6th GG Sir William Brabazon and Elizabeth de Clifford
From the marriage of Sir William Brabazon and Elizabeth de Clifford there were:
Sir William Brabazon 1548
Sir Edward Brabazon (1st Lord Ardee) 1549 – 1625
Sir Anthony Clifford Brabazon 1550 - 1636
Elizabeth Brabazon 1647
Ursula Brabazon 1625
Sir Edward Brabazon married Mary Smythe. Her father was Edward Thomas Smythe who died 1576. He was the Clerk of the Green Cloth to Queen Elizabeth I, and her mother was Eleanor Hessilrigge. After the death of Sir Edward she married Bartholomew Clerke.
Prior to her marriage to Bartholomew Clerke, the testatrix had been the wife of Thomas Smythe (d.1576), esquire, of Mitcham, Surrey, Clerk of the Green Cloth. In his will, Thomas Smythe names three sons, George Smythe, Edmund Smythe and Edward Smythe, and three daughters, Mary Smythe (wife of Edward Brabazon), Eleanor Smythe and Mary Smythe the younger, as well as a ‘daughter-in-law, Macklyn Selye’.
Item, I give to my daughter, Mary Smithe, for the better preferment in marriage with her to make her portion already bequeathed her five hundred pounds;
See his will, TNA PROB 11 58/306; and Jewitt, Llewellynn, ed., The Reliquary, (London: Bemrose and Sons, 1877-8), Vol. XVIII, pp. 141-2 at:
[2]https://books.google.ca/books?id=NJo1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=%2 2Edward+Bellingham%22+%22Clerke%22&source=bl&ots=8juBD5yLSv&sig=wE7SV bumzMuhWnhQvUJd2kuR5xc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7hJKlmYrMAhVI6GMK HavuDOQQ6AEIQjAJ#v=onepage&q=%22Edward%20Bellingham%22%20%22Clerke %22&f=false. For Edward Brabazon, see:
http://www.termonfeckinhistory.ie/the_brabazons_of_rath_36.html.
http://www.termonfeckinhistory.ie/the_brabazons_of_rath_36.html.
Sir William Brabazon (died 1552), was an English born soldier and statesman in Ireland. He held office as Vice-Treasurer of Ireland and Lord Justice of Ireland. His descendants still hold the title Earl of Meath.
Brabazon was descended from the family of Roger le Brabazon, and was the son of John Brabazon of Eastwell, Leicestershire; his mother was a Miss Chaworth. His grandfather, John Brabazon the elder, had been killed at the Battle of Bosworth.
After succeeding to his father's estates, he came to Court. He was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, where he gained royal favour through his skill in jousting. He was knighted on 20 Aug. 1534, and appointed Vice-Treasurer and General Receiver of Ireland. He sat in the Irish House of Commons in the Parliament of 1536-7.
In a letter from the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Gerald Aylmer to Thomas Cromwell in August 1535 he was described as 'the man that prevented the total ruin and desolation of the kingdom.' In 1536 he and John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimlestown beat back an assault by the O'Connor clan on Carbury by burning several villages in Offaly and carrying away great spoil. The next year he made so effective a speech in support of establishing the King's authority in opposition to that of the Pope that he persuaded the Parliament of Ireland to pass the two requisite Acts, the Act of Appeals 1537 and the Act Authorising the King, his Heirs and Successors to be Supreme Head of the Church of Ireland 1537. As a result of this, many religious houses were in 1539 surrendered to King Henry VIII. Brabazon himself was granted the lands of the Abbey of St Thomas, between present day Thomas Street in Dublin and the River Liffey: here he built his town house Thomas Court. The Abbey's lands included Kilruddery, which later became, and remains, the family's principal seat.
Kilruddery House, home of Brabazon's descendants, the Earls of Meath, present day
For his good services to the Crown he was, on 1 October 1543, constituted Lord Justice of Ireland, and he was again appointed to the same office on 1 April 1546. In the same year he drove Patrick O'More and Brian O'Connor from Kildare. In April 1547 he was elected a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. In the spring of 1548 he assisted the Lord Deputy of Ireland in subduing a rebellion raised in Kildare by the sons of Thomas Eustace, 1st Viscount Baltinglass. He was for the third time made Lord Justice on 2 Feb. 1549. In August 1550, with the aid of 8,000l. and 400 men from England, he subdued Cahir mac Art Kavanagh, head of the powerful MacMurrough-Kavanagh dynasty and the dominant Gaelic magnate in Leinster. Cahir, after making submission and renouncing his Irish title The MacMurrough, received a royal pardon, and the new title Baron of Ballyann.
