Thomas Dowdall (judge)

[1] He was born in County Louth, son of Sir Robert Dowdall, who was for many years Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.

Elizabeth Hollywood's third husband was Peter Trevers, Dowdall's predecessor as Master of the Rolls, an example of how small the Anglo-Irish ruling class was in that era.

He was summoned to England on official business in 1479, when Thomas Archbold, the Attorney General for Ireland, acted as his Deputy.

[1] Like the great majority of the Anglo-Irish gentry and the High Court judges, he made the mistake of supporting the claims of the pretender Lambert Simnel in 1487 to be the rightful King of England.

The victorious King Henry VII was prepared to be magnanimous to the defeated rebels, and Dowdall and all his judicial colleagues received a royal pardon.