John Keppock

John Keppock (died 1404) was an Irish judge of the late fourteenth century,who held the offices of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

He was the son of Simon Keppock of Drumcashel, County Louth. The Keppock(or Cappock)family settled in Louth shortly after the Norman Conquest of Ireland and were closely associated with the town of Ardee; an earlier John Keppock of Ardee,who died in 1412 and was a leading figure in thattown'sgovernment,was probablya relative of the judge.

Keppock wasliving in England in 1352, andacted thereas counselfor the powerful Anglo-IrishCusack family.He returned to Irelanda few years later, and in 1356 hewas appointedKing's Serjeant in Ireland. In 1364 he became Lord Chief Baron of Ireland,and in 1367 Lord Chief Justice. In 1370 he stood down as Lord Chief Justice but remained an ordinary judge of the Bench . In 1372 he was reappointed Lord Chief Justice and acted as deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1375. In 1382 he once more stood down as Chief Justiceto become an ordinary judge of King's Bench. In 1373–4,together with two colleagues,Walter Cotterell and William de Karlell, he conducted a lengthy inquiry intothe right to treasure trovein County Wexford and County Waterford, which seems to have been expandedinto a general inquiryinto the Crown's rights in those two counties. The judges were alsograntedthe power to arrest ships.

Keppock married, sometimeafter 1358, the twice widowed Matilda Gernoun; her first husband had been William de Nottingham, son of Robert de Nottingham,who was several times Lord Mayor of Dublin, and her second husband was John Gernoun, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.Keppock and Matilda are not knownto have had any children. He died in 1404.