John de Sotheron

Sir John de Sotheron (died after 1398) was an English landowner, lawyer and judge, who served briefly as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.^[1]

He was the son of Thomas de Sotheron, Lord of the Manor of Great Mitton in Lancashire; Mitton had passed to the de Sotherons from the de Mitton family.^[2] He had inherited his father's lands before 1368, when he was involved in a dispute over the advowson of Mitton Church, and in February of that year was defendant in a claim for a debt of 40 shillings brought by William de Mirfeld.^[3] He is known to have been acting as an attorney at this time.^[4]

In 1377 he was pardoned for killing John de Holden. He lived in a violent age, where case of manslaughter, and even murder, among the ruling class were not uncommon, and a royal pardon was fairly easy to obtain; nor would the crime necessarily hinder one's career, as de Sotheron's own later life shows.^[5]

In 1384 he was sent to Ireland as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, but for some unexplained he reason took up office as the senior Chief Justice instead.^[6] He served for one year, returned to England, then came back to Ireland in 1386, apparently as an adviser to Sir John Stanley, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He remained in Ireland for several years, probably living at Dangan, County Meath. Ball states that his wife Joanna was kidnapped from Dangan Castle in 1392, but gives no further details of the episode.^[7]

He returned to England soon afterwards, was knighted, and retired to his estates in Lancashire.^[8] He married Joanna, daughter of Sir Simon Cusack, and had at least two surviving children. He was still living in 1397/8, when he and his son and heir Christopher were in dispute with Roger White and others as to the ownership of lands at Mitton.^[9] The estate passed to Christopher, whose descendants remained there for several generations. The surname was later spelt Sherburne.^[10]

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