John Penros

John Penros or Penrose (died 1411) was a Cornish lawyer and judge who held high office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and subsequently served as a High Court judge in England and Wales. Despite his professional eminence, he was guilty of "an extraordinary career of crime" which stretched over nearly thirty years. When the charges against him were eventually proven, he was removed from the Bench.

He belonged to a landowning family based at Escalls near Land's End in Cornwall. He was a qualified advocate, and apparently a good one, as his name appears frequently in the Law Reports in the early 1380s. and was still in office in March 1386, when the Close Rolls refer to a payment of £20 to him as his half years salary. While he was in Ireland his conduct as a judge was subject to serious criticism. He returned without permission to England later in 1386 and as a result, was accused of misconduct. In 1391, he was arrested following an intriguing case in the Court of the King's Bench. Peter Trelewhit had accused William Eyre and Ralph Treskulard of intending to murder John Penros. Before a panel of judges that included the Lord Chancellor, the Keeper of the Privy Seal and Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Trelewhit confessed to making the accusation after being incited into doing so by Penros. The fate of Penros is unclear but subsequently became Justiciar of South Wales in 1393.