Hugh de Cressy

Hugh Cressy, or de Cressy (c. 1570–1643) was an English-born judge in seventeenth-century Ireland. He is best remembered as the father of Serenus de Cressy (born Hugh Paulinus de Cressy), the noted Benedictine scholar and royal chaplain. In his last years, the judge was threatened with impeachment, on the grounds of his supposed leniency towards Irish Catholics. He came from an old Nottinghamshire family which settled in Yorkshire. He was probably born in Wakefield, and later lived in Thorpe Salvin, where his son was born. He entered Furnivall's Inn in 1590, proceeded to Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1598. In 1605 he was appointed Reader of Furnivall's Inn, but his first performance as Reader was a disastrous failure "to the great discredit of Lincoln's Inn". The Benchers of Lincoln's Inn were so angry at the humiliation (Furnivall's being affiliated to Lincoln's) that they fined him £10 and expelled him. However, after a number of years, his fault was forgiven: he was readmitted to the Inn, became a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1614, and Treasurer in 1629. A Judge in Ireland