James Dowdall (Chief Justice)

Sir James Dowdall (died 1584) was an Irish judge of the Elizabethan era who briefly held office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

He married Elizabeth Thunder, a member of a prominent Dublin merchant family (their unusual surname is thought to derive from the French Tonnerre).

Elizabeth was still alive in 1587, when Sir Henry Colley sued her as the executrix of her husband's estate, for debts which Dowdall had incurred by standing surety for his brother Patrick.

He was chosen for several diplomatic missions over the years, and conducted negotiations on behalf of the English Crown with Shane O'Neill and with the Earl of Desmond.

[5] Her praise for Dowdall is interesting as in general she had a very poor opinion of her Irish Law Officers, deploying their "default and inefficiency", and has a practice of replacing them with English lawyers whenever a vacancy arose.