Your correspondent H. T. Ellacombe asks who this Roger Outlawe was, and expresses his surprise that a prior of a religious house should "sit as locum tenens of a judge in a law court."
But the words "tenens locum Johannis Darcy le cosyn justiciarii Hiberniæ" do not imply that Outlawe sat as locum tenens of a judge in a law court. For this Sir John Darcy was Lord Justice, or Lord Lieutenant (as we would now say), of Ireland, and Roger Outlawe was his locum tenens.
Nothing, however, was more common at that period than for ecclesiastics to be judges in law courts; and it happens that this very Roger was Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1321 to 1325, and again, 1326—1330: again, 1333: again (a fourth time), 1335: and a fifth time in 1339: for even then, as now, we were cursed in Ireland by perpetual changes of administration and of law officers, so that we have scarcely had any uniform practice, and our respect for law has been proportionally small.
Sir John Darcy was Lord Justice, or Lord Lieutenant, in 1322, in 1324, in 1328 (in which year Roger Outlawe was his locum tenens during his absence), in 1322, and on to 1340.
Roger Outlawe was Lord Justice, either in his own right or as locum tenens for others, in 1328, 1330, and 1340, in which last year he died in office. His death is thus recorded in Clyn's Annals (edited by Dean Butler for the Irish Archæological Society), p. 29.:
"Item die Martis, in crastino beatæ Agathæ virginis, obiit frater Rogerus Outlawe, prior hospitalis in Hibernia, apud Any, tunc locum justiciarii tenens: et etiam Cancellarius Domini Regis, trium simul functus officio. Vir prudens et graciosus, qui multas possessiones, ecclesias, et redditus ordini suo adquisivit sua industria, et regis Angliæ gratia speciali et licentia."
To this day, in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lords Justices are appointed.
J. H. Todd.
Trin. Coll., Dublin.