Lucas Dillon (judge)

Cusack's supporters praised him as "a true Protestant", whereas Dillon was known to incline privately to the Roman Catholic faith, and in his last years made little effort to conceal the fact.

However, the English Crown, while it made intermittent efforts to appoint judges with strongly Protestant views, would as a rule accept outward adherence to the Church of Ireland as sufficient evidence of loyalty, and Dillon's private religious opinions, which were shared by several of his colleagues, were thus not a bar to advancement.

He was seen as one of the few Irish judges of real eminence, at a time when the Crown authorities ranked the competences of most of his colleagues below that of an inexperienced junior member of the English Bar.

[26] He was one of Sidney's few influential supporters during the so-called "cess controversy", the much-resented attempt to impose a tax for the upkeep of military garrisons on the gentry of the Pale, and became rather unpopular as a result.

[27] His membership of a five-man commission empowered to fine those landowners who refused to pay the cess was a particular source of irritation, especially as he was its only Irish member.

[37][38] Lucas's reputation suffered greatly through his sitting, together with his cousin Robert Dillon, as a judge in the trial of Nicholas Nugent for treason in 1582.

Nicholas had recently been appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Lucas's cousin Robert Dillon reportedly hoped to take Nugent's place.

Dillon was by now acquiring powerful enemies, notably Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, but he also had friends, including the new Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrot, appointed 1584.

[42] As Perrot's Deputyship became increasingly embattled, Dillon, his ally, was also attacked: Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin accused him of recusancy, a very serious charge to make against a servant of the Crown, and informed the London government that he was "very corrupt".

[43] William Nugent, who had received a royal pardon for his rebellion against the Crown, made a concerted attack on Sir Robert Dillon, who was by now Lord Chief Justice, and for a time had him suspended from office.

The stress of defending himself against charges of corruption is said to have hastened his end, although he was, in any case, an old man by the standards of the time, and had been in ill health for some years.

[29] Dillon died on 17 February 1593[2][3] in Dublin,[44][45][c] He was succeeded on 10 April in his office as chief baron of the exchequer by Sir Robert Napier.

[46] He was buried beside his first wife, Jane Bathe, in the Clonburn parish church, the ruin of which still stands next to Newtown Abbey, near Trim, County Meath.

[60] Crawford, on the other hand, praises his talent and energy, points to the high regard most Crown officials had for him, and argues that the charges of corruption made against him were partisan in nature.