Gerald FitzJohn FitzGerald (abt. 1505 - 1554)

Born about 1505 in Dromona, Waterford, Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 25 Feb 1554 at about age 49 in Templemichael, County Waterford, Ireland

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Biography

Gerald FitzGerald was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Gerald FitzGerald is Notable.

Sir Gerald Fitzgerald, 3rd Lord Decies was the only son of John FitzGerald and Ellen FitzGibbon, daughter of Maurice, the White Knight ^[1]

Circa 1523, Gerald FitzJohn FitzGerald, of Dromana, co. Waterford, Lord of Decies (d. 25 Feb 1553/4), mar. Ellice Butler, 4th daughter of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormonde, by his wife Margaret FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare.^[2]

1544: He sent troops to the Siege of Boulogne, France.^[3]

Death year of 1553 (New Style 1554) comes from Cokayne's Peerage, as well as the sources mentioned in the section "History of the Dromana Fitzgeralds" below.

Children:^[4]

• Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Viscount of Decies,^[5] no known male issue

• Sir James FitzGerald, 5th Lord of Decies of Dromana, County Waterford (d. 28 Dec 1580), mar. c. 1572 Ellen MacCarthy, dau. of Cormac MacCarthy Reagh, 13th Prince of Carbery, and their son was Gerald, 6th Lord Decies

• Gerald FitzGerald of Ballihenni (died 1599), married Eleanor Butler, daughter of John Butler of Derryloskan, and their son was John, 7th Lord Decies

• Mary/Margaret FitzGerald, married Sir Oliver Grace, Knight of Ballylinch & Leagan Castles,^[6] County Kilkenny; Lord of Carney, Tipperary; and Member of Parliament (MP) in 1559^[7]; (he died ca 1580) and had at least 4 sons and 2 daughters^[8][9]

Excerpts from the Dictionary of Irish Biography profile for Thomas FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Desmond:

• In October 1529 Thomas granted in fee all his possessions in Co. Waterford to John, 2nd Lord Decies, and John's son Gerald MacShane, 3rd Lord Decies, partly in repayment for their support (1520s) against the James FitzMaurice FitzGerald, 10th Earl, and partly to ensure their future support for his grandson.^[10]

• Thomas's second wife was Katherine, daughter of John Fitzgerald, 2nd Lord Decies, who was to become the legendary ‘old countess of Desmond’.

Excerpts from the book Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family^[11]

• When Sir John FitzGerald died, his son Gerald inherited Dromana. In his time there were also wars and rumours of wars, but Gerald, too, seems to have sided with the English. In 1535, the Lord Deputy Leonard Grey set sail for England leaving behind him his company of 100 men, under a Welsh officer named Parry, who had orders to attach himself to Piers Butler, Earl of Ormond.

• When Parry and his men entered the Ormond district they were well received everywhere. Thomas Butler^[12] met the troops at Clonmel, and led them over the mountains to Dungarvan. Thomas Butler spoke very good English, says Parry (in a letter to chief minister Thomas Cromwell) and made himself most agreeable. Gerald FitzGerald of Dromana joined them on the road. Gerald was son-in-law to the Earl of Ormond.^[13] Parry says of Gerald: "This gentleman could not speak a word of English, but he was very civil, professed great loyalty, and bound himself by hostages to act under the advice of the Council."

• Gerald, however, later argued that he held his property from the Desmonds, and chose to ignore altogether "his tenure of the royal honour of Dungarvan." Upon the death (1534) of Gerald's brother-in-law Thomas FitzThomas FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Desmond, Gerald thought it prudent to acknowledge Thomas' grandson, James, as rightful Earl, so in 1539 we read of his going to Thurles to make his submission. The young James had been brought up at the Court of Henry VIII, so that in spite of there being several other claimants to the Earldom he was backed up by Royal favour and sent over to Ireland with a large retinue. This, however, did not prevent James being shortly afterwards murdered near Fermoy by his rival's brother, who had earned for himself the title of "Maurice of the Burnings."^[14]

History of the Dromana Fitzgeralds

This overview of the Lords of Decies (Dromana Fitzgeralds) is condensed from "History of Kinsalebeg: Landlords and Land Ownership", Cracroft's Peerage, and various issues of the Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society:^[15]

• The FitzGerald Dromana ancestry begins with the Earls of Desmond who owned large parts of Munster until their defeat in the Desmond rebellions ca.1583. After the rebellion, most of the Desmond land was confiscated but the Dromana estate was left largely untouched.

