Michael Gryffin

Michael Gryffin or Gryffen (died 1467) was an English-born judge who spent many years attempting to exercise his right to hold the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, which was also claimed by his Irish-born rival, John Cornwalsh.[1]

Little appears to be known of his background, but Griffiths states that by 1440 he already had a long record of good service to the English Crown,[2] and Elrington Ball describes his social rank as "gentleman".[3] In consideration of his long and loyal service to the Crown, he was in 1441 appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer for life.[4] This led immediately to a clash with John Cornwalsh, whose father James Cornwalsh, recently deceased, had held the same office; John claimed that he had been granted in reversion the right to be Chief Baron. This dispute quickly merged into the wider and long-running dispute between the two main political factions in Ireland, the Butlers and the Talbots. With the backing of the Talbots, headed by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, Gryffin managed to keep his rival out of office for 5 years; but in 1446 Cornwalsh, backed by his powerful patron James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde, obtained a declaration that Gryffin's patent of office had been obtained illegally,[5] although how a patent issued at the command of the King himself could be "illegal" is unclear.

In justice to Cornwalsh it must be said that he was undoubtedly the better qualified of the two rivals, having studied law at the Inns of Court in the 1430s, whereas Gryffin, judging by a memorandum of 1442, had no legal qualifications at all. Further the lack of learning shown by the Barons of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) was a long-standing cause of concern to the English Crown. The memorandum of 1442 which referred to Gryffin's lack of legal qualifications proposed a series of reforms which included a requirement that the Chief Baron (if not the ordinary Barons) should always be a qualified lawyer.

The following year Gryffin was accused of "diverse offences" [6] but he refused to give up the struggle to remain in office as Chief Baron: in 1449 he sat as judge on a commission of oyer and terminer, which his enemies promptly declared illegal. In 1454, after conditions in Ireland had become more settled, he was exonerated of any wrongdoing. He died in 1467.[7]