Simon de Ludgate
Simon de Ludgate (died 1302) was an English-born judge in Ireland in the reign of King Edward I of England, who held office as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland.
He is first heard of in 1287 as an attorney to Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester. He visited Ireland in 1291 and returned there "on the King's business" in 1296. In 1298, being regarded as a man experienced in Irish affairs, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. In 1302 he was also Constable of Dublin Castle; however he died on 1 October that year.
He was presumably the Simon de Ludgate who married before 1290 Maud de Sancto Mauro (Seymour), daughter and heiress of Peter de Sancto Mauro of Kingston Seymour, Somerset, and widow of Walter de Wengham. They had a son Lawrence, who took his mother's surname. After Maud's death in 1290 there was an inheritance dispute over Lawrence's rights, as the daughters of his mother's first marriage claimed that his parents' marriage was illegal, on the ground of a pre-contract between Simon and Maud de Shelveley; but Lawrence duly obtained possession of his mother's lands, which passed in turn to his daughter.
Sources
- Anderson, James History of the House of Ivery London 1742
- Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
- Calendar of the Justiciary Rolls; or Proceedings in the Court of the Justiciar of Ireland in the 28th to 31st Years of Edward I
- Collins, Arthur Peerage of England 4th Edition London 1768
- Hand, Geoffrey English Law in Ireland 1290-1324 Cambridge University Press 1967
- Red Book of the Exchequer at Dublin, published in the "Transactions of the Chronological Institute of London 1852"