John Elliott

Sir John Elliott (1546–1617) was an Irish judge of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, who held office as third Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). He was also occasionally employed on diplomatic missions. Though his highly successful career was due partly to his own merits, it probably also owed something to his useful family connections, notably with the Rochfort family and the Usshers. The two men were close friends, and the Archbishop made Elliott co-executor of his will of 1613. Elliott became Treasurer of the Inns in the same year. His first wife was Joan Might, daughter of Thomas Might. His second wife was Ismay Rochfort, daughter of Christopher Rochfort of Kilbryde, County Meath and his wife Margaret Lynch. They had four sons, Henry, Thomas, Oliver and Christopher, three of whom followed their father into the legal profession. His third wife, whom he married after 1602, was Archbishop Ussher's cousin Eleanor Ussher, daughter of Alderman Robert Ussher of Santry and his first wife Margaret Fitzjohn. She was the widow of Walter Ball, Mayor of Dublin (died 1598) and of Dr. Robert Conway, Master in the Court of Chancery (Ireland) (died 1602). Eleanor died in 1613, and Sir John made a fourth marriage to Alice Kennedy, daughter of Hugh Kennedy of Dublin and widow of John Arthur.