William Saxey

William Saxey or Saxei ( – 1612) was an English-born judge in Ireland of the late Elizabethan and early Stuart era. He was an unpopular and controversial figure with a reputation for corruption and misanthropy.

Early career

He was born in Bristol around 1550. Not much is known about his family; he may have been a son of Robert Saxey, a wealthy merchant of the town who was Mayor of Bristol in 1557. He entered Staple Inn, and then Gray's Inn in 1576. His practice at the English Bar was extremely lucrative: he was said to make £500 a year, a very large sum for the time, although he was probably not much of a lawyer, judging by the later attacks on him for his deficient knowledge of the law. He is next heard of holding an inquiry at Mallow into the right of the O'Callaghan family to hold their Cork estates.

From the very beginning of his career in Ireland, he faced accusations of corruption, and in 1596 the Court of Castle Chamber (the Irish equivalent of Star Chamber) reprimanded him severely for "corrupt, violent and intemperate proceedings". To judge from a later case (which he heard when he was on the verge of retirement), it seems that the malpractice most complained of was his putting the wrong party in possession of lands (presumably in return for a bribe) in defiance of the verdict of the judges of assize.

The Privy Council of Ireland took the unusual step of writing to the English Government, condemning Saxey for going to England without leave, and attacking him as a man deficient in legal knowledge (despite his apparent success at the English Bar). Rather illogically in view of their rebuke about his absence from Ireland, they asked that he be kept in England and "be no more returned to his office here, he being a person who has incurred so general a mislike".

The Queen issued an order in 1600 that both the justices of the Court of Munster, Saxey and James Gould, must remain in continual attendance on the Lord President of Munster "being of special trust appointed to his Council". This was probably an effort to force Saxey to choose between the two offices. In the circumstances, it was clearly impossible for him to attend court in Dublin and in Munster at the same time, but he refused to appoint a deputy to his place on the King's Bench and insisted on taking the fees for both offices. Saxey did make some constructive suggestions about how to end the Rebellion, such as the stationing of a strong garrison at Kilmallock.

In 1603 he was given responsibility for quelling the political uprisings in several towns in Munster which broke out on the death of Elizabeth I, when the municipal authorities refused to proclaim James I as King. His threat to have anyone who refused to proclaim the King arrested had no effect, as the municipal authorities denied that he had the power of arrest. The Crown decided to make an example of some of the Cork city fathers, and William Meade, the Recorder of Cork, was tried for treason at Youghal. Saxey sat as Chief Justice of Munster, with the Lord President of Munster and other senior judges also sitting on the bench. Despite the formidable composition of the tribunal the jury refused to convict. The acquittal of Meade was a grave embarrassment to the Crown.

The final years

Saxey continued to attract accusations of corruption, and to quarrel with his colleagues. By 1602 he claimed to be too old to fulfil either of his offices; at the same time, rather illogically, he canvassed to be appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. In 1598 he wrote a memorandum on the governance of Ireland, calling for the barring of men of Irish birth from the Bench and all other public offices, and for strict enforcement of the laws against recusancy. This may be an earlier version of a treatise on Ireland, to which Ball refers, which he wrote in retirement.