Richard le Blond

Richard le Blond (died after 1325) was an Irish lawyer and judge of the early fourteenth century. After serving for many years as Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) he was rewarded for his services to the English Crown with a seat on the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland).[1]

He was born in Arklow, County Wicklow. It is unclear whether or not he was related to David le Blond, who was a justice of the Court of the Justiciar of Ireland during the same era;[2] (there is some evidence that David came from County Cork, not Wicklow).[3]

Richard was appointed King's Serjeant, as the office of Serjeant-at-law was then known, in 1298.[1] He appears to have been diligent in arguing cases on behalf of the English Crown:[4] in 1301 he appeared for the Crown at the assizes in County Louth, and in the same year he was acting for the Crown in each of the royal Courts in Dublin. [5] We have records of at least one of the cases he pleaded in 1301-2, which concerned points of some importance on the powers of the Exchequer of Ireland.[6]

In 1309 he made the first of several official complaints about the maladministration of Geoffrey de Morton, a corrupt and unpopular local government official and former Mayor of Dublin. An inquiry was held into the allegations, but it ended inconclusively (although a later inquiry upheld all the allegations of corruption against Morton).

After a quarter of a century's service as Serjeant, le Blond was appointed to the Common Pleas in 132.[1] He seems to have retired in 1325.[7]He has been described as a man who was "greatly knowledgeable in the law".[8]