John Blakeney

John Blakeney (died 1438) was an Irish judge of the fifteenth century, who served three times as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

He was born in Dublin, to a long-established Dublin family. In 1413 he was acting as judge of assize in Dublin and the counties of the Pale. According to the letters patent appointing him, he was to hold office so long as he was of good behaviour. His salary was £28 per annum.

He was removed from office in 1424 but reappointed in June 1425. He was superseded again in 1428 by Sir James Alleyn, He was summoned to Westminster on unspecified business in 1429. He was ex officio a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and there is a record of at least one Council meeting which he attended in 1436, concerning a proposed journey to England on official business by Lord Stanley, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He died in 1438. The alleged felony was the theft of a chalice from the parish priest of "Taveragh" (probably Tara) in County Meath. The Bishop vigorously maintained his innocence, and in fact, he was innocent: a man called Penthony later confessed to being the thief. The case was removed to Parliament, where Bishop Dantsey was acquitted. Penthony later sought absolution for his sins and received a pardon for the crime.

In 1432 he sat with his fellow Chief Justice Stephen de Bray and two other judges to hear a case of novel disseisin concerning lands in The Curragh, County Kildare. What seems to have been the last judicial commission appointing Blakeney as a member, dated November 1434, and which included most of the senior judges, was to inquire into all treasons committed in Dublin and the adjoining counties of the Pale.