Sir Richard Ryves (1643–1693) was a seventeenth-century 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 ...

who served for several years as

Recorder of Dublin The Recorder of Dublin was a judicial office holder in pre-Independence Ireland. Functions and duties of the Recorder The Recorder was the chief magistrate for Dublin, and heard a wide range of civil and criminal cases. The office existed by th ...

, and subsequently as a Baron of the Exchequer. He was briefly a Commissioner of the Great Seal.Ball, F. Elrington "The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921" London John Murray 1926 p.60

Background

He was born in

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 ...

, eldest son of Charles Ryves, examiner of the

Court of Chancery (Ireland) The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting plac ...

, who died in 1675, and his wife Jane Ogden.Burke, John ''"Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland"'' London Henry Colburn 1836 Vol.3 p.51 He was a grandson of Sir William Ryves, judge 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 ...

1636-1648, by his first wife, of whom little is known. The Ryves family were originally from Damory in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, and Sir William later held lands in

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

, County Kilkenny and

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county located in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region of Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Carlow is the List of Irish counties by area, second smallest and t ...

, most of which he lost 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 ...

. Richard however prided himself on being "a true-born Dubliner". He had one brother, Jerome Ryves,

Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral is the senior cleric of the Protestant St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, elected by the chapter of the cathedral. The office was created in 1219 or 1220, by one of several charters granted to the cathedral by ...

, Dublin, and one sister Dorothy, who married the eminent physician John Stearne, founder of the Irish College of Physicians, and was the mother of John Stearne,

Bishop of Clogher The Bishop of Clogher (, ) is an episcopal title which takes its name after the village of Clogher in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Following the Reformation, there are now parallel apostolic successions: one of the Church of Ireland and ...

. In 1673 he married Mary Savage, daughter of Valentine Savage of Dublin and his wife Anne Haughton, and sister of Philip Savage,

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 ...

, and had issue. He lived first at St. Michael's Lane, then at Little Green, adjacent to

Capel Street Capel Street ( ) is a predominantly commercial street in Dublin, Ireland, laid out in the 17th century by Humphrey Jervis. History Capel Street takes its name from the nearby chapel of St Mary's Abbey (from the Latin Capella – Chapel) altho ...

, where his colleague

Sir Standish Hartstonge, 1st Baronet Sir Standish Hartstonge, 1st Baronet (1627–August 1701Oliver 1973 pp.42, 45) was an English-born lawyer who had a distinguished career as a judge in Ireland, but was twice removed from office. He was also a very substantial landowner in Ireland ...

was a neighbour.

Career

Ryves graduated from

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

. He was called to the

English Bar Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. Barristers have traditionally had the role of handling cases for representation in court, both defence and prosecutio ...

and then in 1669 returned to practice law in Ireland. He enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Ormonde, through whom he obtained the position of

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

Kilkenny Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...

in 1671. He was also Chief

Prothonotary A prothonotary is the "principal clerk of a court," from Late Latin, L.L. ''prothonotarius'' (Wiktionary:circa, c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine E ...

(clerk) of the

, jointly with his brother-in-law Philip Savage. In 1680 the office of

became vacant; Ryves who prided himself on being a "town-born child" (i.e. a true Dubliner) applied for and obtained it. He was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

("called of grace") in 1669. In 1682 Sir Richard Stephens was dismissed from his office as Second Serjeant, on the grounds of being a nonconformist in religion. Ryves, who claimed to be the most senior King's counsel, expected to be appointed to the office and was bitterly disappointed to be passed over in favour of a rather obscure barrister called William Beckett. He was soon compensated with the office of Third Serjeant. This office was a very recent innovation, which had been created especially for Sir

John Lyndon Sir John Lyndon (c. 1630-1699) was an Irish judge and politician of the seventeenth century. He was the first holder of the office of Third Serjeant-at-law, which was created especially for him, apparently as a "consolation prize" for not being ...

, who had been similarly disappointed in his hopes of becoming either Second Serjeant or a High Court judge. Ryves was promoted to Second Serjeant later in 1683. He combined the offices of Serjeant and Recorder, despite the fact that the latter office had a notoriously heavy workload, which may have contributed to the breakdown of his health. He was replaced as Recorder by Garrett Dillon in 1685. As a Whig and a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

, Ryves was inevitably out of favour with the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

King James II and was removed from his office of Serjeant in 1687. Following James's arrival in Ireland in 1689, Ryves was named as one of "the King's enemies" who were

proscribed Proscription () is, in current usage, a 'decree of condemnation to death or banishment' (''Oxford English Dictionary'') and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in Ancient Rome ...

by the Jacobite

Patriot Parliament Patriot Parliament is the name commonly used for the Irish Parliament session called by King James II during the Williamite War in Ireland which lasted from 1688 to 1691. The first since 1666, it held only one session, which lasted from 7 May ...

.Hart p.88 Ryves moved to England and supported the Revolution of 1688.Ball p.3 Returning to Ireland in 1689, he went as a judge of

assize The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

to Ulster, and was then appointed one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal in 1690, and was reappointed serjeant-at-law. He declined an offer to resume the Recordership of Dublin, on the ground that the heavy workload was too much for his increasing ill-health to bear. The offices of Second and Third Serjeants were lucrative but the duties attached were not onerous; his successor as Third Serjeant,

Alan Brodrick Alan Brodrick may refer to: * Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton ( 1656–1728), Irish lawyer and politician * Alan Brodrick, 2nd Viscount Midleton (1702–1747), British peer and cricket patron * Alan Brodrick, 12th Viscount Midleton (born 1949) ...

, admitted that he had almost no work to do. Ryves accepted the post of

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was ...

Death

Ryves suffered from ill health all through his life, and by 1691 he appears to have been almost incapacitated;Ball p.12 the previous year he had referred to his "great infirmity". He took a seat on the Court of Exchequer in 1692, but died early the next year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryves, Richard 1643 births 1693 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of the Middle Temple Recorders of Dublin Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)