Death
Brabazon died, while on military service, on 9 July 1552 (as is proved by the inquisitions taken in the year of his death), not in 1548 as recorded on his tombstone. His heart was buried with his ancestors at Eastwell, and his body in the chancel of St. Catherine's Church, Dublin.
Reputation
Throughout his career serious charges of corruption (in other words corruption beyond the level which the relatively lax Tudor dynasty was prepared to tolerate in its officials) were levelled against him: it was claimed that he had used the office of Vice-Treasurer to enrich himself at the Crown's expense. The Crown took the charges seriously enough to hold a full audit of his accounts in 1540-1, but no conclusive proof of wrongdoing was uncovered.
Family
By his wife Elizabeth Clifford, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Nicholas Clifford of Holme, Kent, and his wife Mary Harper, sister of Sir George Harper, he left two sons and two daughters, Anne, and Elizabeth, who married Sir Henry Duke of Castlejordan. His eldest son, Edward, was made a Baron in 1616, while his paternal grandson was William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath. His younger son Anthony founded another branch of the family whose main seat was at Ballinasloe Castle, County Galway.
Elizabeth, despite her apparent lack of Irish connections, chose to remain in Ireland after his death. She outlived William by many years (dying in 1581), and remarried no less than three times. Her children by her later marriages included the distinguished soldier Sir William Warren, and Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore.
Elizabeth married Captain Humphrey Warren
Their son was
Sir William Warren (c.1558-1602) was an Irish landowner, statesman and soldier of the late sixteenth century. He is mainly remembered now for having facilitated the much-discussed marriage of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and his third wife Mabel Bagenal, which took place at Warren's home, Drumcondra Castle, in 1591
Warren was the son of Captain Humphrey Warren (died 1561) and Elizabeth Clifford (died 1581). His father, a professional soldier of English birth, had come to Ireland in the service of the English Crown in about 1550 and enjoyed the confidence of three successive monarchs.
Humphrey was a close associate of Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, Lord Deputy of Ireland 1556-1558, and he sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Carrickfergus in the Parliament of 1559.
His marriage was a most advantageous one. Elizabeth Clifford was the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Nicholas Clifford of Sutton Valence and Bobbing in Kent, and his wife Mary Harper: she was the widow of Sir William Brabazon, the Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and of Christopher Blount, a cousin of Baron Mountjoy. After Humphrey's death she made a fourth marriage to Sir Edward Moore. William was thus born into the heart of the Anglo-Irish ruling class: he was a half-brother of Edward Brabazon, 1st Baron Ardee, and of Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore.
His grandmother Mary Harper was the sister of Sir George Harper, a politician of some importance in the reign of Henry VIII, to whom the Harper family had a distant connection by marriage through his fifth Queen Catherine Howard. Another powerful connection was Sir Conyers Clifford, Lord President of Connaught (died 1599), who was William's second cousin on his mother's side.
 |
| Adam Loftus |
Through this marriage he acquired for his lifetime possession of very substantial lands in County Dublin, and of Drumcondra Castle.
His wife's open adherence to the Roman Catholic faith caused him some trouble politically. At a time when Irish office holders were required to take the Oath of Supremacy, recognising Elizabeth I as head of the Church of Ireland, Warren was suspected, probably with good reason, of privately sharing his wife's religious beliefs.
Of her first husband's children, two became Catholic priests, which inevitably raised questions about the nature of the religious upbringing they had received at home, especially as their father John Bathe had also been an open Catholic. There are numerous references in the Calendar of State Papers to Lady Warren's reception of Catholic priests at Drumcondra Castle, and the Crown kept a discreet eye on her activities even after Warren's death
Nicholas De Clifford is a direct descendant of Sir Robert de Clifford
Robert de Clifford, 3rd Baron de Clifford, also 3rd Lord of Skipton (5 November 1305–20 May 1344) was a member of the Clifford family which held the seat of Skipton from 1310 to 1676. He was the second son of Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford and Maud de Clare, eldest daughter of Thomas de Clare, Lord of Thomond and Juliana FitzGerald. His title was restored to him in 1327 after being forfeited by his elder brother Roger de Clifford, 2nd Baron de Clifford who was hanged for treason.
