Ireland 1640. Christopher Wansford Master of the Rolls took the Oath of Lord Deputy April 3. and died suddenly Decemb. 3. following passionately as it was thought affected with the imprisonment of the Earl of Strafford whose intimacy had been of ancient date Nor were his apprehensions the less for that not long before the Parliament sitting at Dublin some Instructions were agreed on by the House of Commons for a Committee to be sent into England which reflecting on the Earl of Strafford he caused as it was generally reported to be razed out of the Journal Book An example of which he had observed in the 19 year of King James Anno 1621. when the Protestation of the House of Commons was defaced by the Kings own hand and enjoined the Agents then appointed not to repair to the Court without the Kings License which notwithstanding they did some from one Port some from another He was buried in Christ Church Dublin A Gentleman certainly of excellent Parts a clear Orator and One regained from the Popular Partie of the House of Commons in England to serve his Prince in the Secrets of State On his death 1640. Robert Lord Dillon of Kilkenny-West and Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronnet Master of the Court of Wards Decemb. 30. were sworn Lords Justices But the Lord Dillon a person of great abilities and a shrewd reach well esteemed of by the Earl of Strafford being excepted against by some of the Irish Committee of Parliament then in England he was displaced Yet that no business for the advantage of Ireland might be delayed through the misdirections of Orders from his Majesty he was pleased by his Letters January 4. in the 16 year of his Reign directed to his Privy Council in Ireland and to Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase Knights then designed to be his Justices of that his Kingdom to grant amongst other things that his Subsidies there should be reduced to a lesser rate than formerly and that all Letters directed to the Lieutenant Deputy Justices Chief Governour or Governours or to any other Officers or Ministers of that Realm either concerning the Publick Affairs or private Interests of any Subject there might be entered into his Signet Office in England to the end that they may be upon occasion found to take Copies of for the Subjects better Information in such publick things as may concern them as also that all Dispatches from Ireland should safely be kept apart that like recourse may be had to them for the better satisfaction of the Subject who shall be concerned therein And whereas in the former Governours time there were endeavours to hinder some Agents of Parliament to have recourse into England his Majesty takes notice that for as much as the Committee of the Parliament of Ireland John Bellew Esquire and Oliver Cassel with others imployed thence have repaired into his Kingdom of England to represent their Grievances he hath manifested his gracious condescentions to them admitting them into his Royal Presence forbidding his Counsellors in Ireland or any other Officers or Ministers of that State to proceed any wise against them or any of them for the same and that any of his Subjects shall have Copies of Records Certificates Orders of Council publick Letters or other Entries for the Declaration of their Grievances made so open was his breast to the Complaints presented to him from the Parliament in Ireland that if there had not been a general Defection long anvilled in the minds of that People the event of so horrid a Rebellion as few Moneths after happened could not have been the Issue of such Remarkable condescentions At the Lord Dillons going off 1640. Sir William Parsons Master of the Court of Wards long experienced in the Affairs of Ireland and Sir John Borlase Knight Master of the Ordnance well known to his Majesty by several Imployments at home and abroad as Collonel in the Low-Countries and Lieutenant General under the Lord Vere one of the most expert and fortunate Captains in the World were the 10 not the 9 as some write of February sworn at the Council Board Lords Justices who jointly endeavoured to smooth the rugged Passages of those Times obtaining from his Majesty more Graces than was thought would have been indulged the Irish in as much as a most Honourable person a noble Peer in the House of Lords avouched that the Lords Justices had always chearfully received their Requests and Messages and were ready to comply with them desiring that it might be entered in their Journal to the end that the memory of so even a Government might remain to Posterity Yet such then were the contrivance of the Irish to Rebellion that though as one says the Design was many times discontinued yet it bore an ancient date and was subtlely pursued in Parliament the Session before it brake forth when they pretended by a Committee of both Houses to search his Majesties Stores as if some Plot had been framed there to destroy the Parliament the House of Parliament being then over part of the Store and on that pretence they would fain have seen all his Majesties Store of Ammunition and Arms. But the Lord Borlase Master of the Ordnance under whose charge those were boldly denied their Requests as his Majesties choicest Jewels not to be discovered without his especial Orders which they took ill and Octob. 