Robert Dowdall

Sir Robert Dowdall (died 1482) was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas for more than forty years. He is mainly remembered nowadays for the murderous assault on him by the Prior of Kilmainham in 1462.

He was the son of Luke Dowdall of County Louth. The Dowdalls were a Derbyshire family who originated at Dovedale, and came to Ireland in the thirteenth century. Later members of the family included George Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, James Dowdall, the Catholic martyr, and James Dowdall, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

He was appointed King's Serjeant in 1435 and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1438; he held that office until his death in 1482. He was Deputy Treasurer of Ireland in 1461 and was knighted the same year.

He married Anne Wogan of Rathcoffey, County Kildare, in 1454. He resided mainly at Clontarf near Dublin. He was a companion of the Brotherhood of Saint George, a short-lived military order founded by King Edward IV in 1474 for the defence of the Pale.

Dowdall is remembered by historians for the serious assault on him in 1462 by Sir James Keating, Prior of the Knights Hospitallers. Dowdall, who was making a pilgrimage to a holy well near Kilmainham, County Dublin, was atttacked by Keating with a sword and was put in fear of his life. Dowdall prosecuted Keating before the Irish Parliament, which found Keating guilty of assault. He was fined £100, and ordered to pay Dowdall 100 marks as compensation, but was apparently able on technical grounds to evade making either payment.

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