Jesse Smythes
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Jesse (or Jessua) Smythes (died 1594) was an English born
judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
and
colonist A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...
in Elizabethan
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. He held office as
Solicitor General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an 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 legal matters. On r ...
and Chief Justice of Munster, and was heavily involved in the
Plantation of Munster Plantations in 16th- and 17th-century Ireland () involved the confiscation of Irish-owned land by the English Crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from Great Britain. The main plantations took place from the 1550s to the 162 ...
. He was noted for his deep hostility to the native Irish, which was even more virulent than that of the average English colonist of the time. Little is known of his family background, his early life, or his career before 1584, when he was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland.Smyth, Constantine Joseph ''Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland'' Butterworths London 1839 p.174 He was, as far as is known, the first
Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...
to hold the office: his appointment was at the personal request of
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
, who was dissatisfied with the quality of service given by her Irish law officers, and believed that she would be better served by Englishmen. His salary was fixed at £50 more than the usual amount. He was also appointed Chief Justice of Munster, though Smyth, in his work ''Chronicle of the Irish Law Officers'' suggests that this was a year or two later. He seems to have been a diligent enough official; he wrote to
Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...
late in October of the same year describing the difficulties with prosecuting the Queen's cases in the
Court of Exchequer (Ireland) The Court of Exchequer (Ireland), or the Irish Exchequer of Pleas, was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was the mirror image of the equivalent court in England. The Court of Exchequer was one of the four royal courts of jus ...
, and his efforts to resolve these difficulties. There is an interesting glimpse of his official duties in the records of the
Court of Castle Chamber The Court of Castle Chamber (which was sometimes simply called ''Star Chamber'') was an Irish court of special jurisdiction which operated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was established by Elizabeth I of England in 1571 to deal w ...
, the Irish equivalent of
Star Chamber The court of Star Chamber () was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (), and was composed of privy counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the ...
, in 1586.Patrick Flatsbury and his brother Edmund, of Johnstown, County Kildare, were charged with the
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
of Hugh Burn. According to the later
indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...
against the jury, the evidence of murder was overwhelming, yet the
jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...
, in flagrant disregard of the evidence, acquitted both the accused. Smythes prosecuted the jurors in Castle Chamber for
perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...
, the reasoning being that they had broken their
oath Traditionally, an oath (from Old English, Anglo-Saxon ', also a plight) is a utterance, statement of fact or a promise taken by a Sacred, sacrality as a sign of Truth, verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths ...
to deliver a true verdict and in so doing set a "dangerous example" to other juries. They were convicted and fined, although in consideration of their poverty the fine was a small one.Crawford, Jon G. ''A Star Chamber Court in Ireland- the Court of Castle Chamber 1571-1641'' Four Courts Press Dublin 2005 p.460 He resigned from the office of Solicitor General in 1586, perhaps due to his increasing role in the Plantation of Munster. He remained in office as Chief Justice of Munster until his death. He was granted substantial lands in the province of Munster, where he settled 600 English tenants. He was noted for his exceptional severity towards the original Irish inhabitants: he refused to have any Irish tenants, boasted that there were no "mere Irish" within miles of his lands, and remarked that he "would set fire to the nest rather than that any such birds should roost in any land of his". If the Irish were to remain on their lands, he thought, it could only be on condition that they accept the
common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
, for which he had a great reverence: he compared the bringing of common law to Ireland to
Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
giving the law of God to his people. The Attorney General for Munster, Richard Becon, expressed similar if rather less extreme views in his influential
pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...
''"Solon his follie"'' (1594). In 1588 he sat on the judicial commission, headed by Sir Edmund Anderson, the English
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas The chief justice of the common pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench, which was the second-highest common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body ...
, and including Sir Robert Gardiner, the
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 ...
, to deal with the flood of litigation over claims to the lands forfeited by the
Earl of Desmond Earl of Desmond ( meaning Earl of South Munster) is a title of nobility created by the English monarch in the peerage of Ireland. The title has been created four times. It was first awarded in 1329 to Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond, Maur ...
.Bagwell, Richard ''Ireland under the Tudors'' Longman Green Brown and Longmans London 1885 Vol. 3 p.198 Since the commission was instructed to find in favour of the Crown wherever possible, its findings were in the great majority of cases a foregone conclusion, and only one Irish-born claimant out of eighty-two was even partly successful, in that he was given permission to bring his case to court. The English Government was informed of his recent death in January 1594. William Saxey succeeded him as Chief Justice of Munster.Morrin, James ''Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of the Chancery in Ireland from the 18th to the 45th of Queen Elizabeth'' Dublin Alexander Thom and Co 1862 Vol.2 p.391


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smythes, Jesse Solicitors-general for Ireland People of Elizabethan Ireland Chief justices of Munster