Nicholas Netterville, 1st Viscount Netterville

Last updated

Nicholas Netterville of Dowth, County Meath, Ireland, was born in 1581, and succeeded his father, John Netterville, in the family estate on 20 September 1601. Although an enemy accused them of being "but a mean family" the Nettervilles had in fact been in Ireland since before 1280 and had been established at Dowth for centuries; they were related to many of the leading families of The Pale including the Earl of Kildare, Lord Slane, Lord Howth and the Luttrells of Luttrellstown Castle. Nicholas was the grandson of Luke Netterville, judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) and nephew of the leading barrister and statesman Richard Netterville. His mother was Eleanor Gernon, daughter of Sir James Gernon (or Garland) of Castleton, County Louth. Being "a person of many good qualities" [1] he was created, 3 April 1622, Viscount Netterville, [2] of Dowth in the County Meath, taking his seat, 14 July 1634. He died in 1654 and was buried at Mountown, County Dublin. [3]

Contents

Rebellion of 1641 and Confederacy

Despite the Crown's previous regard for him, his loyalty was gravely suspect during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the ensuing English Civil War. [4] His eldest son John was one of the staunchest supporters of toleration for Roman Catholics, and since Nicholas permitted two of his younger sons to become Jesuits, there can be little doubt where his own religious sympathies lay. As a result, he and his eldest son seem to have played a double game during the Rebellion, professing their loyalty to the Crown while secretly offering support to the rebels. It may not have been forgotten that Nicholas's family had played an ambiguous role during the Irish rebellions of the early 1580s, in which two of his uncles had been killed, while his second son Luke ("a lawless and ruthless rebel") declared his loyalties unambiguously in 1641, and was killed fighting on the rebel side. [5]

On 26 July 1644 he took the oath of association to the Irish Confederacy and was one of three commissioners sent to accompany the Papal Nuncio, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, to Kilkenny. In 1647 he took an oath that the Church be restored to its pre-Reformation state, but he actively opposed the Nuncio in 1648 and later joined with Ormonde. [6]

Last years

Under the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 Lord Netterville and his eldest son were denied a pardon for their lives and estates, but he does not seem to have been seriously ill-treated. [7] Whether this was because of his old age or because John's wife, a daughter of the leading English statesman Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, used her influence on his behalf, is uncertain.

Marriages and issue

The Viscount married firstly Eleanor, daughter of Sir John Bathe, Esq., of Drumcondra, Dublin, and had eight sons: [8]

and five daughters:

Luke, Patrick, Richard and Thomas all took part in the 1641 Rebellion, in which Luke, described by his enemies as a "lawless and ruthless rebel", was killed. Christopher and Nicholas were Jesuits. Patrick and Robert founded junior branches of the family from whom later Viscounts were descended.

Eleanor died in 1634 and the Viscount remarried Mary, daughter of Alderman Brice of Drogheda; it was her third marriage. They had no children.

See also

Butler dynasty

Related Research Articles

Sir Roger Jones, 1st Viscount RanelaghPC (Ire) was joint Lord President of Connaught with Charles Wilmot, 1st Viscount Wilmot. He commanded the government forces in Connaught during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the beginning of the Irish Confederate Wars defending Athlone against James Dillon until February 1643.

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.

Richard Butler of Kilcash (1615–1701) was an Irish soldier and landowner, the third son of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles and brother of James, 1st Duke of Ormonde. He sided with the Irish Confederacy at the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He scouted the enemy on the morning of the Battle of Cloughleagh. His descendants would succeed to the earldom of Ormond following the failure in 1758 of the senior branch of the family.

Piers Butler of Duiske, Barrowmount, County Kilkenny was the son of Edward Butler, 1st Viscount Galmoye and Hon. Anne Butler, daughter of Edmund Butler, 2nd Viscount Mountgarret. He gained the rank of Colonel of Dragoons. After the Battle of Lambstown, County Wexford, he was taken prisoner, and was "killed, it is said after quarter being given" by the Cromwellian Captain William Bolton.

Sir Bartholomew Dillon was a leading Irish judge of the sixteenth century who held the offices of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and Lord Justice of Ireland.

Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall of Turvey, County Dublin, was an Irish landowner and politician.

