Henry Echlin

[1] His father died when his children were still very young, and he seems to have left his family in some financial difficulty, although their position improved when his widow remarried Robert Ward of Killagh, County Down, who was a man of sufficient social standing to be created a baronet in 1682.

Henry's younger brother was Lieutenant-General Robert Echlin (c.1657-c.1723), commander of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, and later a prominent Jacobite, who died in exile in France.

[3] Like most legal appointments at the time, it was largely due to the influence of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; Echlin also had the support of Sir John Temple, the Solicitor General for Ireland, who justified the appointment as follows: He hath been seven or eight years at the Bar, and very studious and industrious in his profession, though I cannot say that either he or Mr Sprigg[4] are yet in any great practice.

[1] He regularly attended the Irish House of Lords to advise them on legal matters; he was knighted in 1692 and sat on a commission to assess the estates of those Jacobites who had fled to France.

He lobbied in 1706 to become Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, but was passed over, supposedly on the grounds of ill health, although he was well enough to go regularly on assize in Ulster.

Questioned years later by the Irish House of Commons on his actions, he admitted frankly that he knew little about the affair, but had signed whatever reports were placed before him for fear of losing his office if he refused.

[1] In 1714, on the death of Queen Anne, her Irish judges were removed en bloc[5] and were in temporary disgrace (one, Anthony Upton, later committed suicide),[6] but Echlin's reputation did not suffer permanently.