John Topcliffe

John Topcliffe (died 1513) was an English-born judge who spent much of his career in Ireland, where he held office as Chief Justice of each of the three courts of common law in turn.

Elrington Ball thought that the letter was worth quoting in detail, both because of the glimpse it gives us of Topcliffe's personality and because few other private papers of the Irish judiciary from this time have survived.

It was still clearly visible in 1830, but the local historian William Smith, writing in 1888, noted that renovations to the Church (which were described as "sheer vandalism" by critics) had largely obliterated it.

They had issue, including the younger Richard Bunny MP (died 1584), who was a political figure of some importance in the north of England in the reign of Elizabeth I, despite a reputation for corruption and mismanagement of Crown funds.

By contrast, Elrington Ball, who admittedly was depending on the evidence of the judge's single known letter to Henry VIII, thought him a simple and pious man, of no great legal ability or strength of character.