 He was advanced to the rank of 1st Viscount Midleton in 1717.The most celebrated lawsuit heard in Midleton's time as Lord Chancellor was "Sherlock v Annesley"; although on the face of it this was an unremarkable dispute between cousins over possession of lands in Kildare, it raised the sensitive question as to whether the Irish or British House of Lords was the final court of appeal from Ireland, and ultimately put an effective end to the independence of the Irish Parliament until 1782.The parties ended up with conflicting orders from the two Houses entitling each of them to be put in possession; when the Barons of the Court of Exchequer enforced the decree of the British House, the Irish House committed them to prison for contempt.