William Saxey

[2] His practice at the English Bar was extremely lucrative: he was said to make £500 a year, a very large sum for the time, although he was probably not much of a lawyer, judging by the later attacks on him for his deficient knowledge of the law.

[5] Saxey did return to Ireland, despite the Irish Council's heartfelt wish to be rid of him, but in 1598 he fled headlong back to England, where he wrote in graphic detail about his experiences during the Nine Years War.

Since he had quarrelled with most of his colleagues, including Sir Warham St Leger, the acting Vice-President, and ceased to attend Council meetings, his usefulness now was nil.

In the circumstances, it was clearly impossible for him to attend court in Dublin and in Munster at the same time, but he refused to appoint a deputy to his place on the King's Bench and insisted on taking the fees for both offices.

[5] In 1600 Sir George Carew, the new Lord President, complained bitterly to the Crown about Saxey's absence from Munster (Nicholas Walsh had to fill in for him) and urged that he be "returned or replaced".

[8] In 1603 he was given responsibility for quelling the political uprisings in several towns in Munster which broke out on the death of Elizabeth I, when the municipal authorities refused to proclaim James I as King.

[2] He retired from the Irish Bench before 1606 (although complaints about his judicial misconduct were still pending), and returned to England, where he busily solicited for another office, preferably as Baron of the Exchequer.

[11] In 1598 he wrote a memorandum on the governance of Ireland, calling for the barring of men of Irish birth from the Bench and all other public offices, and for strict enforcement of the laws against recusancy.

[2] Crawford describes Saxey as a "redoubtable" figure, but also as a man who was "ethically challenged", and an "ambitious opportunist" whose record as a judge showed the dubious wisdom of sending English "careerists" to staff the Irish Bench.

[2] While Saxey undoubtedly hated and feared the Irish people, as all his writings make clear, this was a common enough emotion among English settlers in Ireland in that era.