23. 1641. the Rebellion sadly broke out in its vigour and extremity raised for the Restauration of the publick Profession of the Romish Religion the Restitution of all the Plantation Lands unto the Natives and settlement of the present Government into their hands On which pretensions it went on currantly though the night before Owen O-Canally a meer Irish man but trained up in the Protestant Religion who out of a sense of his Duty and Loyalty to his Majesty and for the preservation of his good People and as an Effect of that Religion he was trained up in had discovered it first to the Lord Parsons and then not accounting himself to be sufficiently credited to the Lord Borlase at whose House the Council such as could be raised from their Beds met and securing the Castle and City with such strength as they had the Lord Mac-Guire Collonel Hugh Oge-Mac-Maâ—one some of them afterwards hanged at Tiburn and others were convened before them who yet made so slight a business of their Plot being discovered and their persons apprehended as the Relator saw Mac-Mahon and others draw Gibbets in Chalk with men hanging on them in several places in the Lord Borlases Hall as the best death the English could expect from them In the Interim Dublin by a strange Providence was secured though afterwards infested with so many inconveniences such streights as these Justices Government was under a perpetual trouble and anxiety being at the best but uncertainly supplyed out of England though such was the Resentment that the Parliament then sitting had of Ireland and the outrages committed
Curia Romana pro negotio ipsius patris nostri expediendis pro expensis quas idem Archiepiscopus fecit in servitio nostro in Hibern dum ultimo fuit Justiciar noster Hibern Assignavimus eidem Archiepiscopo Centum libras de firma Civitatis nostrae de Limerick recipiendas ad duos terminos viz. ad festum Sancti Michaelis quinquaginta libras ad Paschae quinquaginta libras Assignavimus etiam eidem Archiepiscopo in solutione ejusdem debiti quinquaginta Marcas per annum percipiendum de firma Civitatis nostrae Dublin Sicut plenius continetur in nostris patentibus quas inde fieri fecimus ideo vobis mandamus quod praedictas centum libras de firma praedictae Civitatis Limerick praedictas quinquaginta Marcas de firma Civitatis nostrae Dublin eidem Archiepiscopo recipere permittatis quousque praedictum debitum ei persolvatur Teste Rege apud Westm Maii 10. Anno Regni nostri 12. 1232. Maurice Fitz Gerald was made Lord Justice September 2. He continued so till 1245. at which time Mauritium Hiberniae Justiciarium eo quod ficte tarde auxilium ab Hibernia the King having use of his Forces against David ap Llewellin Prince of Wales domino regi duxerat periclitanti a Justiciaria deposuit Whilest he was Justice he excellently well behaved himself against Earl Marescal who 1234. had hostilely invaded Ireland animated by Geoffery de Marisco whom Mat. Paris calls homo ejus ligius senex infidelis and subduing him the first of April after that the Earl Marescal had with an unexpressable courage most of his Party betraying him manfully defended himself He died May 8. 1257. Miles strenuus facetus nulli secundus and was buried at Youghall amongst the Frier Minors which Covent he founded 1231. And upon his remove 1245. Sir John Fitz Geoffery was made Lord Justice Novemb. 4. Vir quidem praeclarus genere divitiis potentia To whom the King directs his Writ that Turvil Bishop of Ossory might dispose of his Goods by his last Will. Mandatum est Johanni filio Galfrido Justiciar Hiberniae quod permittat Priorem de Conale alios executores testamenti Galfridi de Turvil Episcopi Ossoriensis habere liberam administrationem omnium bonorum quae fuerunt ejusdem Episcopi Ita quod de primis bonis leventur debita Regis quae Regi debebat quae sunt Clara. Teste Rege apud Westm April 12. On his remove 1247. Theobald Butler Lord of Carrick and John Cogan were chosen Lords Justices Butler died in the Castle of Arkelo 1285. 1255. Alan de la Zouch succeed-Lord Justice descended from Alan Viscount of Roan in Little Brittain in times past Lord Ashbey de la Zouch in Leicester-shire He was in the 34 of H. 3. Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. He was slain by John 7. Earl Warren and of Surrey half Brother to King H. 3. in Westminster Hall 1259. Stephen de long Espee second Son of William the first Earl of Salisbury Justiciarius in Hibernia Dominus Capitalis erat oâ—dinatus He died 1260. in Ireland being slain by his own People his body was buried in England The 16 year of K. John He was made Earl of Vlster 1260. William Dean Lord Justice He died 1261. 