James Cornwalsh

James Cornwalsh (died 1441) was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was a political figure of considerable importance in fifteenth century Ireland, and a supporter of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. He was murdered as a result of a feud over the possession of Baggotrath Castle, near Dublin.

He was the son of William Cornwalsh: as the surname suggests, the Cornwalsh family had come to Ireland from Cornwall in the fourteenth century. He was probably descended from Sir John de Cornwall, Constable of Carlow Castle in the time of Edward III. He lived mainly at Dunboyne in County Meath. He married Matilda Rochfort and by her was the father of John Cornwalsh, himself a future Chief Baron.

He was a justice of the peace for Wexford and Waterford and Deputy Admiral of Ireland. He was appointed Chief Baron in 1420 on the advice of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. Irish politics was then dominated by the bitter and long-lasting feud between Ormond and the Talbot family, headed by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and Cornwalsh was a staunch adherent of Ormond. He quarreled with the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir Laurence Merbury, who accused Cornwalsh of gravely slandering him before the English Council. Cornwalsh was suspended from office but restored in 1426, when the Irish Council sent him to London to give a favourable report on Ormond's tenure as Lord Lieutenant.

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