Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden KC (19 January 1739 – 23 July 1803) was an Anglo-Irish politician and judge who served as the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland from 1793 until 1803, when he was murdered during the Irish rebellion of 1803.

Appointed Attorney-General for Ireland in 1789, he was known for his strict adherence to the forms of law, and his opposition to the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities, despite his own position in the Protestant Ascendancy.

However, he left the House of Commons when he was appointed Chief Justice of the Kings Bench for Ireland and created Baron Kilwarden on 3 July 1798.

[2] Despite his actions on behalf of Wolfe Tone, Kilwarden was hated by the United Irishmen for his prosecution of William Orr in 1797, and he had entertained considerable fear for his safety after their failed rebellion.

In 1802 he presided over the case against Major Sirr in which the habitual abuses of power used to suppress rebellion were exposed in court.

In a case over the disputed will of Gahan's friend John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne, the priest refused to answer certain questions on the ground that to do so would violate the seal of the confessional, despite a ruling[5](which was overturned in the twentieth century)[6] that the common law did not recognize the seal of the confessional as a ground for refusing to give evidence.

On the night of 23 July 1803, the approach of the Kildare rebels induced him to leave his residence, Newlands House, in the suburbs of Dublin, with his daughter Elizabeth[7] and his nephew, Rev.