Sir Patrick Barnewall or Barnwall, was the eldest son of Sir Christopher Barnewall of Turvey, Grace Dieu Abbey, and Fieldston. Christopher in turn was the son of the elder Sir Patrick Barnewall, who in 1534 was made Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) and Solicitor-General for Ireland, and in 1550 became Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Patrick's mother was Marion Sherle, daughter of Richard Sherle of Shallon, County Meath: after his father's death, she remarried the prominent judge Sir Lucas Dillon. She died in 1607.

Sir Lucas Dillon (1530–1593), also called Luke Dillon, was a leading Irish barrister and judge of the Elizabethan era who held the offices of Attorney General for Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He supported the Lord Deputy Henry Sidney in the cess controversy. He assisted the Lord Deputy John Perrot in the Desmond Rebellions. He was held in high regard by Queen Elizabeth, but was accused by his enemies of corruption and maladministration.

Viscount Netterville was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1622 for Nicholas Netterville, 1st Viscount Netterville (1581–1654), eldest son of John Netterville of Dowth, County Meath and Eleanor Gernon, daughter of Sir James Gernon of Castleton, County Louth. The Netterville family are recorded in Ireland from before 1280, and became substantial landowners: they intermarried with leading Anglo-Irish families like the FitzGeralds of Kildare and the Flemings of Slane.

John Netterville, 2nd Viscount Netterville (c.1603-1659) was an Irish peer, soldier and statesman of the seventeenth century. He was noted for his devout Roman Catholic beliefs and his strong support for the Irish Catholic political cause; this led him during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the ensuing Civil Wars to play a double game, offering support to both the Crown and the rebels, with the result that no party to the conflict fully trusted him. He was charged with treason by the Government of Charles I and his estates were forfeited by Oliver Cromwell. He died in his English exile of natural causes.

Richard Netterville was an Irish barrister and politician of the Elizabethan era. He was noted for his willingness to oppose the Crown, especially on its taxation policies, and as a result, he was imprisoned several times.

Luke (Lucas) Netterville was a sixteenth-century Irish judge. He was father of the statesman Richard Netterville and grandfather of the 1st Viscount Netterville.

James Dillon, 1st Earl of Roscommon was an Irish peer.

Nicholas Netterville, 5th Viscount Netterville (1708–1750) was an Irish peer, who is mainly remembered for having been tried and acquitted by his peers on a charge of murder.

Robert Dillon, 2nd Earl of RoscommonPC (Ire) was styled Baron Dillon of Kilkenny-West from 1622 to 1641 and became earl of Roscommon only a year before his death. He supported Strafford, Lord Deputy of Ireland, who appointed him as one of the keepers of the King's seal. Lord Kilkenny-West was in December 1640 for a short while a lord justice of Ireland together with Sir William Parsons.

Luke Plunket, 3rd Earl of Fingall and 12th Baron Killeen (1639–1684) was an Irish soldier and politician. He was one of the signatories of the Catholic Remonstrance of 1661.

Nicholas Preston, 6th Viscount Gormanston 17th-century Irish viscount

Nicholas Preston, 6th Viscount Gormanston (1606–1643) sat in the House of Lords of the Irish Parliament of 1634–1635 and sided with the insurgents after the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Nicholas de Netterville was a Crown official and judge in Ireland in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. He was the first notable member of a prominent landowning family in County Meath, who were based mainly at Dowth. His descendants in the seventeenth century acquired the title Viscount Netterville. The family also produced at least two more senior judges in the sixteenth century, Thomas Netterville and Luke Netterville.

Thomas Netterville was an Irish judge of the reign of Henry VIII.

References

  1. ↑ Cokayne, George Edward (1895). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant, Volume 6. London: George Bell & Sons, pp. 9-10
  2. ↑ Courthope, William (1889). Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom and Ireland. London: J. G. & F. Rivington, p. 610
  3. ↑ Cokayne, George Edward (1895). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant, Volume 6. London: George Bell & Sons, pp. 9-10
  4. ↑ Bagwell, Richard "John Netterville" Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1900 Vol. 40 pp.236-7
  5. ↑ Bagwell, pp.236-7
  6. ↑ Bagwell, pp.236-7
  7. ↑ Bagwell, pp.236-7
  8. ↑ Burke, Sir Bernard (1866). A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. London: Harrison and Sons, p. 392
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Viscount Netterville
1622–1654		Succeeded by
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.