John Alan

Sir John Alan, or Alen (c.1500–1561) was a leading statesman in sixteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Irish House of Commons, and held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Though he was childless himself, his relatives founded a prominent landowning dynasty in County Kildare (as well as holding substantial lands in County Dublin) and acquired a baronetcy.

Family

He was born at Coltishall in Norfolk, son of Thomas Alen. The Alens were a numerous family and five of his brothers, of whom we know most about William and Thomas, also settled in Ireland. John Alen, Archbishop of Dublin, who was murdered in the Silken Thomas rebellion, was a close relative, probably an uncle or first cousin of the judge.

Early career

Alen studied law at Gray's Inn, and entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey who sent him to Ireland in 1528 to promote the Cardinal's authority as legate and to act as secretary to his cousin the Archbishop, with whom Wolsey had quarrelled. Neither Wolsey's downfall nor the retirement of the Archbishop from the Lord Chancellorship harmed Alen's career: he became clerk to the Irish Parliament, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland (an office which he held for life) and in 1533 Master of the Rolls in Ireland. The latter office at that time was administrative rather than judicial in nature: to be a qualified lawyer, like Alen himself, was desirable but not essential, and at least two sixteenth-century Masters were non-lawwyers.