Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Baronet, 20th Knight of Kerry, CVO , JP , DL (5 February 1844 - 22 October 1916) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, landowner, soldier and yachtsman.
Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Baronet, 20th Knight of Kerry, CVO , JP , DL (5 February 1844 - 22 October 1916) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, landowner, soldier and yachtsman.
He was born on 5 February 1844, the eldest son of Sir Peter FitzGerald, 1st Baronet, 19th Knight of Kerry, and his wife, Julia Hussey, daughter of Peter Hussey. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy—in addition to the illustrious knighthood of Kerry—in 1880. [1]
FitzGerald was commissioned as an officer in the Rifle Brigade in 1863. He fought in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War in which he served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Sir Archibald Alison. He remained with his regiment until 1883, by which time he gained the rank of Captain. He later also served as equerry to Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.
On 4 October 1882, FitzGerald married Amelia Catherine Bischoffsheim, daughter of prosperous banker Henri Louis Bischoffsheim. They had three children. [2] Throughout his life, FitzGerald was an enthusiastic yachtsman, member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and owned several vessels including The Satanita , a winning racing cutter. [3]
In 1909 FitzGerald acquired Buckland House, a grand Georgian mansion near Farringdon, Berkshire, where on one occasion he hosted King Edward VII. [4] Following his wife's death in 1947, she bequeathed the property to their grandson Major Richard Wellesley, in which family the estate remains. [2] He died at Buckland on 22 October 1916 aged 72. [5]
The Knight of Glin, also known as the Black Knight or Knight of the Valley, was an hereditary title held by the FitzGerald and FitzMaurice families of County Limerick, Ireland, since the early 14th century. The family was a branch of the FitzMaurice/FitzGerald Dynasty commonly known as the Geraldines and related to the now extinct Earls of Desmond who were granted extensive lands in County Limerick by the Crown. The title was named after the village of Glin, near the Knight's lands. The Knight of Glin was properly addressed as "Knight".
The FitzGerald dynasty is a Hiberno-Norman noble and aristocratic dynasty, originally of Cambro-Norman and Anglo-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the Four Masters as having become "more Irish than the Irish themselves" or Gaels, due to assimilation with the native Gaelic aristocratic and popular culture. The dynasty has also been referred to as the Geraldines and Ireland's largest landowners. They achieved power through colonisation and the conquest of large swathes of Irish territory by the sons and grandsons of Gerald de Windsor. Gerald de Windsor was the first Castellan of Pembroke Castle in Wales, and became the male progenitor of the FitzMaurice and FitzGerald Dynasty. His father, Baron Walter FitzOther, was the first Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle for William the Conqueror, and was the Lord of 38 manors in England, making the FitzGeralds one of the "service families" on whom the King relied for his survival. Some of its members became the Black Knights, Green Knights and White Knights.
Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, also counted as 15th or 16th, owned large part of the Irish province of Munster. In 1565 he fought the private Battle of Affane against his neighbours, the Butlers. After this, he was for some time detained in the Tower of London. Though the First Desmond Rebellion took place in his absence, he led the Second Desmond Rebellion from 1579 to his death and was therefore called the Rebel Earl. He was attainted in 1582 and went into hiding but was hunted down and killed.
Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 14th Knight of Kerry fought for James II in the Williamite War in Ireland, but after the defeat he conformed to the established religion by joining the Church of Ireland. He became Deputy Lieutenant of Kerry.
Knight of Kerry, also called The Green Knight, is one of three Hiberno-Norman hereditary knighthoods, all of which existed in Ireland since feudal times. The other two were The White Knight, being dormant since the 19th century, and the Knight of Glin, dormant since 2011. All three belong to the FitzMaurice/FitzGerald Dynasty commonly known as the Geraldines being created by the Earls of Desmond for their kinsmen.
Lord George Wellesley was an English soldier and airman.
Gerald FitzMaurice FitzGerald (1335–1398), also known by the Irish Gaelic Gearóid Iarla, was the 3rd Earl of Desmond, in southwestern Ireland, under the first creation of that title, and a member of the Anglo-Norman dynasty of the FitzGerald, or Geraldines. He was the son of Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond, by his third wife Aveline (Eleanor), daughter of Nicholas FitzMaurice, 3rd Lord of Kerry. He was half-brother to Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Desmond.
Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond in Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland was an Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland, Captain of Desmond Castle in Kinsale, so-called ruler of Munster, and for a short time Lord Justice of Ireland. Called "Maurice the Great", he led a rebellion against the Crown, but he was ultimately restored to favour.
Sir Adrian James Andrew Denis FitzGerald, 6th Baronet of Valentia, 24th Knight of Kerry is a Conservative Party politician in the UK and former Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He is the current "Green" Knight of Kerry, and thus has been the only holder of an active Irish hereditary knighthood since the 2011 death of his distant cousin Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin. The title has no official recognition in Ireland, which has been a republic since 18 April 1949 when the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into effect.
Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 18th Knight of Kerry was an hereditary knight and an Irish Whig politician.
The Wake Baronetcy, of Clevedon in the County of Somerset, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 5 December 1621 for Baldwin Wake. The sixth Baronet assumed the additional surname of Jones but died childless. The eighth Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Bedford. The twelfth Baronet was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1879. The thirteenth Baronet was a Major-General in the British Army. Another member of the family to gain distinction was Charles Wake, second son of the tenth Baronet; he was an Admiral in the Royal Navy.
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.
The High Sheriff of Kerry was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kerry, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kerry County Sheriff. The sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. However, the sheriff retained his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in the county. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed his choice as High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Sometimes a sheriff did not fulfil his entire term through death or other event and another sheriff was then appointed for the remainder of the year. The dates given hereunder are the dates of appointment. All addresses are in County Kerry unless stated otherwise.
James fitz John FitzGerald, 13th Earl of Desmond, also counted as the 14th, ruled 22 years, the first 4 years as de facto earl until the death of James FitzGerald, de jure 12th Earl of Desmond, called Court Page, who was murdered by James fitz John's brother Maurice fitz John FitzGerald, called Totane. James fitz John FitzGerald maintained himself in power by skilful diplomacy, avoiding armed conflict and destruction. He was appointed Lord Treasurer of Ireland in 1547.
Sir Peter George FitzGerald, 1st Baronet, 19th Knight of Kerry was an Anglo-Irish nobleman.
Major Sir George Peter Maurice FitzGerald, 5th Baronet, 23rd Knight of Kerry was a hereditary knight and British soldier. He was the son of Sir Arthur Henry Brinsley FitzGerald and Mary Eleanor Forester. He was educated at Harrow School and at Sandhurst. He fought in the Palestine Campaign in 1939, where he was mentioned in despatches. He fought in the Second World War and was decorated with the award of Military Cross (MC) in 1944. He retired from the military in 1948, with the rank of major, late of the Irish Guards.
James fitz Maurice FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond, also counted as the 11th, plotted against King Henry VIII with King Francis I of France in 1523 and with Emperor Charles V in 1528 and 1529.
James fitz Maurice FitzGerald, de jure 12th Earl of Desmond, also counted 13th, was called Court Page as he grew up as a hostage for his grandfather Thomas FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Desmond, the Bald, at the court of Henry VIII. He should have succeeded this grandfather in 1534, but John FitzGerald, de facto 12th Earl of Desmond usurped the earldom and was followed in 1536 by his son James, fitz John. In 1539 the lord deputy of Ireland, Leonard Grey seized some Desmond land in southern County Cork and handed it to Court Page, who came to Ireland to claim his rights but was killed by Maurice fitz John FitzGerald, called Totane. He was succeeded by James fitz John, now rightful 13th earl.
Lieutenant-Colonel Brinsley FitzGerald, CB was an Anglo-Irish stockbroker.
The FitzGerald baronetcy, of Valentia in the County of Kerry, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 8 July 1880 for Sir Peter George Fitzgerald, 19th Knight of Kerry.