Richard Stephens (judge)

He was a highly successful lawyer, who made a fortune at the Bar, but his judicial career was hampered by his unorthodox religious and political views.

[1] In the autumn of 1678 the great wave of anti-Catholic hysteria which is popularly known as the Popish Plot, sparked by the invention by the informer Titus Oates of a wholly fictitious Jesuit conspiracy to murder the King, broke out in England, and the Plot also gained credence in Ireland.

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, although himself a staunch Anglican, had pursued a policy of unofficial religious toleration towards Roman Catholics.

[2] By 1679 however public opinion demanded the appointment to office of men of staunchly Protestant views: and Stephens was a political client of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, who had used the Popish Plot to become effective Leader of the Opposition in the English Parliament.

[1] He went as a judge of assize in the north-west of Ireland, and apparently planned to enter the English House of Commons.

He continued to reside mainly in England: although he was appointed a justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) in 1690, he did not sit regularly as a judge, possibly due to failing health.