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Death of Robert Weston, Civil Lawyer & Lord Chancellor of Ireland

Robert Weston of Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, an English civil lawyer, who is Dean of the Arches and Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, dies in Ireland on May 20, 1573.

Weston is born in Hampshire, England, in 1515, the third son of John Weston, of Weeford, Staffordshire, and Cecilia Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, 3rd Earl of Westmorland, and sister of Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland. His nephew is Knight Simon Weston, son of his brother James Weston, MP for Lichfield.

The Weston family of Gloucestershire, who produce another senior Irish judge in William Weston, are probably cousins of Robert. He enters All Souls College, Oxford and is elected Fellow in 1536. He studies Civil Law and attains the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) on February 17, 1538 and Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) on July 20, 1556. 

From 1546 to 1549, Weston is a principal of Broadgates Hall (afterwards Pembroke College), and at the same time deputy reader in civil law at the university, under Dr. John Story. He is not a clergyman, and his later appointment to two lucrative deaneries greatly troubles his conscience.

Weston is elected Member of Parliament for Exeter in March 1553 and for Lichfield in 1558 and 1559.

On January 12, 1559, Weston is created Dean of the Arches and is a commissioner for administering the oaths required of ecclesiastics under the Act of Uniformity 1558. He is consulted in regard to the Queen’s Commission issued on December 6, 1559, for confirming Matthew Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury and is included in a commission issued on November 8, 1564, to inquire into complaints of piratical depredations committed at sea on the subjects of the King of Spain.

The Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney, requests that Weston be nominated for the post of Lord Chancellor of Ireland in succession to Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin, in April 1566. After a year, on June 10, 1567, Queen Elizabeth I tells Sidney that after good deliberation she has made the “choice for the supply of room of Chancellor by naming thereunnto our trusty well-beloved Doctor Weston, dean of the arches here, a man for his learning and approved integrity thoroughly qualified to receive and possess the same” and “that for some increase of his living whilst he remaineth in our service there she was pleased to give unto him the Deanery of St. Patrick’s, whereof the Bishop of Armagh, Adam Loftus, is now dean and yet to leave it at our order, as we know he will.”

Weston arrives in Dublin early in August and is sworn into office on August 8, 1567. He is conscientious in performing his duties, and greatly respected for his integrity, although ill-health (he is plagued by gout and gallstones) hampers his effectiveness. He is appalled by the laziness and inefficiency of many of the Irish judges and urges Elizabeth I to replace them with Englishmen wherever possible. He is equally shocked at the poverty and ignorance of many of the Protestant clergy in Ireland. His zeal for reform leads him, though a layman, to become an effective leader of the Church of Ireland for a few years. He cooperates with Adam Loftus, now Archbishop of Dublin, in purging the Archdiocese of Dublin of crypto-Catholics, but is opposed to the persecution of the Roman Catholic majority, or any efforts to forcibly convert them.

Weston and Sir William FitzWilliam, the Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, are sworn Lords Justices in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on October 14, and he becomes a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. He addresses the Irish Parliament when it is summoned on January 17, 1568. In addition to being Dean of St. Patrick’s, he is Dean of Wells from 1570 to 1573, but his health is failing.

Weston dies on May 20, 1573, and is buried beneath the altar in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, “leaving behind him an excellent character for uprightness, judgment, learning, courtesy, and piety.”

Weston marries Alice Jenyngs, daughter of Richard Jenyngs of Great Barr, Staffordshire. They have a son, John, and three daughters, of whom most of known of Alice, who marries firstly Hugh Brady, Bishop of Meath, by whom she has numerous children including Luke and Nicholas, and secondly Sir Geoffrey Fenton, by whom she is the mother of Catherine, who marries Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and of Sir William Fenton.

Weston is the 7th great-grandfather of the American firearms industrialist Daniel B. Wesson, who cofounds Smith & Wesson with Horace Smith. Hus great-grandson, John Wesson, immigrates to the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1644 and settles in Reading, Massachusetts.


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Hugh Brady Appointed Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath

Hugh Brady, a native of Trim, County Meath, is appointed Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath on October 21, 1563. He serves in this position until his death on February 14, 1584.

Brady is born in 1527, but his parentage is uncertain, as are most of the details of his early life. He is said to be a graduate of the University of Oxford and later a professor of divinity there, but there is no evidence of this in the college registers.

Brady’s first patron is Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London, under whose auspices he secures a prestigious appointment to the rectorship of St. Mary Aldermary, London, in early 1561. Over the next two years he becomes acquainted with a relative and chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I, William Cecil. He is eager to return to Ireland and is appointed Bishop of Meath on October 21, 1563, while still in England. He is ideally qualified for this role, being a native of the diocese and a skilled preacher fluent in English and Irish. Arriving in Dublin on December 3, 1563, he is consecrated on December 19, being made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland soon thereafter.

