Arthur Corye (or Curry; died 1597) was an Irish

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

who held office as

Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) This is a list of lawyers who held the rank of serjeant-at-law at the Bar of Ireland. Origins of the office of serjeant The first recorded serjeant was Roger Owen, who was appointed between 1261 and 1266, although the title itself was not us ...

from 1594 until his death, and had a bad reputation for incompetence. In 1591 he was described as a "man learned in the law". Initially, he seems to have been regarded with some favour as a law officer: the

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

appointing him Serjeant, dated 1 May 1594, was issued free, without payment of the usual fees, since "he is one of the Queen's officers, and must take pains for her Majesty". Our second personal glimpse of him is contained in a letter from 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 ...

to Sir Robert Cecil after his death: the letter makes it abundantly clear that he had not, as required, "taken pains" in the Queen's service. The Council complained that Corye had been so incompetent in

prosecuting A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

cases on behalf of the

English Crown This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself king of the Anglo-Sax ...

, especially in

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...

and exchequer matters, that the Irish

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

had suffered serious financial loss due to his neglect of duty. As so often under the

Tudor dynasty The House of Tudor ( ) was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of Eng ...

, the Council's remedy was the appointment of an English lawyer to replace him. The letter notes that the

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish ...

Roger Wilbraham Sir Roger Wilbraham (4 November 1553 – 31 July 1616) was a prominent English lawyer who served as Solicitor-General for Ireland under Elizabeth I and was judged one of her few really competent Law Officers. He held a number of positions at c ...

, who was English by birth, was the only law officer who did his work competently. He was praised as one who "hath taken more care and pains than all the rest", and therefore the obvious choice for Serjeant-at-law. While the Crown often complied with such requests, Corye was replaced instead by another Irish lawyer,

Edward Loftus Sir Edward Loftus (1563–1601) was an Irish barrister, judge and soldier of the Elizabethan era. He was born in Dublin, the second son of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and his wife Jane Purdon, daughter of James Purdon and Jane Little. Hi ...

, a noted legal scholar from a leading

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

family. Wilbraham in any case was "marking time" in Ireland while waiting for a more lucrative appointment in England.

Sources

*''Fiants of Elizabeth 1'' *Hart, A. R. ''History of the King's Serjeants at law in Ireland'' Four Courts Dublin 2000 *Smyth, Constantine Joseph ''Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland'' Butterworths London 1838 {{DEFAULTSORT:Corye, Arthur Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) 1597 deaths Year of birth unknown