Page:Chronicle of the law officers of Ireland.djvu/15

 lists of the Judges and Law Officers of the superior Courts, it is impossible in the limits of one volume to supply all the various information the subject would admit of.

The lists of appointments down to the accession of George the Third, have been selected from the repertory of Patentee Officers collected and arranged by Mr. Lodge, and first printed in the Liber Hiberniæ, but as no part of that work was ever published, they have remained almost unnoticed. The appointments from 1760 have been collected from the best and most authentic sources. These abstracts of patents contain the name of the individual appointed to the office; the succession, that is, in whose place or on what occasion the person was appointed; the date of the Sovereign's Letter or Privy Seal for the appointment; the date of the patent; the term for which the office was granted; the fee or salary annexed to the office, and some of the early patents contain entries of payments for offices previously filled by the individual; the year of the Sovereign's reign, and the roll or authority quoted for the appointment. The term of office was sometimes during life, sometimes during good behaviour, but oftener during the Sovereign's pleasure; in all cases the death of the Sovereign determined the commission. In the year 1782 this was altered by an act of the Irish parliament, which secured the independence of the Judges, and declared their commissions shall continue during good