Edmund de Clay

Edmund de Clay (died after 1389) was an English-born lawyer and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.

He was born in  Nottinghamshire,  and later became a landowner  there. By 1383, he had the reputation for being  "learned in the law" and in that year he became Serjeant-at-law. He is known to have been  most reluctant to take up  this office, probably because it would involve him in  heavy expenses, and he did so only after King Richard II issued a warrant commanding de Clay, along with two other leading advocates, John Hill and Sir John Cary, to be admitted to that rank by a specified day.

In 1385 he was sent to Ireland with a large retinue to take up office as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was transferred to the more senior office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1386. He had   returned to England  by 1389, when he  was living on his estates in Nottinghamshire; later he is recorded  as sitting on a commission of oyer and terminer. His date of death is not recorded,

References

Category:People from Nottinghamshire
Category:Lords Chief Justice of Ireland
Category:Chief Justices of the Irish Common Pleas