Sir Thomas de la Dale (c.1317–1373) was an English-born judge and landowner, 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 ...

, and also served as Lord Deputy of Ireland.Ball p.85

Biography

He was born at

Little Barford Little Barford is a hamlet and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England about northeast of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census combines other data for Little Barford with Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden civil par ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

, son of Thomas de la Dale, who married the heiress of Barford, Isabel de Leyham, daughter of Matthew de Leyham, in 1316.Page pp.206-9 In 1346 "Thomas, son of Isabel" (who was almost certainly our Sir Thomas) was listed as the owner of Barford; he also inherited lands at Everton cum Tetworth in the same county. In 1358 he was exempted from the usual

feudal duties Feudal duties were the set of reciprocal financial, military and legal obligations among the warrior nobility in a feudal system. Translated into English by Philip Grierson as ''Feudalism'', 1st ed., London, 1952. These duties developed in both ...

of a landowner. He was sent to

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 ...

in 1361, in the entourage of

Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, (; 29 November 133817 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was named after his birthplace, at Antwerp in the Du ...

, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; he remained in Ireland, apart from a few short intervals, until 1369, and may have spent time there in the early 1370s. He was made Lord Chief Justice in 1365. He was also described as the "Governor of Ireland" when Lionel returned to England that year, leaving Thomas as his Deputy. He became

Custos Rotulorum ''Custos rotulorum'' (; plural: ''custodes rotulorum''; Latin for "keeper of the rolls", ) is a civic post that is recognised in the United Kingdom (except Scotland) and in Jamaica. England, Wales and Northern Ireland The ''custos rotulorum'' is t ...

(Keeper of the Rolls) of Ireland in 1366, and his name appears as a witness in the

Patent Rolls The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day. Description The patent rolls comprise a register ...

. In 1372 Robert Bron was made Chief Serjeant of County Carlow and County Louth on account of "his good services done in the company of Sir Thomas de la Dale, Sir William de Windsor and others".''Patent Roll 46 Edward III'' He died in 1373: in his will he asked to be buried at Little Barford. His son and heir, also named Sir Thomas de la Dale (died 1396), was a senior member of the household of Lionel's younger brother, John of Gaunt,

Duke of Lancaster The Dukedom of Lancaster is an English peerage merged into the crown. It was created three times in the Middle Ages, but finally merged in the Crown when Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. Despite the extinction of the dukedom the title ...

. He sometimes went by the alternative surname Fulthorpe, and was described as "a man of substance". Fulthorpe was succeeded by his son, who was yet another Thomas de la Dale. The de la Dales owned Barford until the male line of the family died out in the sixteenth century. The last of the de la Dales, Anne, daughter of William de la Dale, married Alexander Fettiplace in 1537. Their descendants remained at Barford until 1658.

References

*Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 *''Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society'' Vol.2 1842 *McFarlane, K.B. ''England in the Fifteenth Century-Collected Essays'' Hambleton Press London 1981 *Page, William ''History of the County of Bedfordshire'' 1908

Footnotes

People from the Borough of Bedford 1310s births 1373 deaths Lords chief justice of Ireland Lords Lieutenant of Ireland 14th-century Irish judges People from Bedfordshire {{UK-law-bio-stub