Thomas Cantock

Thomas Cantock, Quantock or Cantok (died 3 February 1309) was an English-born cleric and judge in medieval Ireland, who held the offices of Bishop of Emly and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. A good deal more is known about him today: in particular, a petition he addressed to the King in 1305, asking to be forgiven his debts, throws some light on his official duties, and illustrates the disturbed political conditions which had afflicted Ireland over the previous decade.

He was English by birth, and was probably a son of Roger de Cantock or de Quantock, a prominent merchant of Bristol. A petition of Roger to the Crown dated 1275–6, concerning property in Bristol, is in the National Archives. A younger Roger de Cantock, who visited Ireland during Thomas's tenure as Lord Chancellor, possibly to solicit a favour from him, was evidently his brother; he had four brothers in all. Another brother, Master John Cantock, witnessed a royal writ in Ireland in 1303, concerning the marriage contract between Robert Dardyz and Matilda Rochfort, and the sum Robert was bound to pay Matilda in the event of a divorce. John became Rector of Carrickfergus. John and Thomas were clearly close and Thomas on his deathbed entrusted the Great Seal of Ireland to his brother.

Lord Chancellor of Ireland

He was known to be a man "learned in the law", who had some unspecified appointment at the Royal Courts in Westminster, He visited England regularly on official business connected with Ireland, and on a number of occasions addressed the English Parliament on questions of Irish law. The Patent Roll for 1295 gives evidence of a flurry of official activity in the Irish Chancery, much of it connected with the issue by Cantock of royal pardons. In 1300 he was one of three Government ministers charged with selecting 300 hobelars (light cavalry) for the war with Scotland, sending them to the King at Carlisle by Midsummer, and purveying sufficient food and wine for them.

He was Canon of Emly, and prebendary of Mollagymon, Cashel, County Tipperary. which was followed by a banquet at which he feasted first the nobility, and then the citizenry of Dublin, with a magnificence "unheard of in those times". He is also known to have acquired lands at Chapelizod, then a village near Dublin city.

At the Parliament of Ireland held in 1305 a number of minor complaints of misconduct were made against him, but none of them seems to have stuck. during his tenure as Lord Chancellor a serious fire destroyed all the Irish Chancery records; this is a reference to the Great Fire of Dublin of 1304, which destroyed much of the medieval city, as well as virtually all the official Irish records, which were housed in St Mary's Abbey.

His petition of 1305

Our most intimate glimpse of him comes in a petition which he addressed to King Edward I of England in 1305 asking to be forgiven his debts to the English Crown. He asked the King to have regard to the great costs he had incurred "in the time of trouble" when John FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare captured Richard de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster. As the office of Justiciar of Ireland was vacant at the time, Cantock set as many of his own men as he could to the task of guarding the country, and when his funds turned out to be insufficient he borrowed £5 from one Richard de Cardiff. As a separate plea, he asked the King to remember that he had also borrowed £45 (a very substantial sum at the time) for arranging the marriages of two royal wards, Jordan Dardiz (or Dardyz) and Albert de Kenley.

The earlier part of the petition refers to the period of four months in 1294-5 when the Earl of Kildare captured and imprisoned the Earl of Ulster in Lea Castle "to the disturbance of the whole country"; the Irish Parliament eventually secured Ulster's release.

Cantock appealed for confirmation of his account to the present Justiciar. Sir John Wogan, saying that he had certainly heard the truth of the matter "if he wishes to witness it".

The petition seems to have been successful, as the endorsement on the Close Roll states that Cantock should be repaid the amounts claimed by him in instalments. The Crown no doubt remembered that in the late 1290s, his salary had been seriously in arrears.