Richard Clayton (Irish judge)

Richard Clayton (1702–1770) was an English-born politician and judge in eighteenth-century Ireland who held the office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.

Clayton was sent to Ireland as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1765 and held office until 1770, when ill-health forced him to step down.

Clayton is mainly remembered for presiding over the trial of Nicholas Sheehy, parish priest of Clogheen, County Tipperary on a charge of being accessory to the murder of John Bridge, at the Clonmel Assizes in March 1766.

[4] On hearing the death sentence pronounced, Sheehy's counsel told the judge and jury that "if there was any justice they would all die roaring."

[3] There is evidence that in other cases he acted justly and humanely: a later Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the Earl of Clare, remembered him as a good man and an honest judge.