John Bermyngham or Bermingham (died 1415) was an Irish barrister and

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 ...

. He was one of the first Crown Law officers to be referred to as the King's Serjeant. He was later appointed

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 ...

, but did not take up the office.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.1 p.172 He belonged to the prominent

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 State rel ...

Bermingham dynasty, which acquired the titles Earl of Louth and

Baron Athenry Baron Athenry is one of the oldest titles in the Peerage of Ireland, but the date of its creation is thoroughly uncertain; each of the first four Berminghams listed below is claimed by some writers to have been Lord Athenry, but the evidence is di ...

. In 1248 the Crown granted to Peter Bermingham and his heirs the lands at Esker,

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

, Dublin to hold as

tenant in chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

. He and his heirs were required to perform

knight-service Knight-service was a form of feudal land tenure under which a knight held a fief or estate of land termed a knight's fee (''fee'' being synonymous with ''fief'') from an overlord conditional on him as a tenant performing military service for his ...

in return. ''National Archives'' He was appointed King's Serjeant in 1388; he was one of the first Irish law officers to be described as Serjeant, although the office itself dates from 1261. His appointment was limited to

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 ...

and the counties of

the Pale The Pale ( Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast s ...

. Hart notes that such local appointments were common at the time, reflecting the disturbed state of English rule in

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 ...

, when no one travelled from Dublin to

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

without an armed escort, and at a time when

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 27,351, the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland, ...

, the seat of the

Exchequer of Ireland The Exchequer of Ireland was a body in the Kingdom of Ireland tasked with collecting The Crown, royal revenue. Modelled on the Exchequer, English Exchequer, it was created in 1210 after King John of England applied English law and legal structure ...

and the Royal Courts, had recently been burnt. In 1391 he is found pleading a case between the Crown and the Prior of the

Priory of All Hallows The Priory of All Hallows (or Priory of All Saints) was an Augustinian monastic foundation just outside of the walls of Dublin, Ireland. It was demolished by King Henry VIII and in 1592, Trinity College Dublin was established in its place by Qu ...

, which was situated just outside the walls of Dublin, as to the ownership of lands at

Clonturk Clonturk () is an area on the Northside (Dublin), Northside of Dublin, in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the south of the suburb of Drumcondra, Dublin, Drumcondra, just north of the River Tolka, but previously, Clonturk had been ...

(corresponding with present-day Drumcondra), which the Prior claimed as lands of the Priory, but which Bermingham argued had reverted to the Crown.''Close Roll 14 Richard II '' He went to England to further his law studies in 1392 (Ireland at that time had no law school), having obtained the requisite official permission, along with his colleagues William Tynbegh and John Fitzadam. Hart believes that he acted as Serjeant until 1402, when he became second justice of 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 Ben ...

. In 1404 he was one of four judges who tried an action for

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 of ...

between Nicholas Crystor and the Stokes family concerning lands at Siddan,

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

.''Patent Roll 5 Henry IV'' He was chosen as Chief Justice in 1407 but he cannot have taken up office, since Stephen de Bray, appointed in 1403, remained Chief Justice until 1426. The two judges sat together the same year on an inquisition, requested by the Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin to determine the boundaries of the township of

Kilternan Kilternan (), also known as Kiltiernan, is a village in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin, Ireland, near the border with County Wicklow. Kiltiernan is in a civil parish of the same name, in t ...

, which was the Abbey's property. John died in 1415. He was probably the grandfather of Philip Bermingham (died 1490),

.Ball p.184 Richard Bermingham, who was appointed second Baron of 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 ...

in 1420,''Patent Roll 8 Henry V'' may also have been a relative.

References

1415 deaths 14th-century Irish judges 15th-century Irish judges Justices of the Irish King's Bench Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) Lawyers from Dublin (city) 14th-century births {{Ireland-bio-stub