On reaching his diocese, Brady is dismayed at its dilapidated state. His diocesan income scarcely exceeds £60 a year, many of the churches are in ruins, his clergy are uneducated and largely pro-Catholic, and the right to appoint clergy to many parish churches is in the hands of Catholic landowners. Further, the rival Catholic Bishop of Meath, William Walsh, is dedicated, capable, and popular. Although Walsh is belatedly arrested in 1565, his willingness to lead by example and suffer persecution for his beliefs stiffens Catholic resistance in Meath.

Brady is always diligent in attendance at Council meetings. He is vigorous in beating off raids on his diocese by Shane O’Neill, the effective ruler of Ulster. He enjoys the friendship of Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who praises his sound judgment, hospitality and blameless private life. His good qualities lead Sidney and Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Armagh, to propose Brady as Archbishop of Dublin, after they have lobbied successfully for the recall of Archbishop Hugh Curwen. However, soon after, Brady and Loftus quarrel, and Loftus blocks Brady’s nomination in order to obtain the See of Dublin for himself.

Nonetheless, Brady retains Sidney’s confidence and finds a new ally in 1567 when Robert Weston becomes Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Weston sympathises with his educational and evangelical bent while gaining the respect of the querulous Loftus, thereby defusing the animosity between Ireland’s leading Protestant clergy.

In 1569, Brady’s diocese is amalgamated with the diocese of Clonmacnoise. He now heads a sprawling diocese that includes Gaelic areas where the crown has very little authority. In practice, he appears to have largely ignored Clonmacnoise. In Meath, a government inquiry in 1575 shows that he has made little headway in spreading the Protestant faith or in restoring the fabric and finances of the church. He has found clergy for nearly every church in the diocese, but most are of a poor standard. He contributes to the diocese’s worsening finances by alienating church land to family and associates. The free school he establishes is also forced to close due to a lack of suitable premises.

Following Sidney’s dismissal as Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1578, Protestant hard-liners begin to dominate the Irish government, causing Brady to lose influence. He complains in 1581 that his letters to London are being opened and read by his colleagues and sometimes being suppressed. His influence declines in Meath also as discontent with the government increases. In 1577, his men capture a number of friars at Navan but are attacked by locals and forced to free their captives. Thereafter, local officials and landowners routinely defy his authority. His conciliatory policies totally discredited, he stays away from Dublin and resides mainly at his episcopal palace at Ardbraccan.

From 1582 Brady suffers from ill health, forcing him to curtail his preaching. He dies on February 14, 1584, and is buried near the parish church at Dunboyne.

Brady marries twice, but little is known of his first wife. In 1568, following the death of his first wife, he marries Weston’s daughter Alice. They had at least four children, including Luke, their eldest son, and Nicholas, grandfather of his namesake the poet. After Brady’s death, his widow marries Sir Geoffrey Fenton and has further issue, including Catherine, Countess of Cork. The poet Nicholas Brady is the bishop’s great-grandson. Maziere Brady, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, is a nineteenth-century descendant of the bishop.


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The Battle of Moyry Pass

The Battle of Moyry Pass begins on September 20, 1600, ending on October 9, in counties Armagh and Louth, in the north of Ireland, during the Nine Years’ War. It is the first significant engagement of forces following the cessation of arms agreed in the previous year between the Irish leader Hugh O’Neill and the English Crown commander, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

The battle is fought by the armies of O’Neill and Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, a follower of the late Earl of Essex. Mountjoy is determined to pierce O’Neill’s heartland in central and western Ulster by the Moyry Pass. In the course of the two-week assault the English troops establish a garrison near Armagh, taking heavy casualties, and Mountjoy retires with difficulty to Dundalk.

Mountjoy’s strategy for putting down O’Neill’s rebellion is gradually to constrict his territory in Ulster with a ring of fortified garrisons on the borders. To this end, he lands seaborne forces at Derry in the north of the province and at Carrickfergus in the east of Ulster. In September 1600, Mountjoy moves north from Dublin and concentrates at Dundalk in order to mount an expedition further into Ulster and re-establish a garrison at Armagh, which position had been evacuated by the English Crown forces after O’Neill’s victory at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598.

On September 17, 1600, Mountjoy sets out from Dundalk, intending to march to Newry and then on to Armagh. The Moyry Pass (or “Gap of the North”) is the sole point of entry to Ulster as much of the terrain is wooded and mountainous, and it has been well fortified by O’Neill with trenches and barricades. There are three lines of trenches, barricaded with earth and stone, and on the flanks the Irish have made further earth and stone works and “plashed” (twisted) the branches of low-growing trees in order to provide cover for themselves and prevent the English occupying the heights on either side of the Pass.

