Richard Pennefather (judge)

Richard Pennefather (1773–1859) was an Irish judge, who enjoyed a high reputation for legal ability and integrity, and was praised in particular for his scrupulously impartial conduct of the politically sensitive Doneraile Conspiracy Trials of 1829. He was the elder brother of Edward Pennefather, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

He was the eldest son of William Pennefather of Knockeevan, or Darling Hill, County Tipperary, who was member of the Irish House of Commons for Cashel, and his wife Ellen Moore, daughter of Edward Moore, Archdeacon of Emly. They were a junior branch of the long-established Pennefather family of Newpark, County Tipperary.

He married in 1798 Jane Bennett of Cork, daughter of John Bennett, judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) and his wife Jane Lovett. Richard and Jane had eight children, of whom six reached adulthood and five, two sons and three daughters, survived their father. Their sons who reached adulthood were:

Their daughters were:

Pennefather employed the architect William Tinsley, later famous for his work in the United States, to rebuild Darling Hill.

He went to school in Portarlington, County Laois, and then in Clonmel, graduated from the University of Dublin in 1794 and entered Middle Temple in 1792. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1795, became King's Counsel in 1816 and was appointed a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) in 1821. He served on the Court for 38 years.

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