James Uriell

James (or Jacob) Uriell (died c.1424) was an Irish landowner and judge who held office very briefly as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

Background

He was born in County Dublin, the son of Thomas Uriell, a landowner. The Uriells were an Anglo-Norman family who originally settled in County Louth and are thought to have taken their surname from the Kingdom of Oriel.

Career

James was made King's Serjeant in 1406. He also sat on an inquisition requested by the Abbot of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin into the boundaries of the township of Kilternan, which belonged to the Abbey. In 1409 he was appointed to a three-man commission, together with William Tynbegh, Deputy Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Walter Tyrrell, Sheriff of County Dublin, to inquire into the export of foodstuffs from Ireland without a royal licence. In the same year he and Tynbegh were two of the five judges who heard a case of novel disseisin brought by Nicholas Duffe, chaplain, against the High Sheriff of Meath. In 1415 he sat on another panel to hear an action of the same kind against Alice Brown. He became Chief Baron in December 1419 "so long as he was of good behaviour", with the usual fee of £40 a year, but retired from the Bench less than a year later. Shortly before he retired he witnessed the charter by which King Henry V guaranteed the liberties of the citizens of Dublin. On an unspecified date, most likely in 1421, he sat as an acting justice with Sir Laurence Merbury and John Blakeney on a commission of inquiry into the inheritance of the lands of Rathfeigh, County Meath, held by the Bathe family. It is interesting that Uriell's only daughter and heiress Catherine married into that family.

He is someone said to have died later in 1421, but it was more likely to have been two years later, since his daughter did not receive seisin of the lands until 1424. and in 1415 an estate at Parsonstown in County Kildare. His lands at Swords passed to Richard Uriell, who was clearly a close relative, but not his son. They had at least one daughter Alice. The leading politician and judge Christopher Bernevall of Crickstown was given the right to arrange her marriage in 1424.

Catherine in 1422 was granted as her dower part of the woods of Stillorgan and one-third of the profits of the watermill there. Catherine and Bartholemew were awarded seisin of her father's estates in 1424.