Simon Fitz-Richard

Sir Simon Fitz-Richard (died c.1348 ) was an Irish landowner, barrister and judge. He became Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, and fought a long and successful campaign against the efforts of his enemies to remove him from office, despite the numerous accusations of corruption which were made against him.

Career

He was probably a native of County Louth, where he later owned land, and he also held land in County Kildare. He benefited from the patronage of Maurice FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Kildare and other members of the-FitzGerald dynasty As a very young man he may have visited Flanders.

He was appointed Deputy Escheator of Louth about 1315, and was given custody of the temporalities of the Archdiocese of Armagh in 1321. During the Scottish Invasion of Ireland of 1315-18, Fitz-Richard took part in an official inquiry into the conduct of "the King's enemy" Walter de Lacy, who was accused of joining Edward Bruce, who led the invasion, in Ulster, and of Walter's father-in-law, Sir Richard de Exeter, who was Simon's predecessor as Chief Justice. In 1331 he became a puisne justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and in 1335 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He held lands in Louth and Ulster and at Maynooth, County Kildare, and was granted Gormanston, County Meath as a reward for unspecified losses in the King's service, as well as receiving a payment of £100 from the Exchequer of Ireland. Fitz-Richard, who had a bad reputation for corruption, and frequently took bribes in return for giving a favourable judgment, was one of those marked for dismissal.

Later life

He resigned from the Chief Justiceship in 1341; this was probably in connection with the charges of corruption and maladministration which had been made against him and other Irish judges, including Elias de Asshebournham.

He went to England in 1348 on official business: while there he stood bail for Kildare, who had recently been arrested and imprisoned due to suspicions about his loyalty to the English Crown. Fitz-Richard was knighted in the same year, but is thought to have died shortly afterwards. Towards the end of his life, he sold much of his substantial landholdings in County Louth. He married a daughter of Thomas FitzOvery.