Henry Draycott

Henry Draycott (c. 1510–1572) was an English-born Crown official in sixteenth-century Ireland, who held a number of senior Government offices, including Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland. Despite his apparent lack of legal qualifications, he had a successful highly career as a judge , becoming a Baron of the Court of Exchequer and Master of the Rolls in Ireland. He also became a substantial landowner in the Pale, whose principal estate was at Mornington, County Meath.

Draycott was a native of Denby in Derbyshire; his family name probably derives from the village of Draycott, Derbyshire. Little is known of his parents or of his early life. Despite his later eminence as a judge, it is not clear when he was called to the Bar or indeed if he was a barrister at all. He is first recorded. in Ireland in 1544; his first official post was treasurer of the Lordship of Wexford, and he received a lease of Crown lands there.

Draycott rose quickly to a position of influence in the Irish administration, becoming Chief Remembrancer, a senior position in the Court of Exchequer. He was elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Naas in 1560. He was entrusted with a number of political missions to England, and was later a reliable supporter of Sir Henry Sidney; he was given the task of settling a controversy between the Earl of Ormond and the Earl of Desmond, and was involved in the settlement of Munster in 1567.

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