He married Isabel de Berkeley, daughter of Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley at Berkeley Castle in 1328. They had 7 children. He was succeeded as Baron De Clifford by the eldest, Robert de Clifford, 4th Baron de Clifford
5th GG Sir Edward Brabazon 1st Lord Ardee and Mary Smythe
Sir Edward Brabazon married Mary Smythe, the daughter of Thomas Smythe Esq. of Surrey, Clerk of the Green Cloth to Elizabeth I and his wife Eleanor Hazelrigg, and together they had at least six children. His eldest son predeceased him and his second son, William, was made Earl of Meath in 1627.
A younger son Anthony settled in County Louth and founded a junior branch of the family.
He had at least three daughters (there are thought to have been others who died young):
Elizabeth (died 1647) who married as his second wife George Montgomery, Bishop of Meath. After his death she. remarried Sir John Brereton, the King's Serjeant-at-law (Ireland). Finally in 1631 she married her early sweetheart, Sir John Bramston, the Lord Chief Justice. Her father when they were young had forbidden them to marry but her brother in later life evidently approved of the match, which was celebrated at at Kilruderry. Her stepchildren were rather perturbed to learn that their father had cherished a lifelong romantic attachment to Elizabeth, whom they described as being a small, fat, red faced, middle-aged woman, but they quickly came to appreciate her many virtues.
Susannah (died before 1628) who married Luke Plunkett, 1st Earl of Fingall and had issue.
Ursula (died1625) who married James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Clandeboye; they divorced c.1615.
4th GG Sir William Brabazon and Jane Bingley
The children were
Sir William Brabazon 1579 – 1651 m Jane Bingley 1586 – 1644 (Barbara Brabazon’s Lineage)
The children were Sir Edward Brabazon 1609 -1675 and Catherine Brabazon
She was the daughter of Sir John Bingley and Ann Henshaw d 1615
William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath (c.1580 - 18 December 1651) was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Brabazon was descended from an English family that was seated in Leicestershire from the reign of the Henry III, and came to Ireland in the 1530s. He was the second but eldest surviving son of Edward Brabazon and Mary Smythe, daughter of Thomas Smythe, Clerk of the Green Cloth. His father had been created Baron Ardee in 1616. His grandfather, also William Brabazon, had served as Vice-Treasurer of Ireland for 23 years and the family owned large estates there.
Brabazon was knighted in 1604 by James I. On 7 August 1625 he succeeded his father as Baron Ardee.[3] He was made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1627 and held various appointments in the government of Ireland. He also served as Custos Rotulorum of County Dublin.
On 16 April 1627 he was created Earl of Meath in the Peerage of Ireland, with remainder in default of male heirs to his brother Sir Anthony Brabazon and his male heirs. In 1631 at Kilruddery House (which is still the family home) he hosted the marriage of his widowed sister Elizabeth to Sir John Bramston, the Lord Chief Justice (a marriage which their father had forbidden many years earlier, but of which her brother evidently approved). In 1644, at the height of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Brabazon was sent by the Irish Parliament to the Royalist court at Oxford to consult with Charles I. He was subsequently taken prisoner by the Parliamentarians and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 11 months.
He married Jane Bingley (died 1644), the daughter of Sir John Bingley MP, Comptroller of the Musters and Cheques, and his first wife Anne Henshaw, and together they had one son, Edward. Edward succeeded his father in his titles in 1651
Sir John Bingley (c.1572–1638) was an English politician and Crown official, who spent much of his career in Ireland. He was Chief Secretary to Sir George Carey as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1603 to 1605. He later served as Member of the Parliament of England for Chester from 1610 to 1611 and again in the Addled Parliament of 1614.
He became a senior official in the English Exchequer, but his career was ruined by the Suffolk corruption scandal of 1618, which led to his being fined and imprisoned. In time he was restored to some measure of royal favour, and returned to Ireland, where he became a trusted Crown servant
He was born in Chester, second son of John Bingley, and was educated at Gray's Inn. During his years in Ireland he held several lucrative offices and is said to have amassed a fortune.
He returned to England about 1608, and was knighted. In addition to his career in Parliament, where he seems to have made little impression, he obtained the lucrative office of Writer of the Tallies at the Exchequer. He held this office until 1618, when his career was destroyed by the downfall of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, the Lord High Treasurer. Suffolk, his wife Katherine Knyvett and Bingley have been described as treating the Exchequer as "their private bank account". The allegations of corruption, bribery and maladministration were numerous and detailed, and there is little doubt that all three were guilty as charged. After a trial in Star Chamber, Bingley was found guilty, imprisoned and fined. The prosecution proposed a colossal fine of £100,000, but the actual fine imposed was £30,000. He was soon released from prison, but was much troubled by lawsuits from those he had defrauded, who included members of his own family like his brother-in-law Benjamin Henshaw.
In time he regained a measure of royal favour, and in about 1625 he was sent back to Ireland, where it was considered that his earlier experience of Irish affairs would be useful to the Government. He was appointed Comptroller of the Musters and Cheques for Ireand, and seems to have served the Crown responsibly: certainly there were no further complaints against him of corruption or bribery. He died in Dublin in 1638.
He married firstly Anne Henshaw, daughter of Thomas Henshaw of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, and secondly Elizabeth Nevill, daughter of Edward Nevill, 8th Baron Bergavenny and Rachel Lennard, and widow of Sir John Grey.
His will has not survived, but it appears that the bulk of his property passed to Jane, his only daughter by Anne Henshaw, who married William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath. She died in 1644, leaving a son Edward, who succeeded to his father's title.
Ann Bingley was buried in Westminster Abbey on 17th May 1615 but the location of her grave is not recorded in the burial register. She was a daughter of Thomas Henshaw, citizen and Merchant Taylor of London (called in one pedigree silkman and servant to King James, who died in 1612) and Flower, daughter of John Goldsborough of Yorkshire. Her husband Sir John Bingley (died 1638 in Dublin) was a Member of Parliament for Chester and Remembrancer of the Exchequer who was convicted in the Court of the Star Chamber of extortion in office and imprisoned (together with the Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer). They lived near the House of Commons. This may be the same Sir John Bingley who erected the monument to Sir Richard Bingham in the Abbey.
Anthony Brabazon 1583 – 1636 who married Margart Hovenden 1595 – 1666
She was the daughter of Rev Christopher Hovenden 1569 – 1610 and Margery Powys c 1569
Anthony studied at Queens’ College, and matriculated BA in 1613. He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn December 1st 1614, and knighted 1626[1].
Their children were
Edward Brabazon 1617 – 1666 m Rose Lambart
Captain James Brabazon 1619 – 1676 (murdered) m Alice Bates 1623 -
Ann Brabazon 1621 – 1671 m William Arlis 1621 – 1642
Catherine Brabazon 1625 – 1671
Magdeline Brabazon 1627 – 1671
Margaret Brabazon 1629
Susannah Brabaon 1590 – 1625 who married Lucas Plunket 1589 – 1637 Earl of Fingall
Lucas More Plunket of Killeen, County Meath (born before 1602, died 29 March 1637), styled Lucas Môr, tenth lord Killeen, created Earl of Fingall on 26 September 1628, was an Irish peer.
Plunket was the elder son of Christopher Plunket, 9th Baron Killeen, and Jenet, daughter of Sir Lucas Dillon. He succeeded to the barony in January 1613.
Plunket was created Earl of Fingall by King's letter of 26 September 1628,"on account of the good testimony which the King had received as to his honour and virtue, and for the encouragement of his continuance in such courses". He was granted 2,400 acres in County Cavan; he was one of the founders of the town of Virginia, County Cavan. He sat on the Irish House of Lords Committee for Privileges.
Plunket married first Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare and Lady Frances Howard. She died, probably of bubonic plague, in 1611. Lady Frances Howard was the daughter of Charles Howard 1st Lord Nottingham, 1536 – 1624 and Catherine Carey 1547 - 1603
Plunket married secondly Susannah, daughter of Edward Brabazon, 1st Baron Ardee and Mary Smythe. They had two sons Christopher, who succeeded as 2nd Earl, and George, from whom later Earls of Fingall were descended; and a daughter, Eleanor, who married Andrew Nugent.
Plunket married thirdly Eleanor, daughter of Dudley Bagenal and Mabel FitzGerald, and widow of Sir Thomas Colclough of Tintern Abbey, County Wexford. She died in 1632.
He married fourthly Margaret, daughter of Nicholas St Lawrence, 9th Baron Howth and his second wife Mary White, and widow of Jenico Preston, 5th Viscount Gormanston
Susannah Brabazon and Lucas Plunkett’s children were
Christopher Plunkett Earl of Fingal 1612 – 1649
Eleanor Plunkett 1614
George Plunkett 1615 – 1681 m Cecily Hill
Christopher Plunket, 2nd Earl of Fingall (died August 1649) was an Irish peer, politician and soldier. He sat in the Parliament of Ireland from 1639 until 1641. After the start of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 he was declared an outlaw, became a member of the Confederation of Kilkenny and was appointed general of the horse for the county of Meath. Towards the end of the war he fought on the Royalist side and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Rathmines, dying two weeks later in Dublin Castle.
Plunket was the eldest son of Lucas Plunket, styled Lucas Môr, 10th lord Killeen, created Earl of Fingall on 26 September 1628, by his second wife, Susanna, fifth daughter of Edward Brabazon, 1st Baron Ardee. His father died in 1637, and on 20 March that year Plunket received special livery of his estates. he inherited great estates in County Meath and County Cavan, and played a part in developing the town of Virginia, County Cavan.
He took his seat in the Irish Parliament on 16 March 1639, and was a member of several committees for privileges and grievances. On the outbreak of the Rebellion in October 1641, he endeavoured, like the nobility and gentry of the Pale generally, to maintain an attitude of neutrality between the government and the northern party, and on 16 November was appointed a commissioner to confer with all persons in arms, "with a view to suspend for some time the sad effects of licentiousness and rapine, until the kingdom was put in a better posture of defence".
His behaviour caused him to be mistrusted by government, and on 17 November he was proclaimed an outlaw. He thereupon took a prominent part in bringing about an alliance between the Ulster party and the nobility and gentry of the Pale. He was present at the meeting at the Hill of Crofty, and subsequently at that at the Hill of Tara, where he was appointed general of the horse for the county of Meath. His name is attached to the principal documents drawn up by the Irish Confederates in justification of their taking up arms. He was a member of the general assembly of the Confederation of Kilkenny, and, by taking the oath of association against the papal nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini in June 1648, proved his fidelity to the original demands of the confederates; but otherwise he played an inconspicuous part in the history of the rebellion. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Rathmines on 2 August 1649, died in confinement in Dublin Castle a fortnight later, and was buried in St Catherine's Church on 18 August. He was seven times indicted for high treason, and his estates were confiscated by the English Commonwealth's Act for the Settlement of Ireland on 12 August 1652.
Plunket married Mabel, daughter of Nicholas Barnewall, 1st viscount Kingsland and Lady Bridget FitzGerald, who survived him (by 50 years) and married, in 1653, Colonel James Barnewall, youngest son of Sir Patrick Barnewall.
Plunket's eldest son and heir, Luke, 3rd Earl of Fingall, was restored to his estates and honours by order of the court of claims in 1662. His daughter Mary married Walter Butler, (1650 – 1700) nephew of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde: they were the grandparents of John Butler, 15th Earl of Ormond
Walter was the son of
Lt.-Gen. Hon. Richard Butler of Kilcash Castle, County Tipperary, Ireland, was the son of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles and Elizabeth Poyntz. Richard occupied the family estate of Kilcash Castle, while his father resided at Thurles Castle, both in County Tipperary.
Married Lady Frances Tuchet, b.1617, youngest daughter of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, and his 1st wife, Elizabeth Barnham.
Married Lady Frances Tuchet, b.1617, youngest daughter of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, and his 1st wife, Elizabeth Barnham.
Adam Loftus (c. 1533 – 5 April 1605) was Archbishop of Armagh, and later Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1581. He was also the first Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Adam Loftus was born in 1533, the second son of a monastic bailiff, Edward Loftus, in the heart of the English Yorkshire Dales. Edward died when Loftus was only eight years old, leaving his estates to his elder brother Robert Loftus. Edward Loftus had made his living through the Catholic Church, but the son embraced the Protestant faith early in his development. He was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he reportedly attracted the notice of the young Queen Elizabeth, as much by his physique as through the power of his intellect, having shone before her in oratory. This encounter may never have happened, but Loftus certainly met with the Queen more than once, and she became his patron for the rest of her reign. At Cambridge Loftus took holy orders as a Catholic priest and was appointed rector of Outwell St Clement in Norfolk. He came to the attention of the Catholic Queen Mary (1553–58), who named him vicar of Gedney, Lincolnshire. On Elizabeth's accession in 1558 he declared himself Anglican.
The Loftus family took their name from Lofthouse in Yorkshire, and at least one branch of the family dates back to 1273. But, despite later claims to grandeur, Adam's ancestry can be traced with certainty only to his father, Edward Loftus, a monastic bailiff in the Yorkshire Dales. Adam was born in 1533, and he and his elder brother, Robert Loftus, who followed him to Ireland, were the ancestors of a family that was among the most influential in Irish politics.
