Walter de la Haye

Sir Walter de la Haye or de Haye (died after 1309) was an English-born statesman and judge in Ireland of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, who served for many years as Sheriff of County Waterford and as Chief Escheator of Ireland, and briefly as Justiciar of Ireland.

He was a man of great ambition, with a passion for acquiring land, but he was also a conscientious official who was held in high regard by the English Crown, which protected him from accusations of corruption. He was also accused of unduly high-handed behaviour as Escheator, in particular taking property into the King's hands for insufficient cause.

Early career

He first appeared in Ireland in 1271–2 as an attorney, who acted for one of the justices of the English Royal Courts,

He became Chief Escheator of Ireland in 1285, with special authority to negotiate with the Gaelic clans within his bailiwick. He was clearly diligent in performing his role as Escheator, if somewhat slow: at least two cases he dealt with were still at hearing in 1307, only a few years before his death.

Haye went to England in 1290 to answer the charges against him and was completely exonerated. King Edward made clear his high regard for Haye, and his belief that as Escheator he had acted in the best interests of the Crown, especially in the matter of Crown rents.

Haye, despite his high standing at Court, made the familiar complaint of civil servants in that era that his salary was constantly in arrears. He also complained about the difficulty in compiling his accounts. and presided at the crucial meeting of the Privy Council of Ireland where John FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare, made accusations of maladministration against de Vesci, which were considered serious enough to be referred to Westminster, along with the commission's own report. on the recommendation of Sir William de Essendon, the Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, and two other senior officials, and he was acting Justiciar in 1295–6, but was described as "locum tenens", an indication that this was a temporary appointment. Ball notes that Haye was inclined to clemency and compromise: eight of those charged with corruption were acquitted, and only one was hanged. He attended the 1297 session of the Parliament of Ireland as representative for Kilkenny. In 1298 he was again assisting and following the Justiciar and "holding the pleas", for which duty the King ordered that he be paid £40. He was still acting as a justice itinerant for County Dublin in 1306. Bagod petitioned the Crown to restore to him the rents, worth £100 a year, from certain lands at Baltray, County Louth, which had been assigned to Bagod by Nicholas, the late Archbishop of Armagh (died 1303) "in return for his good services", but which de la Haye as Escheator had taken into the Crown's hands, because the Archbishop did not have the King's license to make the assignment. The King "of his special grace" granted Bagod's request.

In 1291 he was ordered to grant to Hugh de Bruges, during the minority of the heirs, the lands of John de Courcy and Thomas de Clare situated in County Kerry and County Limerick. This, however, resulted in a lawsuit brought by Juliana, widow of Thomas de Clare, who claimed that her right of dower had been overlooked; perhaps another example oh Haye's high-handed behaviour. To strengthen her position Juliana remarried the prominent military commander Sir Adam de Cretinges, who was killed in action in 1295. In 1300 her eldest son Gilbert de Clare did homage for his father's lands, and on his mother's death in 1300 received her dower lands as well.

In 1292 the King wrote to Haye concerning the various claims to certain lands at Naul, County Meath, arising from the death of Robert de Cruys, the previous holder, and in particular how much was held from the King directly. The Cruys family became among the foremost landowners in Dublin, Meath and Louth in the next century, with their principal residence at Mount Merrion.

In 1298 Haye was ordered to take into the King's hands the Irish estates of Sir Adam de Cretinges (died 1295), second husband of Juliana de Clare. Adam had been killed fighting in the ill-fated English expedition to Gascony. This however seems to have been a formality, as there was no real doubt that Adam's heir was John, his son by his first wife Nichol or Nicola de Crioll.

In 1306 Haye conducted the first known inquiry into the rights attached to the salmon fisheries on the River Bandon at Bandon, County Cork, and in particular the rights of the de Courcy family, who held the feudal title Baron Kingsale. Not all cases involved rights over lands, as shown by the dispute in 1292 over the cargo of wine aboard the merchant ship Alice. James had complained repeatedly that Haye in his capacity as Escheator had wrongfully taken into the King's hands the estates which James had acquired on his marriage to Margery de la Rochelle, now deceased. Margery was the granddaughter and eventual heiress of Sir Richard de la Rochelle, who had been Justiciar of Ireland in the 1250s and 60s. Haye ruled that the marriage had been childless and therefore the lands, in the absence of an heir, had reverted to the Crown on Margery's death. He would no doubt have been disappointed to know that after his death his enemies the le Poers quickly acquired Kilmeadan Castle, where they remained until they were expelled by Cromwellian forces in about 1650. Knocktopher came through Amicia Le Brun's second marriage to the influential Cusack family of County Meath.

Family

He married Alice le Bret of Knocktopher, widow of Milo le Bret: she held the Knocktopher estate as her dower. was his stepson, Alice's son by her previous marriage to Milo le Bret.