Richard West (Lord Chancellor of Ireland)

In the House of Commons, he made his reputation as one of the managers of the impeachment of Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, the Lord Chancellor on charges of corruption in 1725: his speech for the prosecution was described as "masterly".

It is believed that his friend Archbishop Hugh Boulter, who had recently been translated to the see of Armagh, and wanted West to join him in Ireland, played a part in persuading him.

As Lord Chancellor he gained a reputation for exceptional severity in the enforcement of the Penal Laws, encouraging informers to discover secret (i.e. collusive) trusts by Protestant trustees in favour of Catholics.

In the case of Leymore v Bourke he appeared to extend the operation of the Penal Laws to cover not only actual but constructive Papists, the latter category including Protestants who married Roman Catholics.

[4] He was more successful as a pamphleteer, his best-known works being A Discourse concerning Treasons and Bills of Attainder (1716 ) and An Inquiry into the Origins and Manner of Creating Peers (1719).

[5] In November 1726 West became ill "with a great cold and fever", but since he was still only about thirty-five, and seemed to be responding well to treatment, his case was not thought to be serious; on 3 December however he unexpectedly died.

What had become of the widow's own money is unclear, but it should certainly have been enough to live on: her Dutch mother Mary Scott had been a great heiress, and her father the Bishop in his own will had provided generously for all his children.