Anthony St Leger

Sir Anthony St Leger (the younger) (c.1535–1613) was an English-born judge in Ireland of the later Tudor and Stuart eras. He held the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Family There is some confusion about his parentage. It is often said that he was the third son of Sir Anthony St Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and his wife Agnes Warham. However, both Burke's Peerage, and Francis Elrington Ball in his definitive study of the pre-Independence Irish judiciary, state that he was the nephew, not the son, of the elder Sir Anthony, and that his parents were Sir Anthony's brother George St Leger and his wife Thomasine Heath. Career He was born around 1535, at Leeds, Kent. He entered Gray's Inn in 1562 and was called to the Bar in 1574. He was made an Ancient of Gray's Inn in 1579 and was Reader of the Inn in 1589. In 1593 he was made Irish Master of the Rolls, with a knighthood. Crawford states that he was chosen for the office because of the Crown's strong preference for sending English judges to Ireland, and because of a belief that the St. Leger family's long association with Ireland fitted him for the task. St Leger himself did not share this belief: he went to Ireland under protest, made regular visits home and petitioned for English offices such as Master of the Court of Requests. His absences from duty were frequent enough to merit an official rebuke: in 1599 the Privy Council of Ireland sent a peremptory order to him to return to Dublin at once since his absence was making the conduct of judicial business almost impossible.