1261. Sir Richard de Rupella or Rochel Glynn calls him la Rochel de Capel Lord Justice who being recalled into England 1267. Sir David de Barry was instituted in his place who did excellent Service in composing some differences between the Geraldines and Bourks which were too heady for the former Governour it is conceived that the Viscount Barries in Ireland descended from this man and all from Barry in Glanmorganshire 1268. Sir Robert de Vfford Ancestor not unlike of Robert de Vfford Earl of Suffolk Lord Justice upon whose remove into England 1269. Richardus de Exonia was made Lord Justice He died the same Year and 1270. Sir James Audley alias Aldelegh from whence as is supposed the noble Lord Audley was made Lord Justice He was killed with a fall from his Horse in Tocmond 1272. June 23. After whose death till the entrance of Edward the first Histories supply not who was instituted in his room This was he as probably may be conjectured to whom Hugh Lacy Earl of Vlster gave Lands with the Constableship of Vlster Sub EDWARDO I. 1272. Maurice Fitz Maurice Lord Justice to whom the King directs this Writ De conservatione Pacis in Hibernia Rex dilecto fideli suo Mauritio filio Mauritii Justic suo Hibern salutem Cum defuncto jam celebris memoriae Domino H. Rege patre nostro ad nos regni Angliae gubernaculum terrae Hibern Dominium successione haereditaria pertineant per quod nos qui in exhibitione pacis conservatione omnibus singulis de praedictis regno sumus ex nunc debitores jam pacem nostram in eodem regno nomine Regis fecimus proclamari vobis mandamus firmiter injungentes quod per totam terram nostram Hib. pacem nostram publice clamari firmiter teneri faciatis inhibendo omnibus et singulis de eadem terra sub periculo exhaeredationis vitae et membrorum ne quis pacem nostram infringere praesumat Nos enim omnibus et singulis de praedicta terra nostra Hiberniae in omnibus juribus et rebus ipsos contingentibus contra quoscunque tam majores quam minores parati sumus erimus plenam Auctore Domino Justitiam exhibere Dat per manum W. de Merton Cancellarii nostri apud Westminst Decemb. 7. 1173. Geoffery Lord Genevil of the House of Lorrain newly returned in Pilgrimage from the Holy Sepulchre Lord Justice succeeded in October to whom I find many Writs directed the following may be sufficient to testifie the truth Rex dilecto fideli suo Galfrido de Genevil Justiciario suo Hiberniae salutem Mandamus vobis quod omnimodas exactiones demandas districtiones quas fieri facitis venerabili Cassalen Archiepiscopo ponatis in respectum usque ad ventum nostrum in Angliam ut tunc inde provideatur quod rationabiliter fuerit inde faciendum nullam molestiam sibi vel Ecclesiae suae interim inferendo Dat c. Junii 13. Anno regno 2. He died the 12. before the Calends of November 1314. and was buried amongst the Preaching Friers in Trim the Foundation he himself had established 1276. Sir Robert de Vfford Lord Justice the second time who going into England 1279. Stephen de Fulborn Bishop of Waterford afterwards Archbishop of Tuam Treasurer of Ireland Lord Justice The year following he surrenders and Vfford resigning it he again accepts it 1282. He died at Dublin 1288. 5. Nonas Julii to whom the King for the better support of his Justiceship granted a Pension out of the Exchequer in Ireland of 500 l. per annum
died 1559. Thomas Earl of Sussex Kt. of the Garter arrived at Bullock August 27. Lord Lieutenant and was sworn in Christ Church Dublin August 30. having in charge strictly to look to the Irish who being a superstitious Nation may easily be seduced to Rebellion through the practices of the French then at difference with England under praetext of Religion before whom a Parliament was held at Dublin Jan. 12. 2. Eliz. wherein Acts of great consequences were past as the restoring to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction of the State Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing all foreign Power repugnant to the same also for the Uniformity of the Common Prayer for Consecrating of Bishops and the Queens Title to the Imperial Crown of Ireland with many others After which he went for England and 1559. Sir William Fitz Williams Febr. 15. was sworn in Christ Church Dublin Lord Justice during whose Government viz. anno 1560. Q. Elizabeth amongst the most commendable Actions of her Government reduced Coin to its full value much debased through her Fathers excessive expence and stamped for Ireland Coin called Sterling of which the shilling in Ireland passed for 12 d. and in England 9 d. Yet though affairs were carried thus honourably to her advantage in the Year 1601. the Lord Buckhurst very skilful in Money matters got her to mingle Brass with the Money that she sent into Ireland by reason that the War in Ireland stood her Majesty yearly in 160000l sterl which the Souldiers suffered without mutiny having a true Reverence for that Lady though not without loss and in effect not much to her service the Reputation of a Prince being in nothing preserved more entire than in the just value of their Coin Hence it was that when the Earl of Leicester Anno 1585. was sent into Holland one of this excellent Princesses charges to him was to know by what Art they enhanced or put down the value of their Money in which Art they excelled all others lest the Souldier should receive that at a higher rate than they could put it off for And to this effect Sir George Carew in his Letter to the Council of England mentioned in Pacata Hibernia writes that it was impossible to prevent a confusion in the State if the People might not be put in some certain hope that upon the end of the War the now Standard should be abolished or eased 1561. Thomas Earl of Sussex Lord Lieutenant arrived at Dublin and was sworn in Christ Church Dublin June 25. 