Patrick Segrave (died c.1610) was an Irish

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 ...

of the early seventeenth century, who was removed from office for numerous incidents of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

.Smyth, Constantine Joseph ''Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland'' London Butterworths 1839 He was born at Killegland, now

Ashbourne, County Meath Ashbourne ()Placenames Database of Ireland
(see archival records) is a town in County Meat ...

, son of

Richard Segrave Richard Segrave (c.1540–1598) was an Irish judge, remembered chiefly for sitting in judgement on his colleague Nicholas Nugent, who was the only Irish judge ever to be hanged for treason by the Government which appointed him. Family He was th ...

, 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 ...

who was head of a prominent landowning family. Little is known of his mother. He married before 1589 Mary Dillon, daughter of Chief Justice Robert Dillon and his second wife Catherine Sarsfield. In 1589 his father-in-law sent him to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with gifts of hawks and horses for the Privy Council. On his father's death in 1598 Patrick was appointed to his place as a Baron of the Exchequer. He was charged in 1602 with "diverse causes (cases)" of

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

and corruption, and stood trial before the Court of Castle Chamber, 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 ...

. The Delahide family's lands at

Dunshaughlin Dunshaughlin ( or locally ) is a town in County Meath, Ireland. A commuter town for nearby Dublin, Dunshaughlin more than tripled in population (from 2,139 to 6,644 inhabitants) between the 1996 and 2022 censuses. The town is in a townland and ...

, County Meath had been forfeited to the Crown for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

. Segrave was accused of conspiring with Richard Read and David Russell to procure a jury to find the title to the land (i.e. award the title) in favour of Read, and of receiving a large

bribe Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...

in return; he was also charged with attempting to bribe Sir Richard Cooke, the

Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the office was sometimes called ...

. Segrave was found guilty, removed from office by the

Lord Deputy of Ireland The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive (government), executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland ...

, fined £1000 and imprisoned at the pleasure of the Crown. His disgrace was not permanent: in 1607 he was admitted to the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments. The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...

and became a member of its governing council. He attended meetings of the council until 1610, after which his name disappears from the records. The Patrick Segrave of Killeglan whose estates were forfeited for his part in the

Irish Rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and ...

was probably his son or grandson.

References

People from Ashbourne, County Meath 17th-century deaths Year of birth unknown People of Elizabethan Ireland Barons of the Irish Exchequer Lawyers from County Meath 16th-century Irish judges 17th-century Irish judges {{Ireland-law-bio-stub