Nicholas Kerdiffe

Nicholas Kerdiffe (died 1609) was an Irish barrister and Law Officer of the early seventeenth century.

He waa born in County Dublin: his family owned lands at Dunsink, Castleknock. His family name is a version of Cardiff, and as the latter form of the name suggests they were of Welsh origin. James Kerdiffe of Dunsink, whose daughter Eleanor married James Barry, Nicholas's father-in-law, as his third wife before 1595, was almost certainly a close relative of Nicholas.

He entered Middle Temple in 1594 and was called to the English Bar in 1600. He became Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) in 1601, with a salary of £27 6 shillings per annum. Since the Serjeant was until the 1660s the senior Law Officer, ranking ahead of the Attorney General for Ireland, Kerdiffe, a relatively young and inexperienced man, seems a surprising choice for such an important office. Hart suggests that he was completely overshadowed by the Attorney General, Sir John Davis, one of the most formidable political figures in early seventeenth-century Ireland.

Nonetheless the Serjeant still had an important part to play in the administration of justice. In particular, since the expansion of the assize system in the early 1600s meant that the judges of the courts of common law could not cope with the workload, the Serjeant acted as an extra judge of assize. Kerdiffe performed this task diligently enough, going on assize seven times in eight years. Assize work was onerous and time consuming, but this was compensated for by a generous extra allowance. In 1605 he was one of several commissioners appointed to inquire into title to land forfeited during the rebellions of the previous reign.

Kerdiffe died early in 1609. He married Margaret Barry, daughter of James Barry and his first wife Catherine Burn. Her father's third wife, Eleanor Kerdiffe of Dunsink, was almost certainly a relative and possibly a sister of Nicholas. The Barrys were one of Dublin's leading merchant families and were later ennobled with the title Baron Barry of Santry. After Kerdiffe's death she remarried Robert Ball.

Sources

• Hart, A.R. History of the King's serjeants at law in Ireland Dublin Four Courts Press 2000
• Mac Lysaght, Edward The Surnames of Ireland Irish University Press 1973
• Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh Burke's Irish Family Records London 1976
• Smyth, Constantine Joseph Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland Butterworths London 1838