Geoffrey de Turville

Who is Geoffrey de Turville?

Geoffrey de Turville was an English-born cleric who was Bishop of Ossory and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

He was probably a native of Turville in Buckinghamshire. He is first heard of in Ireland in 1218 in the entourage of Henry de Loundres, Archbishop of Dublin. He held a variety of clerical offices before becoming Bishop of Ossory in 1244; he also held a number of administrative posts: most notably he was Treasurer of Ireland 1235-50 and he was also Lord Chancellor of Ireland around 1237. Elrington Ball praises him as a highly trained and able lawyer. Otway-Ruthven credits him as the Lord Chancellor who actually developed the Irish Chancery as a Government Department independent of the English Chancery with its own staff and Great Seal.

He died in London in October 1250.