William Chevir

He was born in Kilkenny city, son of John Chevir, justice of the peace for County Kilkenny;[1] his younger brother, John Chevir junior, became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.[2] The surname, which is rather uncommon in Ireland, is probably an early form of Cheever; Chevyr was another contemporary spelling of the name.

Little is known of his early career. He and his brother were closely associated with James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde (1393-1452), the dominant Anglo-Irish magnate in the south-east of Ireland for more than thirty years.[3] It was presumably due to Ormonde's influence that William became second justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) and later acted as deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.[4]

Irish politics in the 1430s and 1440s was dominated by the bitter feud between the Earl of Ormonde, by then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Richard Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, backed by his powerful brother John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Nearly all Crown officials found themselves forced to take sides: William Chevir was a staunch adherent of Ormonde.[5]

Giles Thorndon, the English-born Lord Treasurer of Ireland, had a long and impressive record of service to the House of Lancaster, but he was quite out of his depth in Ireland, which was then in a state of exceptional political turmoil. In general he backed the Talbots, but Ormonde persuaded him to appoint Chevir as his deputy in 1442.[6] According to Thordon's later complaint to the Privy Council, Chevir was guilty of such obvious maladministration that Thorndon refused to reappoint him as deputy in 1443,[7] whereupon Ormonde in retaliation despoiled Thorndon's property. Both sides to the feud made bitter complaints to the English Crown, which however was more interested in ending the feud than punishing those involved,[8] and matters dragged on inconclusively until 1446 when Chevir died. Thorndon returned to England soon afterwards. He lived to a great age, dying in 1477.

While Chevir undoubtedly had every reason to be grateful to Ormonde for advancing his career, Griffiths criticises him for "abetting Ormonde in embezzlement and oppression".[9]