His son was
Sir Dudley Loftus (1561-1616) was an Irish landowner and politician of the 16th and early seventeenth century.
Loftus was born in Rathfarnham, County Dublin in 1561. He was the eldest son of Adam Loftus, the Archbishop of Dublin. As well as his duties in the Church of Ireland he was one of the most powerful political figures in late Tudor Ireland who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
He was married to Anne Bagenal the youngest daughter of Sir Nicholas Bagenal a leading figure of southern Ulster who had developed the town of Newry. It was a dynastic union between two powerful Anglo-Irish families, which produced five children. He died in Dublin in January 1616. His wife later remarried Lord Sarsfield.
His family had great influence in County Wexford, which continued to the next generation when two of his sons Sir Adam Loftus and Nicholas Loftus were elected to the 1640 Parliament of Ireland. A grandson, Arthur Loftus, was also elected out of Wexford that years
He was born the second son of John Bagenal (died 1558), a tailor who served as Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, by his wife Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Whittingham of Middlewhich, Cheshire and cousin of William Whittingham, Dean of Durham. His elder brother, Sir Ralph Bagenal, was one of Henry VIII's courtiers.[1]
In 1538 Nicholas fled to Ireland to escape justice for killing a man in the Staffordshire village of Leek; his two brothers were apparently also involved in this crime. In Ireland he became acquainted with Con O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone and on 7 December 1542 the Irish council, at the suit of Tyrone, begged the King to pardon Bagenal. Bagenal returned to England in April 1544 and took part in the campaign in France in the following summer.
The Bagenals had family links with the Irish government through Sir Patrick Barnewall, who was the Master of the Rolls in Ireland and married to Anne Luttrell, a cousin of Nicholas. This connection may help to explain how Nicholas was recommended for military service in France in 1544. His descendants gave their name to Bagenalstown in Co. Carlow. During the Colonial wars, his whole family were involved in the undertaking of land in Ireland. The Barnewall connection continued: Bagenal's daughter Mary married Barnewall's nephew, the younger Patrick.
In March 1547 he was appointed Marshal of the Army in Ireland by Edward VI. In November 1551 he was sent by James Croft to expel the Scots who had invaded Dufferin. He was knighted in the same year, and on 22 April 1552 was granted the lands of St. Patrick's and Saint Benedict and St. Mary's Abbey, of Newry and the Cistercian abbey of Carlingford, County Louth. When Mary Is accession took place, Bagenal lost his office of marshal, which she conferred on Sir George Stanley. Accordingly, with this change on 7 May 1556 he was fined a thousand pounds ?. In 1559 he was elected to Parliament as member for Newcastle-under-Lyme.
When Queen Elizabeth I of England succeeded to the throne on her sister's passing, Sir George Stanley was asked to continue as marshal in Ireland and on 23 April 1562 Bagenal wrote to the Queen complaining that his lands brought him in nothing, owing to the depredations of Shane O'Neill. Bagenal was reduced to the role of a Captain until Sir Nicholas Arnold's recommendations induced the Queen to reappoint him marshal in 1565, with Sir Henry Sidney as deputy. Bagenal's patent was dated 5 October 1565, but he had scarcely taken up the office when, early in 1566, he entered into an agreement to sell it and his lands to Sir Thomas Stukley who was a close friend of the Pope. The Queen was unhappy with the arrangement and insisted he remain marshal.[1] In May 1577 Sir Nicholas was also appointed chief commissioner of Ulster, with his son Henry Bagenal, born 1556 in Carlingford, as his assistant.
He was involved in some military disasters, such as a defeat at Glenmalure on 25 August 1580 when Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton led the troops (with Bagenal one of the commanders of the rear) into battle with Fiach McHugh O'Byrne and Viscount Baltinglass in the Wicklow mountain passes. In 1584, Bagenal was colonel of the garrison at Carrickfergus when 1,300 of Sorley Boy MacDonnell's Scots landed on Rathlin Island. Bagenal attacked but was ambushed at Glenarm and had to retreat.
On 26 August 1583 his son, now Sir Henry Bagenal, obtained the reversion of the post of marshal and acted as his father's deputy. Sir Nicholas was appointed chief commissioner on 6 July 1584 for the government of Ulster, and in April 1585 he was returned to the Irish Parliament as member for County Down.
