CENTRAL GOVERNMENTclerks, and letters bore the justiciar’s own seal. The
separate Irish chancery began in 1232, and the first
Irish chancellor was Ralph Neville, bishop of Chichester
and chancellor of England, who was granted the Irish
chancery for life. He performed his functions through
a deputy, and on his death in 1244, his deputy, then
Robert Luttrell, was continued as chancellor of Ireland.
From this date the office had a continuous indepen-
dent existence, and the chancellor became the most
senior member of the Irish council. The office was held
by a mixture of professional administrators and eccle-
siastics, such as the priors of the Hospital of St. John
of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitallers) in Ireland.
The chancellor was paid an annual fee and also
received the fees paid for sealing letters with the great
seal. He was expected to maintain a staff of clerks out
of this amount. However, a constant criticism of the
chancery was that it was under-staffed, with too few
clerks, and those of doubtful qualifications. About
1285 it was alleged that there was only one chancery
clerk, who knew little of its business. Several attempts
were made at reform and reorganization, but they met
with little success. English chancery clerks were sent
over from time to time, particularly in the fourteenth
century, in an attempt to raise standards, but the Irish
chancery continued to be seen as rather unprofessional,
and it did not develop specialist functions similar to
those that developed in England. Similarly, the medi-
eval Irish chancery rolls did not develop the elaborate
subdivisions of the English chancery. It issued two
basic kinds of letters, letters patent and letters close,
which were differentiated by their wording and by the
method of attaching the seal. Letters patent, which
included appointments and grants and were intended
to be shown to interested parties, had a seal hanging
from a cord or strip of parchment, while the seal on
letters close, which contained instructions and orders,
was attached after the document had been rolled up and
had to be broken in order to read it. The annually com-
piled patent and close rolls of the chancery contained
copies of these letters. Most of this original documen-
tation has not survived, but there have been attempts to
reconstruct the rolls from a variety of substitute material.
The chancery had no fixed abode but traveled
around the country, usually in the company of the
justiciar who witnessed all the letters issued by this
department. An attempt in 1395 to provide a permanent
base in Dublin was unsuccessful.
The Escheator
The escheator was the official who was in charge of
administering and accounting for the lands that came
into the king’s hands as a result of vacancies in bish-
oprics and religious houses, minority of the heirs of
tenants-in-chief, and forfeitures. In Ireland this office
assumed a much greater significance than its equiva-
lent in England because of the importance the king
attached to securing the feudal revenues of the colony,
particularly those arising from vacant bishoprics and
religious houses. The Irish escheator therefore, unlike
his English counterpart, was among the most promi-
nent of Irish ministers, holding a place next in impor-
tance after the chancellor and treasurer (in 1346, for
example, the justiciar was instructed to act in all mat-
ters by the advice of the chancellor, treasurer, and
escheator). The escheator was a leading member of
the council and was paid an annual fee of £40. He
could, however, earn a good deal more than this: in
the middle of the fourteenth century there is a record
of the escheator being paid 20 shillings for the exe-
cution of a single writ.
The first known, regularly appointed escheator was
Geoffrey of St. John, appointed in 1250. Before that
date it appears that the justiciar was responsible for
accounting for escheats, although there is some men-
tion of a specially appointed officer. After 1250 there
is a regular succession of escheators, and the workings
of the office become clear. The escheator took posses-
sion of land on behalf of the king and held inquisitions
to determine the exact value of the lands and the iden-
tity and age of the next heir. If the land remained for
a time in the king’s hands it was administered by the
escheator, either personally or by appointed custodians.
The escheator’s functions were spread all over the lord-
ship and necessitated the employment of deputies or
sub-escheators. These officials first appear in the records
around 1270, but probably existed much earlier.
The escheator accounted for the accrued revenues
of his office at the exchequer. In the thirteenth century
the income of the escheatry was substantial, but it
declined severely in the following centuries and so,
too, did the importance of the office of escheator. He
was gradually removed from his important position in
the official hierarchy, and by the fifteenth century he
had ceased to be a member of the council or an official
on an equal footing with the chancellor and treasurer.
The central government of medieval Ireland, mod-
eled on that of England with some modifications, can
be seen to have operated more or less competently
during the first centuries of the Anglo-Norman lord-
ship. However, the power of this central authority
could never be considered to be equivalent to that of
royal government in England, and in the later Middle
Ages the system started to break down as a result of
a combination of circumstances. The records reveal
frequent changes in personnel, as effective officials
were promoted to positions in the English administration
and corrupt and inefficient ones were ejected. There
were many instances of peculation and malpractice,