Islip (Islep, Istlep, de Istelep, Istlip), Walter (fl.
In March 1318, for his good service in Ireland, he was granted a deanery in the king's chapel of Wolverhampton. In January 1319 he received an indemnity for any improprieties he may have committed during the Scottish invasion. He was temporarily replaced as treasurer between 9 September 1321 and 29 April 1322, during the audit of his accounts at the English exchequer. In April 1322 he was made keeper of the lands in Ireland of Roger Damory, Hugh de Audley, and Hugh Despenser. The following year, concern in England over the state of the finances of the lordship of Ireland – particularly receipts from the Irish escheatry – led to a mandate to Islip to ensure that any custodies granted out at farm would be granted at their true value. In addition, no payments apart from ministers’ fees were to be made from the Irish exchequer without the advice and approval of the justiciar and chancellor of Ireland, and henceforth they were to inspect the records of the exchequer twice a year. In August 1323 Islip was ordered to use all the power and influence at his disposal to persuade Irish magnates of the threat posed by Roger Mortimer (qv) and to do everything he could to capture Mortimer. Following the long-postponed audit in late 1325 of Archbishop Alexander Bicknor's account for his time as treasurer (1308–14) and Bicknor's arrest for fraud and forgery, Islip too was arrested, charged as an accomplice, and imprisoned in the Fleet prison, London. It appears that following his collation to the valuable prebend of Swords by the archbishop, Islip agreed to append his seal to Bicknor's records prior to the audit. Removed as treasurer of Ireland on 20 January 1326, his lands and goods confiscated, Islip managed to extricate himself from prison by March the same year and was pardoned following the imposition of a fine of 500 marks, of which he was able to pay 300 marks. Further charges were levelled against him, however: he was accused of fraudulent payments during a campaign against the Scots in 1317, of concealing receipts from the liberty of Kilkenny while it was in his custody after the death of the earl of Gloucester in 1314, and of having received £500 from the confiscated liberty of Trim. Though the English exchequer pursued him with vigour for the residue of his fine, he managed to elicit sufficient sympathy from the Mortimer regime that his debts were temporarily pardoned and he was once more appointed escheator of Ireland on 15 July 1328. In 1334 he was pardoned once again for his part in Bicknor's attempted fraud, and in April the following year he was appointed, without effect, baron of the Irish exchequer. Thereafter he disappears from the records and died possibly before 1339.
During his career Islip managed to amass considerable wealth. He held a large number of prebends in England and Ireland and obtained papal dispensation as a pluralist in October 1324. In addition to his benefices he was in receipt of annual pensions from a number of religious houses and possessed a very valuable corrody from the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham.