John Bysse

John Bysse (c.1602–1680) was a member of the Parliament of Ireland during the 1630s and 1640s. He was excluded from office during the Interregnum, but became one of the most senior Irish judges after the Restoration of Charles II.

Biography

Bysse was born around 1602, to Christopher Bysse (who was dead by 1615), an official of the Exchequer (as was John's grandfather), and Margaret Forster, daughter of John Forster, an alderman of Dublin.

Bysse was admitted a member of the King's Inns in 1632. He was elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Charlemont in 1634 and became Recorder of Dublin in the same year. He was re-elected to the Commons in 1640.

At the outbreak of Irish Rebellion of 1641 John Bysse, along with his younger brother Robert (who was Recorder of Drogheda) were among the leaders of the Protestant faction in Parliament.^[1]

During the Commonwealth he remained Recorder of Dublin,^[2] he was twice recommended for appointment to the High Court Bench and was elected to Parliament, but excluded. At the Restoration he was appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and held the office until his death. In addition to serving on the Bench, he attended regularly at the Irish House of Lords, acting as a legal adviser to the peers. He is buried in St. Audoen's Church, Dublin.

Bysse became a substantial landowner, inheriting Preston's Inn,^[3] on the site of the present City Hall, Dublin, where he built a substantial mansion (which was demolished in the 1760s), and also Brackenstown near Swords. Later he was granted part of the freehold of Philipstown (now Daingean), County Offaly.

Personality and reputation

Elrington Ball remarks flippantly that Bysse had a kind of "hereditary claim" on the Exchequer as both his father and grandfather had been officials there.^[4] In fact the author makes it clear that Bysse was eminently qualified to be Chief Baron: he had been Recorder of Dublin for 25 years and had sat in two Parliaments; he was hard-working, conscientious and popular with all political factions. In religion he seems to have been quite tolerant by the standards of the time, causing something of a stir in 1665 when he acted as mourner at the funeral of a non-conformist minister.

Despite Bysse's many virtues, within a few years of his appointment as Chief Baron serious complaints were being made about his slowness and incompetence; he was even accused of senility. These complaints were taken seriously and in 1669 and 1671 he was threatened with removal from office. He was fortunate in enjoying the friendship of the Lord Lieutenant, James, Duke of Ormonde, to whom loyalty was a cardinal virtue: as Ball remarks "those whom he ever loved, he loved to the end". Ormonde strongly defended Bysse; admitting he was slow in giving judgement but arguing that his integrity and capacity for hard work compensated for this; and he denied that there had been any fall-off in Bysse's mental abilities. These arguments were presumably successful since he was not removed. In his last years there were persistent rumours that he would either resign or be dismissed, but in fact he remained Chief Baron until his death in 1680, aged about seventy-eight.

Family

John Bysse married Margaret Edgeworth (died 1676) daughter of Francis Edgeworth and widow of John King. They had numerous children who died young,^[5] and two surviving daughters:

• Judith, who married firstly Robert Molesworth,^[2] (died 1656) by whom she was mother of Robert, the 1st Viscount Molesworth, and secondly Sir William Tichborne of Beaulieu, by whom she had several further children, including Henry Tichborne, 1st Baron Ferrard;
• Catherine, who married the politician Sir Richard Bulkeley, 1st Baronet, and had issue.

Notes

1. Perceval-Maxwell 1994, p. 75.
2. Hayton 2002, p. 826.
3. Gilbert 1859, p. 22.
4. Ball 1926, p 269.
5. Nineteen according to one account, though this may be an exaggeration

References

• Ball, F. Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921. London: John Murray.
• Gilbert, John Thomas (1859). A history of the city of Dublin. 2. J. McGlashan. p. 22.
• Hayton, David, ed. (2002). The House of Commons, 1690-1715. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 826. ISBN 0-521-77221-4.
• Perceval-Maxwell, M (1994). The outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 (illustrated ed.). McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 75. ISBN 0-7735-1157-1.