Thomas de la Dale

Sir Thomas de la Dale (c.1317–1373) was an English-born judge and landowner who held the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

He was born at Little Barford, Bedfordshire, son of Thomas de la Dale, who married the heiress of Barford, Isabel de Leyham in 1316. In 1346 one "Thomas, son of Isabel" (who was almost certainly our Sir Thomas) is listed as the owner of Barford; he also inherited lands at Everton, Bedfordshire. In 1358 he was exempted from the usual feudal duties of a landowner.

He was sent to Ireland in 1361, in the entourage of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; he remained in Ireland, apart from a few short intervals, until 1369. He was made Lord Chief Justice in 1365, and was also described as "Governor"; he became Custos Rotulorum of Ireland in 1366. He died in 1373.

His son, also Sir Thomas de la Dale (died 1396), was a senior member of the household of Lionel's younger brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; he sometimes went by the alternative surname Fulthorpe, and was described as "a man of substance". Fulthorpe was succeeded by his son, yet another Thomas de la Dale. The de la Dales owned Barford until the male line of the family died out in the sixteenth century. The last of the Dales, Anne, married Alexander Fettiplace in 1537.

References

• Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926
• McFarlane, K.B. England in the Fifteenth Century-Collected Essays Hambleton Press London 1981
• Page, William History of the County of Bedfordshire 1908