Sir Constantine Henry Phipps

Sir Constantine Henry Phipps (1656–1723) was an English-born lawyer who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His term of office was marked by bitter political faction-fighting and he faced repeated calls for his removal. His descendants held the titles Earl of Mulgrave and Marquess of Normanby. Sir William Phips, the Governor of Massachusetts, was his cousin.

He was born in Reading, the third son of Francis Phipps and Anne Sharpe. Though they described themselves as "gentry", his family do not seem to have had much money: Constantine received a free education at Reading School; and his uncle James emigrated to Maine where his son William, the future Governor, was born. Constantine won a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford in 1672.

He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1678 and called to the Bar in 1684. He was a lawyer of real ability, but also a strong Tory and suspected Jacobite, which hindered his career. His name became associated with political cases: he was junior counsel for the defence in the prosecution of Sir John Fenwick for his part in the conspiracy against William III in 1696. It was his management of the defence of Henry Sacheverell, impeached for an inflammatory sermon, in 1710, that made his name and apparently caused Queen Anne to favour him.

In 1710 Richard Freeman, the popular Lord Chancellor of Ireland, died of a brain disease, and Phipps was chosen to succeed him. He arrived in Ireland in December and immediately became embroiled in controversy, especially as he was also appointed Lord Justice of Ireland, together with Richard Ingoldsby, and was a key member of the Dublin administration. As a convinced Tory, he sought to "pack" local councils with politically reliable sheriffs and justices of the peace. In Dublin itself the results were disastrous: a Whig Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir John Eccles, was elected but the Government refused to recognise his election, and for two years the capital had no effective Government.

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