John de Ponz

John de Ponz, also called John de Ponte, John Savan, or John of Bridgwater (c.1248–1307) was an English-born administrator, lawyer and judge in the reign of King Edward I. He served in the Royal Household in England for several years before moving to Ireland, where he practised in the Royal Courts as the King's Serjeant-at-law (Ireland). He later served as a justice in eyre (itinerant justice), and then as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). He was a gifted lawyer, but as a judge was accused of acting unjustly. A case he heard in Kilkenny in 1302 can be seen as a precursor of the Kilkenny Witchcraft Trials of 1324, and involved several of the main actors in the Trials.