshire brought by John, 3rd Lord Mowbray; John de Dent, who was possibly his father, was named as co-defendant.

Early Career

Lord Mowbray's

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...

against him in no way impeded his career as a lawyer. He came to Ireland to serve as King's Attorney (the office which was later called Serjeant-at-law, not Attorney General for Ireland) in 1331. He quickly became a trusted member of the Irish administration, and in 1332 was sent to

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

to report on the crisis which led to the imprisonment of Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond and other

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

nobles.

Judge

In 1334 he was appointed a justice of the

Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) The Court of Common Pleas was one of the principal courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror image of the equivalent court in England. Common Pleas was one of the four courts of justice which gave the Four Courts in Dublin, which is sti ...

.Hart p.167 He was transferred to the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) 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 King's Be ...

in 1337. He became

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 ...

in 1341, as part of a widespread reform of the Irish judiciary, which included the replacement of Irish-born personnel with English judges (this was a common remedy of the English Crown for complaints about the

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

and inefficiency of the Irish government, and on this occasion reflected the King's personal preference for English over

Crown servants). He later complained that for some time he sat on the Court alone, with no puisne justices to assist him. He had returned to England by 1343, when he served on a Royal Commission at

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of t ...

. In 1347 he was appointed to head a commission of oyer and terminer to investigate the activities of

Hugh de Burgh Hugh de Burgh (; ; died 1352) was an Irish lawyer, Crown official and judge who held the offices of Lord Treasurer of Ireland (1340–44 and 1349–52) and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer (1337–39 and 1344–51),Ball, F. Elrington ''The ...

, who was accused of "oppression", i.e. maladministration, as

Lord Treasurer of Ireland The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, chief financial officer of the Kingdom of Ireland. The designation ''High'' was added in 1695. After the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...

. He was appointed

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 ...

, then often titled "Chief Justice of the Dublin Bench", and served in that office from 1344–58. In 1345 he received a rather stern communication from King

and his

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

, concerning a case of

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in cr ...

brought by Margery Poe against John de la Pulle. John complained that the case had been repeatedly adjourned by Denton's colleagues Simon Fitz-Richard and John Gernoun, "through the intervention of error", to John's great prejudice.''Close Roll 19 Edward III 24 November 1345'' Denton was ordered to examine the records and report to the

Justiciar of Ireland The chief governor was the senior official in the Dublin Castle administration, which maintained English and British rule in Ireland from the 1170s to 1922. The chief governor was the viceroy of the English monarch (and later the British monarch ...

, so that the Justiciar could take whatever action was necessary to remedy the injustice. Denton stepped down as Chief Justice of the Pleas in 1358, due by his own account to his "infirmity". His

salary A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. F ...

, according to his own petition for payment of it, was seriously in arrears when he retired. He was granted a

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

for the term of his life of the royal manor of Esker, near

Lucan Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial ...

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

in 1351: Esker was often leased out to royal servants who were in high favour with the Crown; the previous tenant had been Roget Darcy, Constable of Newcastle Mackynegan (presumably the same Roger who was briefly Justiciar of Ireland). In 1355, on his own petition, he was granted a special allowance of £13 for his "great and strange labours" in 1354-5, when he served as Chief Justice without any puisne judges to assist him, injuring his own heath thereby, and for his general diligence in the King's business.

Petition for payment of his salary

He is last heard of in 1361, when he was visiting England. He was still in the King's service, but probably retired soon afterwards. He may have been in some financial distress in his last years, judging by his petition to the

English Parliament The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

asking for payment of the sums due to him, which was evidently written shortly after he left office in 1358. According to the petition he was forced to step down as Chief Justice due to ill health, and his fees were now seriously in arrears. He requested that the arrears be paid from the King's Treasury in England, or any other suitable source.

References

Notes Sources * Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926 *''Close Rolls of Edward III 1345 and 1355'' *Hart, A. R. ''A History of the King's Serjeants-at-law in Ireland'' Dublin Four Courts Press 2000 *Mackay, Ronan "Dent, Thomas" Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography *Smyth, Constantine Joseph '' Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland'' Henry Butterworth London 1839 {{authority control Lords chief justice of Ireland People from Sedbergh 1361 deaths Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) People from Dent, Cumbria 14th-century Irish judges