Sir John Morice was an English-born statesman of the fourteenth-century whose career was mainly spent in Ireland. He is remembered chiefly for his enthusiastic, if not very successful, efforts to reform the Irish administration.
As Justiciar he was charged with implementing an ambitious programme of reform, which was prompted by numerous complaints about maladministration by Crown officials in Ireland. It involved a thorough inquiry into all aspects of the Crown administration, investigating allegations of official corruption, abolition of unnecessary Crown offices, the wholesale replacement of Irish civil servants by men whoheld lands in England, immediate collection of all Crown debts and resumption of all grants of Crown lands since 1307 . The programme has been described as "wholly unrealistic and largely impractical " and it does not seem that Morice made any real effort to implement it. His appointment has been described as a mistake which would not have been made in normal times: despite his long record of service to the Crown, he was very much a man of the second rank, who lacked influential family connections, or any outstanding talent.
Military campaigns
His lack of military ability, a necessary skill for any Justiciar ay that time, was the cause of much harsh comment from the Anglo-Irish nobility. Nonetheless, he undertook a number of military campaigns against Irish clans who threatened the peace of the Pale in County Meath, and against the MacMurrough-Kavanagh dynasty, Kings of Leinster. There was also trouble with the Anglo-Irish nobility: Sir Risteárd de Tuit was arrested on suspicion of treason. A far more powerful enemy, Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond, was also imprisoned and his lands forfeited: Morice was appointed seneschal of these lands. Desmond was eventually pardoned and recovered his lands. In 1346 Morice as Deputy Justiciar arranged the release of Maurice FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Kildare, who had been imprisoned on suspicion of conspiracy with Desmond.
Recall
Despite the good intentions with which he came to Ireland, his brief tenure as Chancellor was clearly not a success: one historian has called him a second ratecivil servant who should never have been given high office. A plaintive letter written by him survives, complaining of disturbances of the peace, the high price of corn and the public's hostility to him, and asking if he was entitled to act as Chancellor at all, since his warrant of appointment had not arrived. He returned to England in 1349 and died there in 1362.
