Sir Edmund Pelham was a member of the distinguished Pelham family of Laughton, East Sussex. He was a judge in Ireland who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and was noteworthy as the first judge to hold assizes in Ulster.

The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (judge) who presided over the Irish Court of Exchequer. This was a mirror of the equivalent court in England, and was one of the four courts which sat in the building in Dublin which is still called The Four Courts.