The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the office was sometimes called the Chancellor of the Green Wax. In the early centuries, the Chancellor was often a highly educated cleric with knowledge of Finance. In later centuries, when sessions of Parliament had become regular, the Chancellor was invariably an MP in the Irish House of Commons. Walter de Kenley (died 1308), Chancellor from 1292 until his death, was both a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and a distinguished military commander who gave good service against the Gaelic clans of County Wicklow.
The office was separate from the judicial role of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer of Ireland, although in the early centuries, the two offices were often held by the same person; on other occasions, the Chancellor was second Baron of the Exchequer. The first Chancellor appears to have been Thomas de Chaddesworth, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, in 1270. Like de Kenley, he was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland), not the Court of Exchequer.
Although the Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1801 under the Acts of Union 1800 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Exchequer of Ireland did not merge with the Exchequer of Great Britain until 1817. The last separate Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was William Vesey-FitzGerald.
List of chancellors 1270 Thomas de Chaddesworth 1292 Walter de Kenley, or Kenleye 1308 Walter de Thornbury 1309 William de Clere (died before taking up office). Brother of Nicholas de Clere, Lord Treasurer of Ireland. 1309–1310: John de Hotham 1310 Nicholas de Balscote 1326 Adam de Harvington (or Herwynton) 1328 Thomas de Montpellier 1330 Henry de Thrapston 1333 Thomas de Brayles 1334 Robert le Poer 1344 William de Bromley 1346 Robert de Emeldon 1350 John de Pembroke 1374 John de Karlell 1376 Thomas Bache 1385 William FitzWilliam 1388 John de Troye 1391 Robert Preston, 1st Baron Gormanston Robert de Herford (temp. Richard II) 1399: Hugh Banent, or Bavent, also Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper c.1419-23: Robert Dyke, first term 1424: Sampson d'Artois c.1425-30 Robert Dyke, second term 1431: John Blaketoun 1436: Robert Cowdrey 1446: John Hardwick 1461: Robert Norreys 1478 Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth 1487 Walter Ivers 1495: Edward Barnewall 1521 Patrick Bermingham 1532: Richard Delahide 1535: John Alan 1536: Thomas Cusack 1561:Henry Draycott 1572: Robert Dillon 1577: John Bathe 1586–1589: Sir Edward Waterhouse 1589: Sir George Clive 1590: Thomas Molyneux 1596: Sir Richard Cooke 1612: Sir Dudley Norton 1616: Henry Holcroft 27 October 1617: Thomas Hibbotts Henry Holcroft (in reversion after Hibbotts) 1634: Sir Robert Meredyth 1668: Richard Jones 1674: Sir Charles Meredyth 1687: Bruno Talbot (Jacobite) 1690: Sir Charles Meredyth 1695: Philip Savage 1717: Sir Ralph Gore, 4th Baronet 1733: Henry Boyle 1735: Marmaduke Coghill 1739: Henry Boyle 1754: Arthur Hill 1755: Henry Boyle 1757: Anthony Malone 1761: Sir William Yorke, 1st Baronet 1763: William Gerard Hamilton 1782: George Ponsonby 23 April 1784: John Foster 17 September 1785: Sir John Parnell, 2nd Baronet 27 January 1799: Isaac Corry 9 July 1804: John Foster 24 February 1806: Sir John Newport, 1st Baronet 30 April 1807: John Foster 1811: William Wellesley-Pole 11 August 1812: William Vesey-FitzGerald 1816: Nicholas Vansittart (Chancellor of the Exchequer of Great Britain from 1812) Irish Exchequer abolished 1817
References Haydn's Book of Dignities (1851)
Further reading