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The Recorder of Kinsale was a judicial office-holder in pre-independence Ireland. He was the chief magistrate of the town of Kinsale. Given the population of the town, which was rarely more than 7000, the need for a full-time judge may be questioned. However Kinsale has been a chartered town since 1334, and the charter granted by Elizabeth 1 in 1589 explicitly provided for the office of Recorder, as did that granted to Clonakilty by James I in 1613. The first Recorder of Kinsale whose name is definitely known is Robert Slighe, who served in that office between approximately 1601 and 1615.
Like other Irish Recorders the Recorder of Kinsale was not a Crown appointment, but was elected by Kinsale Corporation, also known as the Court of the Hundred.
In addition to presiding at criminal trials, the Reorder was charged with keeping the peace. Henry Bathurst, in the 1650s, was much occupied with curbing the supposed threat to public order posed by the large Quakers community in County Cork, and was accused, perhaps unfairly, of being a "great persecutor" of that denomination.
Given the size of the town, the Recorder's duties were not especially onerous, and were often be combined with another Government post. Henry Bathurst was also Recorder of Cork, and Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, was also Recorder of Clonakilty from 1675: he later went on to hold high judicial office, notably as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. William Rowley, the elder brotherof Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, who was Recorder from 1796 to 1812, combined that position with the office of Commissioner of Customs for Kinsale, and also sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Kinsale.