Roger Utlagh

Roger Utlagh, or Roger Outlawe (c. 1260 – 1341) was a leading Irish cleric, judge and statesman of the fourteenth century who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Today he is mainly remembered as the brother-in-law of the celebrated Witch of Kilkenny Alice Kyteler, and for his efforts to shield her from prosecution and subsequently to escape punishment during the notorious Kilkenny Witch Trials.

He was born in Kilkenny: the Outlawe or Utlagh family were prominent merchants of Kilkenny city. His brother William was Mayor of Kilkenny around 1301: William is best remembered as first husband of Alice Kyteler, a connection which caused Roger great trouble in later life.

Roger joined the Order of the Knights Hospitallers: they were a military order, and Roger served as a military commander with the English army against the Scots, in which capacity he is said to have given good service to the Crown. He became Prior of Kilmainham in 1317 or 1318 : as such he was entitled to sit in Parliament, where he soon acquired a reputation as an able statesman. He was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1321 and served till 1325; between 1320 and his death in 1341 he frequently acted as Justiciar or Deputy Justiciar. At the same time he was fully involved in the affairs of the Priory of Kilmainham and is said to have done much to increase its revenues. He died at the Order's house in County Limerick, which gave its name to present-day Hospital.

In 1324, while Lord Chancellor, Roger became both personally and politically involved in the Kilkenny Witch Trials. The Bishop of Ossory, Richard de Ledrede, accused a number of prominent local citizens of witchcraft; the alleged leaders of the coven were Roger's sister-in-law Alice Kyteler and her son William Outlawe junior. In the circumstances the Bishop's request that the Chancellor should arrest his own family was a strange one. Roger, who was described by O'Flanagan as a man who was "not so credulous as others, or [more] willing to befriend his relatives" advised that forty days must elapse before an arrest could be made. When the Bishop refused to be persuaded to drop the case he was arrested himself, almost certainly with the Chancellor's connivance, and imprisoned for seventeen days.

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