Earl of Fingall

Last updated

Earl of Fingall and Baron of Killeen were titles in the Peerage of Ireland, the latter one of the earliest surviving, while Baron Fingall was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The seat of the title-holders was, from the 1400s until 1953, Killeen Castle in County Meath, Ireland, and there was an ongoing close relationship with the related Plunkett family of Dunsany, and with the Viscounts Gormanston, with whom they intermarried.

Contents

The origins of the Killeen title date to the early or mid-1400s. According to some sources, around 1426 Christopher Plunkett was created Baron Killeen, with several of his seven sons founding separate branches of the Plunkett family, including the Plunketts of Dunsany, Rathmore and Dunsoghly, and his daughter Matilda (or Maud) becoming celebrated as "the bride of Malahide", when her first husband, Thomas Hussey, Baron Galtrim, was reputedly murdered on their wedding day. According to other sources, the line of peers began with the eldest son of that Christopher, also Christopher.

The tenth baron, Luke Plunkett, was created Earl of Fingall on 29 September 1628. When still Baron Killeen, his first wife [1] was Elizabeth, the second daughter of Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare, as properly recorded in the histories of the FitzGeralds of Kildare, based on their own family archives in Carton House and Kilkea Castle, and on no better authority than The 4th Duke of Leinster himself, writing at the time as Marquess of Kildare, who confirmed that Elizabeth married Luke Plunkett, 1st Earl of Fingall, in 1608. [2] [3]

The eighth earl was created Baron Fingall in the Peerage of the United Kingdom on 20 June 1831. He and his son and heir the ninth earl were both ardent supporters of Catholic Emancipation. The eleventh earl married Elizabeth Burke-Plunkett, who was noted both as an activist in numerous causes and as a society hostess. All three titles all believed to have become extinct on the death of the twelfth earl in 1984, [4] and are not to be confused with the Prescriptive Barony or Lordship of Fingal originally granted in 1208 by King John of England.

The Earls' Fingall Estate Papers

The Earls of Fingall’s Fingall Estate Papers (i.e. real property) consist of a large archive of manuscripts and ephemera (17th–20th century), documents incl. deeds, indentures, leases, wills, marriage settlements, incl. many on vellum. The Papers were purchased by the Fingal County Council and lodged in its Fingal Local Studies and Archives Department following an auction by Whyte’s Auctioneers on 6 February 1999 (item 373). However, the lands concerned did not actually extend into the modern Fingal, and the Earls’ Fingall Estate Papers contain no evidence of any ownership in Fingal. Practically all the properties and leases relate to County Meath (or Westmeath), understandably since the Plunketts were originally, as indicated above, Barons of Killeen in County Meath. They essentially have nothing to do with the territory of Fingal, and hence the lands per se never justified the denomination of Fingall as an Earldom and later peerage Barony (both now extinct) for the Plunketts of Killeen in Meath (as the prescriptive barony of Fingal rested with the Viscounts Gormanston by descent from Walter de Lacy who obtained it in 1208). Rather, the evidence indicates that Lord Killeen negotiated and purchased [5] the Earldom for £2,700 during a sojourn in London in 1628. [6]

Barons Killeen (c.1426)

Earl of Fingall (1628)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron of Dunsany</span> Irish peerage title

The title Baron of Dunsany or, more commonly, Lord Dunsany, is one of the oldest dignities in the Peerage of Ireland, one of just a handful of 13th- to 15th-century titles still extant, having had 21 holders, of the Plunkett name, to date. Other surviving medieval baronies include Kerry, Kingsale, Trimlestown (1469), Baron Louth, and Dunboyne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fingal</span> County in Ireland

Fingal is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. Its name is derived from the medieval territory of Scandinavian foreigners that settled in the area. Fingal County Council is the local authority for the county. In 2022 the population of the county was 330,506, making it the second most populated council in Dublin and the third most populous county in the state.

Alexander Plunket was an Irish statesman and judge of the fifteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester</span> Irish peer, statesman and judge

Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester was an Irish peer, statesman and judge. He was one of the dominant political figures in late fifteenth-century Ireland, rivalled in influence probably only by his son-in-law Garret FitzGerald, the "Great" Earl of Kildare.

Plunkett is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic Ó Pluingceid. It is associated with Ireland, and possibly of Norse or Norman origin; it may be spelled O'Plunket, Plunket, Plunkit, Plunkitt, Plonkit, Plonkitt, Plonket, Plonkett, or Ó Plunceid, and may refer to:

Christopher Plunkett, 1st Baron of Dunsany was an Anglo-Norman peer. He was the second son of Sir Christopher Plunkett and Genet de Cusack.

