English-born judge in Ireland
William Saxey or Saxei (c. 1550 – 1612) was an English-born judge in Ireland of the late Elizabethan and early Stuart era. He was an unpopular and controversial figure with a reputation for corruption and misanthropy.
Early career.
He was born in Bristol around 1550. Not much is known about his family; he may have been a son of Robert Saxey, a wealthy merchant of the town who was Mayor of Bristol in 1557. He entered Staple Inn, and then Gray's Inn in 1576. 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.
A judge in Ireland.
In 1594 he was sent to Ireland as Chief Justice of Munster on the death of Jesse Smythes. Queen Elizabeth I, in a rare error of judgement, called him "a person well versed in the laws of this realm and of good integrity of life".
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