We do not know if Henry Chinnery Justice esq, barrister, 4 Ely Place, Dublin, in 1836, was ever created a judge, but if such did occur one can imagine amused grins on faces on his being addressed as Mr Justice Justice. This English surname is an occupational one "judge, officer of justice", and was in Ireland in the early 14th century. The Justiciary Rolls (1308-14) notes that in 1311, Richard Justice was among the jurors at three separate hearings in Louth regarding the theft of a horse, the theft of sheep, and the theft of wool and other items including a pair of military boots worth 6d.
A Census of Ireland c. 1659 notes John Justice, gent, as Titulado in Carrigmoilin, Ringrone, Co Cork, and William Justice a Titulado in Moybilly (now Moybella in the Co Kerry parish of Lisselton). There are three entries of this surname in the Phone Book of Northern Ireland, and of the 14 listed in the directories south of the Border, two are in the 06 area and four in the 02 Cork area, two of which are near Mallow. John Justice, Carrickmoit(?) (diocese of Cork and Ross), made his will in 1663; while in the diocese of Ardfert and Aghadoe Matthew Justice, gent, Moybella, made his in 1728, and Thomas Justice, Ballysimon and Mountgale, Co Kerry, made his in 1779. In 1778 Thomas Justice, formerly of Mallow, but of late of Mount Justice (Co Cork), made his will.
He bequeathed to his wife, on condition that she remained a widow, his interest in the lands of east and west Nockagarrane and the lands called Castle lands of Duarrigle. He had one son, Robert, and two daughters, Jane and Margaret. Witness to the seal was Thomas Holemes Justice, Duarrigle, in the Co Cork parish of Clonfert, was the 1814 residence of Thomas J. Justice, while among the subscribers to Lewis's 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland was Thomas H. Justice Esq, MD, Mallow, Co Cork.
The 1876 Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards shows John B. Justice, Knockagurrane, with 54 acres in the Co Cork parish of Cullen; Robert Justice with 59 acres at Kanturk, Co Cork; and John B.C. Justice, Woodside, Riverstown (either the parish of Templesque or that of Ballydeloher) in the vicinity of Cork city with 136 acres. Regarding the above Henry Chinnery Justice's middle name, it is noted that among those listed under "Parish Mallow, Baronies Fermoy and Duhallow" of the 1641 depositions were George Chimery jnr, of Mallow, gent, Stephen Chymery of Mallow, yeoman, and Steven Chinery, maltmaker.
One who was a justice by vocation rather than by name was John Cooke, chief justice of Munster in 1650, who had apparently sat in the High Commission Court in Athlone on July 6th, 1655. Here he apparently declined to be a judge of the restored upper bench because, as he said, by the ancient practice of that court a judge shall never help any man to his right. Cooke had been prosecutor at the trial of Charles I. And though English rule in Ireland was for centuries one of injustice, that injustice was carried out with meticulous concern for the law. Not so John Cooke.
He appears to have been "a man of clear and vigorous mind, sincerely desirous of justice, tender to the poor and the oppressed . . ." (Rawlinson Manuscripts in Anelecta Hibernica No. 1). "For me that had the Honour to be a judge to begin and end 6 or 700 causes in 2 or 3 Months, it would argue a mean and Bare Spirit in me to see Poor People insufferably opprest by old Customary Forms as formerly and to be silent." He instanced various cases to support his stance, adding that the present system enabled rich men to oppress the poor without remedy.
He relates the cases of five persons indicted, two for stealing a horse, two for stealing a cow, and a fifth for killing a bailiff that arrested him. Four were hanged and the murderer acquitted. "He escaped because the writ ran quod capiat Robartum instead of quod capiat Robertum, and the act was found manslaughter not murder; he then pleaded his clergy and got off. Cooke returned to his chief justiceship in Munster, and in 1659 accepted the post which he had declined in 1655. On the fall of the Commonwealth in 1660 he was arrested by the army officers in Dublin, and sent to London, where he was tried as a regicide, condemned and executed.
"The stream now called the Allow is a small river flowing into the Blackwater through Kanturk, ten or eleven miles from Mallow; but the Blackwater itself, for at least part of its course, was anciently called Allow; from this the district between Mallow and Kanturk was called Magh-Ealla, which ultimately settled down as the name of the town Mallow" (Irish Names of Places, P.W. Joyce 1869). Magh Ealla, "the plain of Ealla", now has the modernised spelling of Mala.