In January 1586 Sir John Perrot complained that Nicholas Bagenal was too old to perform his duties as marshal; a feud between Bagenal and Perrot lasted until the lord deputy was recalled. On one occasion (15 July 1587) there was an affray between the two in Perrot's house, where they were both drinking heavily. Bagenal was pushed to the ground after lunging out at Perrot. On 20 October 1590 Bagenal resigned the office of marshal asking for the post to be conferred on his son, Sir Henry.[1]
It is generally presumed that Sir Nicholas died at Newry Castle in February 1591. It is more than likely the case that he died in the Green Castle where he lived with his son Henry (State Papers). He is presumed buried in the tower of Saint Patrick's church, which he is alleged to have built at 1578? (no records confirm this – another unknown date). Nicholas Bagenal was born in 1508. His son Henry was killed during the greatest defeat the English suffered in Ireland at the Battle of Yellow Ford on 14 Aug 1598.
Family
Sir Nicholas married Eleanor Griffith, daughter of Sir Edward Griffith of Penrhyn, and had at least nine children, some were born in Newry Castle, Henry was born in Carlingford:
Sir Henry Bagenal
Dudley Bagenal
Ambrose
Mabel, Countess of Tyrone, who married Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone
Mary, who married Patrick Barnewall
Margaret, who married Sir Christopher Plunkett
Frances, who married Oliver Plunkett, 4th Baron Louth
Isabel, who married Sir Edward Kynaston
Anne Sarsfield, Viscountess Sarsfield, who married firstly Dudley Loftus and secondly Dominick Sarsfield, 1st Viscount Sarsfield.
Henry succeeded his father as Marshal, played a leading part in the Nine Years War, and was killed in action against his brother-in-law Tyrone at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1589 in County Armagh.
Dudley became a major landowner in County Carlow; he was ancestor of the Bagenal family of Bagenalstown. He was killed in a skirmish with the local Kavanagh family.
Mabel eloped with Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone; she became one of the most romantic figures in Irish history, being described as "the Helen of Troy of the Elizabethan Wars". Mabel and her sister Mary Barnewall are major characters in the play Making History by Brian Friel; their father and brother Henry are frequently referred to but do not appear on stage.
The landowner and politician Nicholas Bagenal, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Anglesey and Custos Rotulorum of Anglesey, lived 1629 to 1712, was the grandson of Sir Henry.
Loftus Hall, March 2007
The official Redmond family pedigree (registered in the Ulster Office, Dublin Castle 1763) alleges that Alexander Redmond had to defend the Hall one or even two more times against soldiers of Oliver Cromwell in the autumn of 1649 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. There is a tradition that the defenders used sacks of wool to block up breaches in the walls created by enemy cannon. These woolsacks and a representation of the Hall can be seen in the coat of arms issued to one of their members in 1763. It is alleged that Alexander Redmond received favourable terms from Cromwell and died in the Hall in 1650 or 1651 after which his surviving family were evicted, allowed only to retain a third of their original estates in County Wexford.
The Loftus family were English 'Planters' who had owned land in the neighbourhood from around 1590 when Sir Dudley Loftus was granted the lands around Kilcloggan. Nicholas Loftus acquired the Manor of Fethard-on-Sea in 1634 and Fethard Castle became the family residence, that was afterwards occupied by the Redmond family after they were evicted from The Hall which is now Loftus Hall. After the end of Cromwell's campaign,
Nicholas Loftus was given extensive lands in the south of County Wexford and purchased the Hall from 'several Adventurers and soldiers', but it was only in 1666 when his son Henry moved to the Hall from Dungulph that it became the principal residence of the Loftus family. To establish the new name of his property he had the following inscription inscribed in stone on the entrance piers at Portersgate: 'Henry Loftus of Loftus Hall Esq. 1680'.
Nonetheless, the old name remained in use till the end of the century. In 1684 Henry Loftus carried out extensive repairs to the Hall, which presumably needed repairing after the turbulent events of the previous decades. The Loftus family rose in the peerage over the following centuries. In 1800 the then owner of the Hall, the first Earl of Ely, previously Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall, was created Marquess of Ely. It was his descendant, the 4th Marquess, who between 1872 and 1884, refurbished the old Hall, and used the existing structure, resulting in the present house.
