Robert Rochfort

Robert Rochfort as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

Robert Rochfort (9 December 1652 – 10 October 1727) was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

Family

He was the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel James (nick-named "Prime-Iron ") Rochfort (d. 1652), a Cromwellian soldier, and his wife Thomasina Pigot. Robert was born posthumously: his father, who had fatally wounded one Major Turner in a duel, was court-martialled and executed a few months before his birth. Robert married Hannah Handcock, with whom he had two sons, George and John.^[1] The Rochfort family is recorded in Ireland from 1243, and acquired substantial lands in Meath, Westmeath and Kildare. Robert was descended from Sir Milo de Rochfort (died after 1309 ).

Early career

Rochfort initially pursued a successful legal career in Ireland before going on to attain high government office. In 1680 he was appointed Recorder of Derry, a post which he held until 1707.

In power

Between 1692 and 1707, Rochfort represented Westmeath in the Irish House of Commons. He supported the 'whiggish' elements in the House at this time in their claim to possess the 'sole right' to legislate for Ireland. This was both a challenge to Poynings' Law and the Irish executive, leading to a constitutional crisis, resolved by a compromise in the parliamentary session of 1695. Rochfort was, nonetheless, appointed Attorney-General in 1694 with the help of the Whig Lord Justice, Lord Capell. With the executive's support, he was elected Speaker of the Irish House of Commons the same year. He remained in this position until 1699.

He played a key role in the impeachment of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir Charles Porter, on charges of judicial misconduct, but the impeachment collapsed after Porter's brilliant speech in his own defence. Disappointment, and a keen sense of his own dignity, led Rochfort to start a foolish quarrel the night after Porter's acquittal: seeing the Lord Chancellor's coach trying to precede his, he jumped down and tried to physically restrain Porter's coachman. The Irish House of Lords next day rebuked the Commons over the affair. The Commons replied that the affair had been a misunderstanding, and that Rochfort, in the dark, had not recognised Porter (the streets of Dublin were in fact notoriously dark and badly lit in this era).^[2]

Later years

Meanwhile, Rochfort began to demonstrate Tory sympaties, from 1703 becoming identifiable as one of the government's leading parliamentary managers. He became Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1707. He remained in this position until 1714, when, on the death of Queen Anne of England, along with almost all his colleagues on the Bench, he was dismissed from office, simply on account of his politics. Rochfort now returned to his practice at the Irish Bar.

Rochfort died on 10 October 1727. His grandson, Robert Rochfort, son of George Rochfort and Lady Elizabeth Moore, was raised to the Irish peerage in 1737 as Baron Bellfield and made Earl of Belvedere in 1757.

References

1. ↑ C. I. McGrath, ‘Rochfort, Robert (1652–1727)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
2. ↑ O'Flanagan, J. Roderick Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland 2 Volumes London 1870