Wood — -The Court of Castle Chamber or Star Chamber of Ireland. 167 



of Lord Dorchester on the subject, about the same time, which probably was 

 prompted by this " Brief Collection " and written for the King's perusal, he 

 stated that the reason so many causes were discontinued was the poverty of 

 the litigants ; that they were allowed to sue in forma pauperis, but were 

 wearied out by delays. " Others of ability," he wrote, " are discouraged by 

 the evil success of those that spend their whole estates in bringing some 

 causes to censure, whereby His Majesty may causualy get a fine, but the 

 plaintiff is awarded little or no damage, the ordinary course also being to 

 reduce to a third or fourth part bills of costs presented by a clerk of the 

 office not containing a tithe of the petitioner's expense. There is no means 

 of recovering these costs without spending three times their sum." He 

 added that wicked people often brought suits against the innocent to get 

 compositions from them, on which they dropped the suit. 1 In 1641 the 

 Committee of the Irish Parliament represented certain Irish grievances to 

 the King, and, amongst others, they recommended that " an Act should be 

 passed forbidding any juror to be bound to the Castle Chamber, or to be there 

 in any sort questioned, except corruption be proved against them. Jurors 

 shall not be compelled to respect the evidence of notoriously bad characters. 

 The proceedings of the Court of Castle Chamber should be agreeable to the 

 Statute 8 Henry VII, and no jurors should be proceeded against ore tenus, nor 

 bound over to appear or called into the Star Chamber upon any pretence 

 before the information be filed of Eecord. Only legal courses to be taken.'' 

 The answer returned to this complaint was that " the Court of Castle 

 Chamber shall be regulated on the English models." Indeed the frequency 

 with which we meet with orders that the Court in Ireland should be made to 

 conform in all respects with the Court in England shows that there was 

 considerable laxity in the administration of the Court in this country. 



Irish causes were tried not only in this Cour-t, but, when the King thought 

 fit, the parties were ordered to attend in the Star Chamber of England instead 

 of the Irish Court. This was especially so in the case against the London 

 Society for not properly carrying out the plantation. They were evicted from 

 their possessions by a decision of the Star Chamber in 1635, though they 

 recovered them later on in 1662. In 1630 Sir A. Savage and others were 

 summoned to appear in the Court of Star Chamber at the instance of the 

 Lord Deputy, Lord Parkland. This summons was issued by the Court itself ; 

 and it was contended that nobody in Ireland was bound to answer such a 

 summons except issued by the King himself. It was even maintained by some 

 that, as a Court of Castle Chamber had been erected in Ireland, even the King 



1 Cal. State Papers (Ireland), Add., 1625-60, p. 158. 



R.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXXII., SECT. C. [26] 



