The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the office was sometimes called the Chancellor of the Green Wax. In the early centuries, the Chancellor was often a highly educated cleric with knowledge of Finance. In later centuries, when sessions of Parliament had become regular, the Chancellor was invariably an MP in the Irish House of Commons. Walter de Kenley (died 1308), Chancellor from 1292 until his death, was both a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) and a distinguished military commander who gave good service against the Gaelic clans of County Wicklow.
The office was separate from the judicial role of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer of Ireland, although in the early centuries, the two offices were often held by the same person; on other occasions, the Chancellor was second Baron of the Exchequer. The first Chancellor appears to have been Thomas de Chaddesworth, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, in 1270. Like de Kenley, he was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland), not the Court of Exchequer.
Although the Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1801 under the Acts of Union 1800 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Exchequer of Ireland did not merge with the Exchequer of Great Britain until 1817. The last separate Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was William Vesey-FitzGerald.