1561. Sir William Fitz Williams Lord Justice was sworn in Christ Church Jan. 22. 1562. Thomas Earl of Sussex July 24. Lord Lieutenant who amongst other things did excellent Service in reducing the Irish Countries into Shires and placing therein Sheriffs and other Ministers of the Law as Annaly in Leinster he made a Shire calling it the County of Longford and the Province of Connaght he divided into 6 Counties viz. Clare which contains all Thoomond Gallaway Sligo Mayo Roscommon and Leitrim He died at his house at Bermondsey in Southwark June 9. 1583 and was honourably buried at New-Hall in Essex July 9. following At his departure from Ireland having setled things in excellent order 1565. Sir Nicholas Arnold of the County of Gloucester Knight May 25. was made Lord Justice to whom was assigned only a Garrison of 1596 Souldiers with which he kept peace but gained nothing Being recalled into England surrenders his Government 1565. To Sir Henry Sidney who in the time of Queen Mary had been Judge and Treasurer of Ireland now President of Wales Jan. 20. Lord Deputy before whom a Parliament was held at Dublin Jan. 17. in the 11 of Eliz. many things being acted therein greatly to the advantage of the State and a Subsidy granted considering the infinite masses of Treasure able to purchase a Kingdom that her most noble Progenitors the famous Princes of England had exhausted for the Governments Defence and Preservation of them and her Majesties Realm of Ireland largely expressed in the Act. In which Parliament also which had several Prorogations Shane O-Neal was attainted and the name extinguished In which Act also the Kings ancient Titles to Ireland are recited Thus having setled Affairs he took Ship towards England at Houth Octob. 9. having with good success discomfited Shane O-Neal who after his return from England where the Queen 1563. had graciously received him into favour he most treacherously went into Rebellion and affected the Title of King of Vlster In the year of this Governours admittance he institutes Wareham St. Leger first President of Mounster with an Assessor two Lawyers and a Clerk the same Government he also constituted in Connaght 1567. Dr. Weston Lord Chancellor and Sir Will. Fitz-Williams Treasurer at War Octob. 14. Lord Justices Weston was thought a prudent and upright man for whom I find this Epitaph in St. Patricks Church Dublin on a Monument very stately erected principally in memory of the Relations of Richard Earl of Cork upon the uppermost seat of which â—s Dr. Westons Effigies with this Inscription Here lieth interred the Body of that Reverend and Honourable Gentleman Robert Weston Esq Doctor of the Civil and Canon Laws Grandfather to the Lady Katherine Countess of Cork â—â—ing sometimes one â—f the Lord Justices â—â— Ireland and for â—â—x years Lord Chancellour of the Realm A small Coat of ARMS betwixt Who was so Learned Judicious and Vpright in the Court of Judicature all the time of that imployment He never made Order or Decree that was questioned or reversed He changed this mortal life for an eternal life May 20. 1573. whos 's honourable memory no time shall extinguish 1568. Sir Henry Sidney Octob. 20 Lord Deputy He took Ship for England from the Key at Dublin March 25. 1571. When Sir William Fitz Williams the April ensuing was sworâ— Lord Justice in St. Patricks Church Dublin and Jan. 13. eodem anno the said Sir William Fitz Williams was made Lord Deputy 1575. Sir Henry Sidney Septemb 18. returned into Ireland Lord Deputy where having pacified several Rebellions and that not with so much Rigor as excellent Conduct having at several times been 1â— years Justice and Deputy of Ireland so as that Kingdom is much indebted to him for his Wisdom and Valour He Septemb. 12. 1578. took Boat aâ— the Wood Key in Dublin for England he died at Worcester May 5. 1586. and was buried amongst his Ancestors at Penshurst of whom Dr. Powel in his Epistle to the Reader in his History of Wales writes that his Disposition was rather to seek after the Antiquities and the Weal publick of those Countries He governed then to obtain Lands and Revenues within the same for I know not one foot of Land that he had either in Wales or Ireland cujus potentiam nemo sentit nisi aut Levatione periculi aut accessione Dignitatis justly applicable to him Vel. Pater f. 109. He caused the Irish Statutes to his