John de Sotheron

Sir John de Sotheron (died after 1398) was an English landowner, lawyer and judge, who served briefly as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

[3] He inherited his father's lands in about 1369; at the time he was involved in a dispute with nearby Cockersand Abbey over the advowson (i.e. the right to select his own candidate as parish priest) of Mitton Church.

He lived in a violent age, where cases of manslaughter and even murder among the ruling class were not uncommon, and a royal pardon was easy enough to obtain; nor would a criminal record necessarily hinder one's career, as de Sotheron's own later life shows.

[1] He married Joanna, daughter of Sir Simon Cusack,[2] who was summoned to the so-called Good Parliament of 1376 as Baron Culmullen, and had extensive lands in Ireland, including Culmullin and Dangan, County Meath.

[1] She and her second husband fought a long and bitter battle for possession of Culmullen against various Cusack relatives; the feud dragged on into the next generation, and caused a number of violent deaths.