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 August 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 townhouse Thomas Court. The Abbey's lands included Kilruddery, which later became, and remains, the family's principal seat.
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 February 1549.
In August 1550, 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.
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.
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, who married Andrew Wise, and Elizabeth, who married Sir Henry Duke of Castlejordan and had two daughters. 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.
Earl of Meath is a title in the Peerage of Ireland created in 1627 and held by the head of the Brabazon family. This family descends from Sir Edward Brabazon, who represented County Wicklow in the Irish House of Commons and served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1606. In 1616 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Ardee. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the second Baron. In 1627 he was created Earl of Meath in the Peerage of Ireland, with remainder to his younger brother the Hon. Sir Anthony Brabazon. Lord Meath was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. His grandson, the fourth Earl, served as Lord-Lieutenant of Dublin and of Kildare. His wife Dorothy Stopford, daughter of James Stopford and Mary Forth, was a close friend of Jonathan Swift. He died childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the fifth Earl. He was also Lord-Lieutenant of Dublin. Lord Meath married the Hon. Juliana, daughter of Patrick Chaworth, 3rd and last Viscount Chaworth.
Earl of Bessborough is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1739 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, who had previously represented Newtownards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons. In 1749, he was given the additional title of Baron Ponsonby of Sysonby, in the County of Leicester, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which entitled him to a seat in the British House of Lords. The titles Viscount Duncannon, of the fort of Duncannon in the County of Wexford, and Baron Bessborough, of Bessborough, Piltown, in the County of Kilkenny, had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1723 and 1721 respectively for Lord Bessborough's father William Ponsonby, who had earlier represented County Kilkenny in the Irish House of Commons.
The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland. The plural form is Lords Deputy.
Edward Fiennes, or Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln KG was an English landowner, peer, and Lord High Admiral. He rendered valuable service to four of the Tudor monarchs.
Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, 1st Earl of Ossory also known as Red Piers, was from the Polestown branch of the Butler family of Ireland. In the succession crisis at the death of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond he succeeded to the earldom as heir male, but lost the title in 1528 to Thomas Boleyn. He regained it after Boleyn's death in 1538.
Elizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Lincoln, also known as The Fair Geraldine, was an Irish noblewoman and a member of the celebrated FitzGerald dynasty. She became the second wife of Sir Anthony Browne Jr. and later the third wife of English admiral Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln. She was the inspiration for The Geraldine, a sonnet written by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare was an English courtier. She was wife of Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, Baron of Offaly. She was born into the English Roman Catholic Browne family whose members held prominent positions at the courts of the Tudor sovereigns for three generations. Mabel served as a gentlewoman of Queen Mary I's privy chamber, and enjoyed the Queen's favour.
Sir Gerald Aylmer was an Irish judge in the time of Henry VIII, who played a key part in enforcing the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His numerous descendants included the Barons Aylmer.
Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough, was a British politician and peer. He was the son of William Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Duncannon, and Mary Moore. He was an active politician from 1705 to 1757 in Great Britain and Ireland. He represented Newtownards and Kildare County in the Irish House of Commons. He inherited his father's viscountcy in 1724 and was made Earl of Bessborough in the Peerage of Ireland in 1739. He is buried in Fiddown, County Kilkenny, Ireland.
Sir Theobald Butler, 1st Baron Cahir, Caher, or Cahier was the first baron Cahir of the second creation, which occurred in 1583.
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 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.
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.
Cahir mac Art Kavanagh, "The MacMurrough" and King of Leinster, also Lord of St. Molyns, and baron of Ballyann, was an Irish magnate of the Tudor period.
Sir Thomas Cusack (1490–1571) was an Anglo-Irish judge and statesman of the sixteenth century, who held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, and sat in the Irish House of Commons. He was one of the most trusted and dependable Crown servants of his time, although he led a somewhat turbulent private life.
Events from the year 1554 in Ireland.
Robert Preston, 1st Baron Gormanston was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, statesman and judge of the fourteenth century. He held several senior judicial offices including, for a brief period, that of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was the founder of the leading Anglo-Irish Preston family whose titles included Viscount Gormanston and Viscount Tara.
Edward Brabazon, 1st Baron Ardee was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore PC (I) was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
Hercules Langford Rowley PC was an Irish politician and landowner.
Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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