Christopher Plunket, 2nd Earl of Fingall and 11th Baron Killeen was an Irish politician and soldier. In 1641 he negotiated with the rebels on behalf of the Old English of the Pale and pushed them to join the rebellion. He fought for the rebels at the siege of Drogheda. He joined the Confederates and fought in their Leinster army, notably at Dungan's Hill. When the Confederates fused into the Royalist Alliance, he fought under James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond in the Battle of Rathmines where he was wounded and taken prisoner. He died of his wounds two weeks later in captivity at Dublin Castle.

Elizabeth FitzGerald was the first wife of Lucas Plunket, who succeeded as Baron Killeen in 1613, and who in due course became the 1st Earl of Fingall in 1628. They lived at Killeen Castle, County Meath in Ireland. She was a daughter of Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare, and therefore sister to Bridget, the Countess of Tyrconnell and wife of Prince Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killeen Castle, Dunsany</span> 19th century castle on historic site, County Meath, Ireland

Killeen Castle, located in Dunsany, County Meath, Ireland, is the current construction on a site occupied by a castle since around 1180. The current building is a restoration of a largely 19th century structure, burnt out in 1981.

Gerald FitzMaurice FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Kildare was an Irish peer. Gerald was the son of Maurice FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Kildare and Elizabeth Burghersh.

Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare was an Irish peer and soldier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimlestown</span> Irish nobleman, judge and politician

John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimleston, was an Irish nobleman, judge and politician. He was the eldest son of Christopher Barnewall, 2nd Baron Trimlestown and his wife Elizabeth Plunket, daughter of Sir Thomas Fitz-Christopher Plunket of Rathmore, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland and his second wife Marian Cruise. He succeeded his father as 3rd Baron in about 1513. His father, like most of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, had supported the claim of the pretender Lambert Simnel to the English throne in 1487. After the failure of Simnel's rebellion, he received a royal pardon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Burke-Plunkett</span> Activist and literary hostess

The Rt Hon. Elizabeth Mary Margaret Burke-Plunkett, Countess of Fingall (1862–1944), was born in Moycullen, a daughter of George Edmond Burke of Danesfield and his wife Theresa Quin. She became an activist in Irish industrial, charitable and cultural groups, serving as second president of the Camogie Association and first president of the Irish Countrywomen's Association. She was also a noted literary hostess, whose salon at Earlsfort House was a centre of Dublin intellectual life for many years.

Lucas More Plunket of Killeen, County Meath, styled Lucas Môr, tenth lord Killeen, created Earl of Fingall on 26 September 1628, was an Irish peer.

Sir William Welles was an English-born statesman and judge in fifteenth-century Ireland, who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was the younger brother of Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles. Lionel was a prominent supporter of the House of Lancaster, who was killed at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461.

Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston (1435–1503) was an Irish peer and statesman of the fifteenth century who held the offices of Deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Lord Deputy of Ireland.

Robert Plunkett, 5th Baron Dunsany was an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the Tudor period.

Edward Plunkett, 4th Baron of Dunsany was an Irish nobleman; he was killed in battle during the Irish Rebellion of 1520–1.

Luke Plunket, 3rd Earl of Fingall (1639–1684) was an Irish soldier and politician. He was one of the signatories of the Catholic Remonstrance of 1661.

Richard Plunkett, 2nd Baron of Dunsany was an Irish nobleman. He was one of at least five surviving sons of Christopher Plunkett, 1st Baron of Dunsany, and his first wife Anne Fitzgerald, daughter of Richard FitzGerald. He succeeded to the title in 1462.

References

  1. ↑ Carty, Mary Rose. History of Killeen Castle, published by Carty/Lynch, Dunsany, County Meath, Ireland, April 1991 ( ISBN   0-9517382-0-8) – page 18 refers to Elizabeth as 1st wife of the Earl of Fingall (Fingal). She was not an O'Donnell, as claimed by Carty/Lynch, but a FitzGerald
  2. ↑ FitzGerald, Charles William (Marquis of Kildare and later 4th Duke of Leinster). The Earls of Kildare and their Ancestors: from 1057 to 1773, 4th edition, published by Hodges, Smith & Co., Dublin, 1864 (pp. 235-236). He made the same mistake himself, i.e. that Elizabeth was a daughter of Bridget O'Donnell Lady Tyrconnell (nee Fitzgerald) rather than a sister of Bridget, in the second edition of 1858 (page 226), but corrected this in his fourth edition in 1864
  3. ↑ Lee, Sidney (Editor). Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XLI (Nichols-O’Dugan), published by Macmillan and Co., London and New York, 1895. Page 446
  4. ↑ Burke-Plunkett, Elizabeth (Lady Fingall). Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingal . First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland ISBN   0-946640-74-2. This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall
  5. ↑ The Early Stuarts and the Irish Peerage, by Charles R. Mayes, in The English Historical Review 1958 LXXIII (287):227–251, published by Oxford University Press, 1958.
  6. ↑ The Old English in Ireland, 1625–1642, by Professor Aidan Clarke, Ithaca and London, 1966. Page 62, reference 8
  7. ↑ Debrett's Illustrated Peerage. 1921. p. 372.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.