Geoffrey de Turville

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Geoffrey de Turville (died 1250) was an English-born judge and churchman who spent much of his career in Ireland. He served as Bishop of Ossory and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and he was known for being a very efficient administrator. He came from Turville in Buckinghamshire; an earlier Geoffrey de Turville had held lands there as well. He is first recorded in Ireland in 1218, as part of the household of Henry de Loundres, the Archbishop of Dublin. He held the church living of Dungarvan from 1224, became Archdeacon of Dublin in 1227, and was made Bishop of Ossory in 1244. Because he was English-born, he was in high favour with the English Crown and opposed a plan to bar English clerics from canonries in Irish cathedrals; he probably helped secure papal condemnation of that plan.

As bishop in 1245, he won the right to hold an annual fair and a weekly market in Kilkenny, and he gained rights for another annual fair at Durrow, with a market every Thursday, plus similar privileges at Freshford. He also secured a water conduit from the monks of Kilkenny’s Black Abbey.

In administration, he was Chamberlain of the Exchequer (1230–32) and Treasurer of Ireland (1235–1250). He served as itinerant justice in 1230, deputy chancellor from 1232, and Lord Chancellor around 1237, having earlier served as Deputy Chancellor. He was Deputy Justiciar in 1245–46. Historians describe him as a learned and capable lawyer and credit him with developing the Irish Chancery as a government department independent of the English Chancery, with its own staff. As treasurer he began the practice of keeping Irish Exchequer accounts separate for audit by the English Exchequer and was the first Irish treasurer to receive a fixed salary; he also oversaw the minting of the Great Seal of Ireland.

Geoffrey de Turville died in London in October 1250 and was buried in Temple Church.