Walter St. Lawrence

Who is Walter St. Lawrence?

Walter St. Lawrence was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, lawyer and judge. He held the offices of Attorney General for Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

He was one of the younger sons of Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth and Anne Plunket. His eldest brother Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth was born before 1435; if as Elrington Ball suggests Walter was the youngest of six sons this would suggest a birthdate around 1445.

His father had been a committed supporter of the House of York and had been rewarded for his loyal services to the dynasty by Edward IV, but his eldest brother married Joan Beaufort, a cousin of the future Henry VII, and after the accession of the Tudors the St Lawrence family were reliable supporters of the new dynasty. Walter's nephew Nicholas St Lawrence, 4th Baron Howth was one of the few among the Anglo-Irish nobility who did not support the claims of the pretender Lambert Simnel to be the rightful King of England, and after the defeat of Simnel's cause at the Battle of Stoke in 1487, the family's rewards included Walter's appointment as Attorney General in 1491.