William Caulfeild

Who was William Caulfeild?

William Caulfeild was an Irish lawyer and judge.

He sat in the Irish House of Commons for Tulsk and was later raised to the bench as justice of the Court of King's Bench 1715-1734.

He was son of Thomas Caulfeild of Donamon Castle and Anne Moore, and grandson of William Caulfeild, 2nd Baron Charlemont and Charles Moore, 2nd Viscount Moore. As a wealthy landowner he did not have to earn a living and was not called to the Irish Bar until he was forty, having previously entered Middle Temple. He became Second Serjeant in 1708, resigning in 1711, and was appointed Prime Serjeant in 1714. As law officer he was noted for his zeal in dealing with agrarian disturbances.

Ball states that he owed his advancement to his Whig sympathies, but he seems to have been conscientious enough. As Ball also notes he and his King's Bench colleagues dealt with all indictable crimes in Dublin city and county, and the late 1720s and early 1730s were noted for a number of much publicised trials, such as that of the surgeon John Audoen, convicted and executed for the murder of his maid Margaret Keeffe in 1728, and the trial of Daniel Kimberley, attorney, charged with forcing a wealthy twelve-year- old girl, Bridget Reading into marriage with one of his clients in 1730. In 1719 while on assize he narrowly escaped death when Roscommon Courthouse collapsed, with the loss of many lives.