• The Dromana branch started in the 15th century when James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond (d.1463) left extensive lands in West Waterford to his youngest son Gerald FitzGerald (d.1488), considered to be the 1st Lord Decies. Gerald made his base in Dromana, and Dromana Castle became a cliff-top home for generations of FitzGeralds and subsequently Villiers and Villiers-Stuarts.

• The title then passed in the typical fashion, to Gerald's son John, 2nd Lord (d.1524) and then to John's son Gerald, 3rd Lord (d.1554).

• In turn Gerald's 2 sons Maurice (d.1572) and James (d.1580) served respectively as 1st Viscount Decies (a provisional title which Maurice had to petition the Crown for, given the turbulence of the times) and 5th Lord Decies.

• After James died, the title went to his son Gerald, 6th Lord, who died with no heir in 1598. The title thus reverted to a first cousin John, 7th Lord (d.1608), who was the son of another Gerald (1530-1599) who had never held the title himself.

• From John, 7th Lord, the title passed to his son John Oge (d.1626) and in turn to John Oge's son Gerald (d.1643), who married Mabel Digby, daughter of Sir Robert Digby MP.

• According to the Civil Survey of 1654-1656, this same Gerrott fzt Gerrald of Dromanny Esq [Gerald FitzGerald of Dromana], who was described as an “Irish Protestant deceased” [since 1643], held about 21,500 acres of land in West Waterford at that time.^[16]