The English reach the pass on September 20 and set up camp just outside, to the south on Faughart Hill. Taking advantage of a misty day on the 25th, an officer named Thomas Williams (who had commanded the Blackwater Fort during the Battle of the Yellow Ford) makes a sortie into the pass. After heavy fighting he identifies the Irish defence works and returns to the English camp with 12 dead and 30 wounded. For six days heavy rain holds up the fighting, until the weather clears on October 2. The weather is important because the matchlock muskets of the day do not work in wet conditions. On October 2, Sir Samuel Bagnall leads his regiment of infantry into the Pass at the head of four other regiments. The English breach the first barricade, and Thomas Bourke’s regiment leads the way to the second and third lines of defence. The English take the second line only to find themselves in a trap, with gunfire concentrated from three sides. They try to dislodge the Irish from their remaining positions for three more hours before retreating, with the Irish in close pursuit. The English admit 46 killed and 120 wounded, but it is thought that they understated their losses throughout the campaign.

On October 5, Mountjoy sends two regiments on a flanking march over the hill to the west, with one further regiment supported by horsemen advancing up the centre of the Pass. No significant gains are made, and the regiments turn back, reporting casualties of 50 dead and 200 wounded.

By October 9 the privy councilor Geoffrey Fenton complains, “we are now but where we were in the beginning.” Mountjoy retires to Dundalk on either October 8 or 9, but on October 14 word reaches the English camp that O’Neill has abandoned the Pass and retreated to a crannog stronghold at Lough Lurcan. The most likely explanation for O’Neill’s withdrawal from his position of strength is that he is short of ammunition and food and fears a flanking attack on his rear from Newry.

Mountjoy occupies the Moyry Pass on October 17 and dismantles O’Neill’s earthworks. He marches on to Carrickban, just outside Newry, and by Sunday, November 2, sets up camp at Mountnorris, halfway between Newry and Armagh. There he builds an earthwork fort and leaves a garrison of 400 men under the command of Captain Edward Blaney. He then marches back to Dundalk via Carlingford, but is attacked on November 13 by O’Neill, close to the Fathom Pass. Mountjoys men force their way through, and the Lord Deputy claims the army lost 15–20 killed and 60–80 wounded, but a later report suggests the losses are much heavier, with 80 killed.

The battle of Moyry Pass is a stalemate as Mountjoy cannot take the Pass and O’Neill cannot keep it. Mountjoy does establish a garrison at Mountnorris, but has to retire to Dundalk after taking substantial casualties. Mountjoy claims his force lost only 200 men killed and 400 wounded in the fighting from September 20 to November 13, though this may be a considerable underestimate. More, he says, died of disease. The Irish casualties are given by the English as an incredible 900–1,200 killed and wounded, but this is questionable given that the Irish were in a strong defensive position of their own choosing, behind the protection of fieldworks. These figures probably say more about what Mountjoy wanted Queen Elizabeth I to hear than about the actual casualty figures. The following year Mountjoy builds Moyry Castle to secure the pass.

(Pictured: View of the entrance to the Moyry Pass looking north from Faghart Hill)


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Death of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork

richard-boyle-1st-earl-of-cork

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, English-born politician who serves as Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland and is also known as the Great Earl of Cork, dies on September 15, 1643 in Youghal, County Cork. He is an important figure in the continuing English colonisation of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries, as he acquires large tracts of land in plantations in Munster in southern Ireland.

Boyle is born at Canterbury, Kent, England on October 3, 1566, the second son of Roger Boyle, a descendant of an ancient landed Herefordshire family, and of Joan, daughter of John Naylor. He goes to The King’s School, Canterbury, at the same time as Christopher Marlowe. His university education begins at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England, in 1583. After this he studies law at the Middle Temple in London and becomes a clerk to Sir Roger Manwood, who is then Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Boyle goes to Ireland in 1588. He becomes deputy Escheator under Ireland’s Escheator General John Crofton and uses his office to enrich himself, only to lose his property in the Munster rebellion in 1598. Returning to England, he is imprisoned on charges of embezzlement arising from his activities in Ireland. He is acquitted by a royal court, however, and in 1600 Elizabeth I of England appoints him clerk of the council of Munster.

Two years later, Boyle purchases Sir Walter Raleigh’s estates in the Irish counties of Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary. By employing settlers imported from England, he develops his lands and founds ironworks and other industries. The enormous wealth he accumulates brings him honours and political influence. Created Earl of Cork in 1620, he is appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1629 and Lord High Treasurer in 1631. Nevertheless, soon after Sir Thomas Wentworth (afterward Earl of Strafford) goes to Ireland as lord deputy in 1633, Boyle is fined heavily for possessing defective titles to some of his estates. Thereafter his political influence declines.

Boyle dies at Youghal on September 15, 1643, having been chased off his lands in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His sons, however, recover the family estates after the suppression of the rebellion.

Boyle’s first wife, Joan Apsley, the daughter and co-heiress of William Apsley of Limerick, whom he marries on November 6, 1595, dies at Mallow, County Cork on December 14, 1599 during childbirth. By his second wife, Catherine Fenton, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, he has eight daughters and seven sons, including the renowned chemist Robert Boyle and the statesman-dramatist Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery.