Justice of Chester

The Justice of Chester was the chief judicial authority for the county palatine of Chester, from the establishment of the county[1] until the abolition of the Great Sessions in Wales and the palatine judicature in 1830.[2]

Within the County Palatine (which encompassed Cheshire, the City of Chester, and Flintshire), the Justice enjoyed the jurisdiction possessed in England by the Court of Common Pleas and the King's Bench.[3] While the legal reorganisation of Wales and the Marches under Henry VIII diminished the authority of the Earl of Chester (i.e., the Prince of Wales) in the County Palatine, the authority of the Justice was, in fact, increased. In 1542, the Great Sessions were established in Wales, that country being divided into four circuits of three shires each. Denbighshire, Flintshire, and Montgomeryshire were made part of the Chester circuit, over which the Justice presided. Under Elizabeth I, a second justice was added to each of the Welsh circuits,[4] after which the senior and junior justice are generally referred to as the Chief Justice of Chester and the Second or Puisne Justice of Chester.

Because the Cheshire justices were free to practise as barristers in the English courts or sit in Parliament, the post of Chief Justice was often awarded as a form of patronage by the Government to aspiring lawyers. The offices of Chief and Puisne Justice were abolished in 1830, as part of reforms that also brought Wales under the jurisdiction of the courts at Westminster.

Justices of Chester

• Philip Orreby 1202–29 [5]
• John de Grey c.1246 [6]
• William de Vernon 1229–?1236
• Richard de Vernon
• Earl of Lincoln
• John Lestrange 1241-1245
• John Grey 1245-1249
• Alan la Zouche 1250–1255 [7]
• Gilbert Talbot 1255– [7]
• Roger de Montalt/Mohaut (aka Mold) 1258–1259 [7]
• Fulk de Orreby 1259–1261 [7]
• Thomas de Orreby 1261–1262 [7]
• William la Zouche 1262– [8]
• Luke de Thaney c.1265 [8] [7]
• James de Audley c.1265 [7]
• Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton c.1270
• Robert de Ufford c.1276– [9]
• Guncelin Badelesmere 1276-79
• Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton 1281-1290
• Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton c.1297
• Richard Massy c.1300 [8]
• Robert Holland, 1st Baron Holand c.1307–c.1320
• Pain de Tibetot c.1311 [10]
• Richard Daumary c.1325 [11]
• William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon c.1330 [12]
• Hugh de Freyne c.1335 [13]
• Henry Ferrers, 2nd Baron Ferrers of Groby 1336–1342 [14]
• Thomas de Felton 1369–1381 [15]
• Sir John Holland 1381–1385
• Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York 1385–1387
• Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland 1387–1388
• Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester 1388–1391
• John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter 1391–1394
• Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk 1394–1398
• William le Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire 1398–1399
• Henry Percy 1400–1403
• Gilbert Talbot, 5th Baron Talbot 1403–1419
• Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter 1420–1427
• Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester 1427–1440
• William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk 1440–1450 (jointly from 1443, murdered 1450))
• Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley 1443–1459 (jointly to 1450)
• John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury 1459–1460 (KIA 1460)
• in commission 1460
• John Needham 1461
• Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby 1461–1471
• Richard, Duke of Gloucester 1471
• Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby 1471–1504
• Sir Thomas Englefield 1505–1514?
• Sir Nicholas Hare 1540–1545
• Sir Robert Townshend 1545–1557
• Sir John Pollard 1557
• George Wood Esq.1558 of Hall atte Wood, Balterley, Staffordshire
• John Throckmorton 1558–1578
• Sir George Bromley 1564–1589
• Richard Shuttleworth 1589–1592
• Sir Richard Lewknor 1592–1616

Chief and Puisne Justices of Chester

Year	Chief Justice	Puisne Justice
1603	Sir Richard Lewknor	Henry Townshend
1616	Sir Thomas Chamberlayne
1620	Sir James Whitelocke
1624	Sir Thomas Chamberlayne
1625	Sir John Bridgeman	Marmaduke Lloyd
1636		Richard Prytherg
1638	Sir Thomas Milward
1648	John Bradshaw	Peter Warburton
1649		Thomas Fell
1660	Timothy Turner
1661	Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Bt	Robert Milward
1662	Sir Job Charlton
1674		George Johnson
1680	Sir George Jeffreys
1681		John Warren
1684	Sir Edward Herbert
1686	Sir Edward Lutwyche
1686	Sir Job Charlton
1689	Sir John Trenchard	Lyttelton Powis
1690	John Coombe
1696		Salathiel Lovel
1697	Joseph Jekyll
1707		John Pocklington
1711		John Warde
1714		Edward Jeffreys
1717	Spencer Cowper
1726		John Willes
1729	Sir John Willes	William Jessop
1734	John Verney	Richard Potenger
1738	Matthew Skinner
1740		John Talbot
1749	William Noel
1756		Taylor White
1762	John Morton
1771		John Skynner
1777		Francis Buller
1778		Daines Barrington
1780	Lloyd Kenyon
1784	Richard Pepper Arden
1788	Edward Bearcroft	Francis Burton
1796	James Adair
1798	William Grant
1799	James Mansfield
1804	Vicary Gibbs
1805	Robert Dallas
1813	Richard Richards
1814	Sir William Garrow
1815		William Draper Best
1816		Samuel Marshall
1817	John Leach	Thomas Jervis
1818	William Draper Best
1818	John Copley
1819	Charles Warren

Offices abolished 1830

References

1. Yates, p. 6
2. Yates, p. 7
3. Yates, pp. 32–33
4. The Penny Cyclopedia, p. 505
5. Jones, Douglas. The Church in Chester, 1300-1540. p. 102.
6. Gastrell, Francis. Notitia Cestriensis, Or, Historical Notices of the Diocese of Chester: Cheshire. p. 140.
7. Jones, Philip. In Search of Chester's Medieval Castle.
8. Hanshall, J.H. The history of the county palatine of Chester. p. 143.
9. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition. p. 494.
10. Public Records, Great Britain. Report, 1840-1908, Volume 36. p. 27.
11. THE THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT. p. 370.
12. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition. p. 691.
13. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition. p. 332.
14. Bothwell, James. Edward III and the English Peerage: Royal Patronage, Social Mobility, and ... p. App. 2.
15. Institute of Archaeology and Natural History, Suffolk. Proceedings, Volume 4, Issues 1-4. p. 28.

Bibliography

• Yates, Joseph Brooks (1856). The Rights and Jurisdiction of the County Palatine of Chester, the Earls Palatine, the Chamberlain, and Other Officers. Charles Simms & Co. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
• The Penny Cyclopedia of the Society for the Dissemination of Useful Knowledge, Volume XXVI. London: Charles Knight & Co. 1843. Retrieved 4 May 2007.