The Redmond family had disputed the claim of the Loftus family in court but without success. In 1684 they were compensated with lands in the Barony of Ballaghkeene in the north of County Wexford. Some of their descendants joined the movement of the Wild Geese and served in a number of foreign armies most notably that of France. Others were involved in banking and politics, and became a prominent local political dynasty in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in support of the Irish Party of Isaac Butt and Charles Stuart Parnell. The most famous of these was John Redmond who led the party till his death in 1918.
Loftus Hall
Between 1872 and 1884, The Most Honorable John Henry Wellington Graham Loftus, 4th Marquess of Ely (1849-1889), under the guidance of his mother Lady Jane Hope Vere Loftus (Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria), undertook an extensive rebuilding of the entire mansion, adding many of the famous elements such as the grand staircase, mosaic tiled floor, elaborate parquet flooring and technical elements which had not been seen in houses in Ireland at the time, such as flushing toilets and blown air heating. A lot of Lord Ely's inspiration was taken from Osborne House, the Queen's summer residence on the Isle of Wight.
The extensive works were believed to have been undertaken to facilitate a visit from the Queen, but this didn't happen and the family never got to fully enjoy the house, with the 4th Marquess dying very young without issue and leaving the estate, in a poor financial state, to his cousin who eventually elected to place it on the market. A three-storey non-basement mansion, nine bays to the front with a balustraded parapet. In 1917, Loftus Hall was bought by the Sisters of Providence and turned into a convent and a school for young girls interested in joining the order. In 1983, it was purchased by Michael Devereaux who reopened it as "Loftus Hall Hotel", which was subsequently closed again in the late 1990s.
It was privately owned by Michael Devereaux's surviving family until late 2008, when it was sold to an unnamed buyer, rumoured to be Bono of U2 fame. It is currently owned by the Quigley family. In more recent times the hall has been turned into a tourist attraction with guided tours of the property and seasonal events, with people travelling from all over the world to take part in paranormal investigations following the visit of Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin and Nick Groff. The most recent reported haunting (according to the Quigley family) took place when the
Loftus Hall is a large country house on the Hook peninsula, County Wexford, Ireland. Built on the site of the original Redmond Hall, it is said by locals to have been haunted by the devil and the ghost of a young woman.
Redmond family, (Brendan, wife and daughter Elizabeth) travelling from Dublin and thought to be direct descendants of Alexander Redmond, encountered a number of family ghosts around the site of Loftus hall and were warned never to return without first hosting a feast in their lost families honor.
The name 'Loftus Hall' or 'Loftushall' is also applied to the townland surrounding the mansion. The entire townland of Loftus Hall, including the building itself, can be overlooked from Hook Lighthouse.
Charles Tottenham became Lord of the manor (having to adopt the Loftus name to inherit lands and title as per instructions of Nicolas Loftus 1752) by marrying the Honorable Anne Loftus daughter of the first Viscount Loftus, and they had six children, four boys and two girls – Elizabeth and Anne. However, his wife became ill and died while the girls were still young. Two years later, Tottenham married his cousin Jane Cliffe, and they lived together, along with Anne, in Loftus Hall.
One evening Charles was resting in his home in 1775 with his second wife and daughter from his first marriage, Anne, while the Loftus family were away on business. During a storm, a ship unexpectedly arrived at the Hook Peninsula, where the mansion was located. A young man was welcomed into the mansion. Anne and the young man became very close.
One night, the family and mysterious man were in the Game Room playing cards. In the game, each player received 3 cards apart from Anne who was only dealt 2 by the mystery man. A butler serving the Tottenham family at the table was just about to question the man when Anne bent down to pick another card from the floor which she must have dropped. It is said that when Anne bent over to pick up the card, she looked beneath the table to see that the mysterious man had a cloven foot.
It was then that Anne stood up and said to the man you have a cloven foot and the man went up through the roof, leaving behind a large hole in the ceiling. Soon Anne became mentally ill. It is believed that the family were ashamed of Anne and locked her away in her favourite room; where she would be happy, yet out of everyone's view; which was known as the Tapestry Room.
She refused food and drink, and sat with her knees under her chin, looking out the Tapestry Room window across the sea to where Dunmore East is today, waiting for her mysterious stranger to return until she died in the Tapestry Room in 1775. It is said that when she died, they could not straighten her body, as her muscles had seized, and she was buried in the same sitting position in which she had died.
A rumour states that the hole could never be properly repaired, and it is alleged that even to this day, there is still a certain part of the ceiling which is slightly different from the rest
No comments:
Post a Comment