Edward Somerton

Edward Somerton (died 1461) was an Irish barrister and judge who held the offices of Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) and judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland).

He was born in Ireland, but little is known of his personal life before 1427 when he is recorded in London, where he was studying law at Lincoln's Inn. He returned to Ireland and was appointed King's Serjeant in 1437; he also acted as counsel for the city of Waterford. His period as King's Serjeant, the official who was then the Crown's senior legal adviser,[1] was one of great political turbulence, marked by fierce conflict between the rival Butler and Talbot factions, and his name appears frequently in the Patent Rolls in connection with the various political controversies of the time.

He was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.[2] In that capacity he "spoke as the mouth of the Council" at its meeting at Trim, County Meath on 5 June 1442, when Richard Wogan, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, a prominent member of the Talbot faction, was questioned about certain articles he had sent to the Parliament of England denouncing his political enemy, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde, the head of the Butler faction. After the Council, in Wogan's absence, had examined the articles, Somerton, who was described as the Prolocutor of the Privy Council, declared that the Council found the charges against Ormonde to be false, and further declared that Wogan had acted without their authority in sending the articles to the English Parliament.[3]

In 1447 he was appointed a judge of the Court of King's Bench. In 1457 he asked for permission to found a chantry at the Church of St. Nicholas Within, Dublin. He died in 1461.

References
  1. The Attorney General for Ireland was then a junior position; it is unclear if the position of Solicitor General for Ireland existed at that date.
  2. 22 Patent Rolls Henry VI
  3. Graves, James, editor A Roll of Proceedings of the King's Council in Ireland for part of the year 1392-3 Cambridge University Press Reprinted 2102

Sources
  • Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
  • Hart, A.R. A History of the King's Serjeant-at-law in Ireland Dublin Four Courts Press 2000



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