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia : Gerald Fitzgerald, 3rd Lord Decies
2. ↑ Note: The same Ellice Butler was previously married (ca.1507) to Sir Oliver Morres (died ca.1523) and they had 2 sons, Oliver and Edmond. From this first marriage of Ellice's, Hervey de Montmorency specifies sons Oliver & Edmond and also a daughter who married into the Grace family. However the daughter who married Oliver Grace came from Ellice's 2nd marriage (to Gerald FitzGerald).
   • Hervey de Montmorency-Morres, Genealogical Memoir of the Family of Montmorency, 592 pages, published 1817, ISBN 134133841X
     • https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DSwAAAAAQAAJ&dq
3. ↑ From Arian Collins' The Sherlocks of Ireland and Wales (Bordertown Publishing, San Diego, California, 2011), pp.47-48:
   • Patrick Sherlock, father of Sir John Sherlock, was in command of the Irish levies of Sir Gerald FitzJohn of Dromana at the Siege of Boulogne, France, in 1544."
     • https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/5732844/the-sherlocks-of-ireland-and-wales-frank-taylor-the-flying-
4. ↑ Notes on the family, from the Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society, Vol.1, 1894-5, pp.263-264:
   • http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ejournals/100575/100575.pdf
     • Sir Gerald Fitzgerald, of Dromany (2nd son of James, 6th Earl of Desmond) died seized of the lands in question on August 16th, 1488; after whose death the possessions descended to his son and heir, John Fitzgerald, who died at Dromany on December 18th, 1524, when his son and heir, Gerald, entered into possession of the premises. This Gerald died at Templemichael February 25th, 1553, and was succeeded by his son and heir Maurice, 1st Viscount Decies.
5. ↑ The title existed from 1569-72, then was reinstated a century later:
   • http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/Ext%20Irish%20Viscs.htm
6. ↑ Photograph of Legan Castle, and map pinpointing its location, from the website "Irish Castles":
   • https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4571023
7. ↑ Oliver Grace first appears on the 26th April, 1550, when, as "Oliver Grace, late of Jeryponte, alias of the Legan, Co. Kilkenny, gent.," he received a pardon from the crown [Fiants of Hen. VIII]. He is described as "of Jeryponte," probably from his having acquired a temporary residence from the Earl of Ormond in part of the Abbey buildings. He must have been fully settled down at Legan, about 1552, when as "Oliver Grace of the Legan, gent." he had a Crown lease of the Abbey of Nenagh and all its possessions, for 21 years. On the 27th Nov., 1563, this lease was renewed "to him, his executors, and assigns, for 41 years, remainders to Gerald his son, John his second son, Thomas his third son, Richard, his fourth son, and any other sons of the said Oliver and Mary Fitzgerald, successively in tail male. To hold by homage and fealty, at a rent of Ł39 0s. 10d." [Fiants of Eliz.] In the Memoirs of the Family of Grace he is styled "Sir," and is said to have been M.P. for Tipperary in 1559. The date of his death is unknown, but it must be previous to 1586. His wife, Margaret Fitzgerald, daughter of Sir Gerald Fitzgerald, Lord of Decies, and sister of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, also Lord of Decies, died at a very advanced age, Dec. 20th, 1615, and is buried in Jerpoint Abbey. (A brief history of Jerpoint Abbey appears here, with modern photos.)
   • Rev. Carrigan's History of the Diocese of Ossory published in 1905 describes the Graces of Legan and Ballylinch on pages 270-272 of Volume IV. Referenced 29 Mar 2020 online:
     • https://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/history/grace.html
8. ↑ Note: Oliver Grace & Elinor FitzGerald were the 3rd great-grandparents of another well-known Oliver Grace, Chief Remembrancer of the Exchequer of Ireland
9. ↑ Elinor Grace, daughter Of Sir Oliver Grace, lord of Carney in Lower Ormond (M.P. for Co. Tipperary. 1559) by Mary, daughter of Sir John Fitzgerald, 3rd Lord Decies. She d.s.p. Lodge’s Peerage of Ire. (Archdall ed. 1784) Vol. VI, p. 221:
   • http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/butlers/notes.htm
10. ↑ Thomas' grandson was another James FitzMaurice, raised in the court of Henry VIII, and who served briefly as de jure 12th Earl until his murder in 1540 by a relative known as Black Maurice.
11. ↑ Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family, by Therese Muir MacKenzie (Therese Villiers Stuart), published 1907 (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker), pp.45-48:
    • https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/thrse-mackenzie/dromana--the-memoirs-of-an-irish-family-ala.shtml
12. ↑ Possibly referring to Thomas Butler, 1st Baron Cahir, who was son-in-law to Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, via Piers' 5th daughter Eleanor.
13. ↑ Gerald had married the 8th Earl of Ormond's daughter Ellice sometime after she was widowed from Sir Oliver Morres in 1523.
14. ↑ Black Maurice, the assassin, was cousin to the victim's father. Maurice's brother James FitzJohn FitzGerald then became 14th Earl of Desmond.
15. ↑ Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society
16. ↑ The land was spread over 17 parishes including Lisgenan (4060 acres), Kinsalebeg (203), Dungarvan (1050), Abbeyside (34), Colligan (660), Affane (800), Rynegonagh (950), Whitechurch (629), Seskinane (1600), Kilmolash (330), Ardmore (1650), Modeligo (820), Aglish (2557), Kilgobinet (700), Clashmore (3070), Stradbally (140) and Fewes (2000). There were other land owners in these parishes so they were not exclusively in the ownership of the FitzGeralds. The FitzGeralds however owned the greater part of the land in the parishes of Aglish, Clashmore, Lisgenan (Grange), Rynegonagh (Ring), Seskinane and Fewes. Land belonging to the FitzGeralds of Dromana in the proximity of Kinsalebeg included some in Ballyheeny, Knocknageragh (Summerhill), Grange, Ardsallagh, Tinnabinna, Ticknock, Shanacoole, Ballycrompane and Coolbagh. Gerald FitzGerald of Dromana is recorded as having 1030 acres in the townlands of Ardsallagh, Tinnabinna, Ticknock, Shanacoole and Ballycrompane. He also had 203 acres in the townland of Ballyheeny and 4060 acres in the parish of Lisgenan [Grange] which included 230 acres in Knocknageragh [Summerhill] bordering Pilltown.

See Also:

• History of Kinsalebeg: Landlords and Land Ownership

• Desmond, Earl of (I, 1329 - 1582) Cracroft's Peerage