John Keppock

John Keppock (died 1404) was an Irish judge who held the offices of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

He was the son of Simon Keppock of Drumcashel, County Louth. The Keppock (or Cappock) family settled in Louth shortly after the Norman Conquest of Ireland and were particularly associated with the town of Ardee; an earlier John Keppock of Ardee, who died in 1412 and was a leading figure in the town's government, was presumably a relative of the judge.^[1]

Keppock was living in England in 1352, and acted there as counsel for the powerful Anglo-Irish Cusack family.^[2] He returned to Ireland a few years later, and in 1356 he became King's Serjeant in Ireland. In 1364 he became Lord Chief Baron of Ireland and in 1367 Lord Chief Justice. In 1370 he stood down as Lord Chief Justice but remained an ordinary judge of the Bench .^[3] In 1372 he was reappointed Lord Chief Justice and acted as deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1375. In 1382 he once more stood down as Chief Justice to become an ordinary judge of King's Bench. In 1373-4 together with two colleagues, Walter Cotterell and William de Karlell, he conducted a lengthy inquiry into treasure trove in County Wexford and County Waterford,^[4] which seems to have extended into a general inquiry into the Crown's rights in those two counties: the judges were also granted the power to arrest ships.^[5]

Keppock married, sometime after 1358, the twice widowed Matilda Gernoun; her first husband had been William de Nottingham, son of Robert de Nottingham, who was several times Lord Mayor of Dublin, and her second husband was John Gernoun, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. They do not appear to have had any children. He died in 1404.^[6]

References

1. Murray, L.P. The Dawsons of Ardee Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society (1933) Vol.8 No.1 p.22
2. Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol.1 p. 84
3. Ball p.84
4. Hart, A.R. History of the King's Serjeants at Law in Ireland Four Courts Press Dublin 2000 p.19
5. Smyth, Constantine Joseph Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland London 18539 p.183
6. Ball p.84