The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (

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 ...

) who presided over the Irish Court of Exchequer. This was a mirror of the equivalent court in England, and was one of the four courts which sat in the building in Dublin which is still called The Four Courts. The title Chief Baron was first used in 1309 by

Walter de Islip Walter de Islip, Isleep or de Istlep (died after 1348) was an English-born cleric, statesman, and judge in fourteenth-century Ireland. He was the first Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer; he also held the offices of Treasurer of Ireland, Chief Es ...

. In the early centuries of its existence, it was a political as well as a judicial office, and as late as 1442 the

Lord Treasurer of Ireland The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, and 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 Brit ...

thought it necessary to recommend that the Chief Baron should always be a properly trained

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

(which Michael Gryffin, the Chief Baron at the time, was not). There are two cryptic references 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 regis ...

, for 1386 and 1390, to the Liberty of

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

having its own Chief Baron. The last Chief Baron, The Rt Hon.

Christopher Palles Christopher Palles (25 December 1831 – 14 February 1920) was an Irish barrister, Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and a judge for over 40 years. His biographer, Vincent Thomas Hyginus Delany, described him as "the greatest of the Irish judg ...

, continued to hold the title after the Court was merged into a new

High Court of Justice in Ireland The High Court of Justice in Ireland was the court created by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 to replace the existing court structure in Ireland. Its creation mirrored the reform of the courts of England and Wales five years ...

in 1878, until his retirement in 1916, when the office lapsed.Delaney, V.T.H. ''Christopher Palles'' Allen Figgis and Co Dublin 1960

Chief Barons of the Irish Exchequer

References

{{Irish courts pre-1922 Irish Exchequer Irish Exchequer