William le Deveneys

Sir William le Deveneys (died 1319) was a Crown administrator and judge in late thirteenth and early fourteenth century Ireland, who served very briefly as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.

[5] Glencree, however, proved to be an almost worthless gift: it was in the Wicklow Mountains, remote from the city, and subject to frequent raids by the local Gaelic clans, the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes, which became a serious problem in the early 1290s.

[1] Deveneys also practised as an attorney in the Royal Courts: no doubt the Crown was his main client, but he also worked for private individuals, including a certain Matilda, with whom he seems to have had a long association.

[1] An almost illegible entry in the Patent Roll for 1312 suggests that the Crown wished him to act as a mediator in a feud between William Burgh and Richard Clare.

[1] It subsequently passed to Sir John Cruys (died 1407), who built Merrion Castle on the site in the 1360s, and later became part of the vast Fitzwilliam holdings in South Dublin.