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John FitzThomas FitzGerald (abt. 1195 - 1261)

John FitzThomas "1st Baron Desmond" FitzGerald
Born about in Shanid, Limerick, Irelandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 66 in Callan, County Kilkenny, Irelandmap
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Profile last modified | Created 4 Jun 2016
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Contents

Biography

John FitzThomas FitzGerald was 1st Baron Desmond and ancestor of many famous branches of the family: the Earls of Desmond, the Lords of Decies, the White Knights, the Knights of Kerry (Green Knights), and the Knights of Glin (Black Knights).

His parents were Thomas FitzMaurice and Elinor Marisco, and his paternal grandfather was the Welsh-born Maurice FitzGerald (1100-1177),[1] Lord of Lanstephen, who arrived in Ireland with Strongbow in 1169.

John founded Tralee ca.1216 and its Dominican Friary in 1243.

Killed at the Battle of Callan in 1261:

  • The Royal grant-in-fee of of Desmond and Waterford to John FitzThomas (1259) aroused the allied resistance of displaced Irish clans: the MacCarthys, O'Sullivans, and O'Donoghues led by Finghin MacCarthy.
  • The Battle of Callan on the 23rd July 1261 was a decisive victory for the Irish. John FitzThomas FitzGerald was killed and buried in the Dominican Abbey he had founded at Tralee.[2] It has been noted that he was killed by Finghin Mac Carthaigh, his son-in-law.[3]

Marriages & Children

  • John FitzGerald, hereditary Lord of Connelloe (John of Callan) married 1) Margaret FitzAnthony, daughter of a Norman noble, and thus became Lord of Decies and Desmond. The descendants of John FitzThomas and Margaret FitzAnthony became the Earls of Desmond and established the FitzGerald dynasty, the "Geraldines".[4] On 3 July 1215, King John granted to John's father-in-law Thomas FitzAnthony the custody of County Waterford, including Dungarvan Castle and Waterford Castle, along with custody of the County of Desmond and the city of Cork. These possession all came into John's hands.[5]
  • John married 2) Honora O'Connor, daughter of either a) Hugh, the O'Connor of Kerry, or b) Phelim MacHugh, the O'Connor Don, of Connaught; and had a son Gilbert or Gibbon.[6]

The Knight of Glin, the White Knight, and the Knight of Kerry:

Before 1261, John fitz Thomas Fitzgerald passed his power on to his sons, some of whom were born illegitimately of liaisons with the wives of Irish chieftains. To three of his five sons, he granted hereditary knighthoods, the only three such hereditary knighthoods ever recognized in Ireland or Great Britain. These were the Knight of Glin, the White Knight, and the Knight of Kerry. [7]

From Burke's Peerage (under the title White Knight):

  • Tradition says he had 4 (possibly 5) illegitimate sons by 4 different mothers, 3 of which men he made knights by virtue of his royal status as a Count Palatine -- although other sources say they were knighted much later, by Edward III at the Battle of Halidon Hill 19 July 1333. The Knighthoods probably became hereditary by long usage because the heads of these junior branches of the Geraldine family were almost always created on an individual basis.
  • Whatever the facts, the descendants of the 3 knights have been styled as such by Acts of Parliament, patents under the Great Seal and in legal proceedings for many centuries. The first authentic record of the use of the title White Knight is in 1401, of Knight of Glin (the Black Knight) in 1424 and of Knight of Kerry (the Green Knight) in 1468, though this does not necessarily mean the titles were not in use earlier.

Research Notes

John was known as feudal Lord of Connello (Lord of Callan, sometimes recorded as Oconeloc or Connello), Decies, Desmond & Dungarvan.

The modern surname, FitzGerald, knew many variants over the centuries.

From a note in the Carew Manuscripts at Lambeth:

  • "Prince Edward sent letters to his tenants in Desmond desiring them to attend John FitzThomas as they had attended on [his father-in-law] Thomas FitzAnthony and Stephen Longnespee; and the Lord Justiciary was to put him in possession of Desmond who appointed a time to do it, but John FitzThomas would not wait and without further warrant took possession of it."

Sources

  1. Maurice FitzGerald (1100-1177) is considered the progenitor of the FitzGerald dynasty in Ireland.
  2. http://thepeerage.com/p15562.htm#i155620.
  3. Journal of the Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland: No. 2 The Earls of Desmond JSTOR pdf ed: Rev. James Graves
  4. Wikipedia: John FitzGerald, 1st Baron Desmond
  5. Dungarvan Castle: an outline history by Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
  6. Entered by Wikitree researcher Harry Boswell, citing:
  7. http://www.sneydobone.com/webtree/elliott/kerry-knights.htm.




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Comments: 3

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Shouldn't the LNAB be FitzThomas? That was his patronymic, and it seems appending FitzGerald to the family was done several centuries later.
Hello from the Medieval Ireland team. Good question -- which often comes up when looking at Ireland of the 1100s-1500s.

Technically you may be right here, but this opens up a massive Pandora's Box involving hundreds of profiles extending far beyond the FitzGeralds. Many respected researchers over the centuries (e.g., see my homepage for a list of some Irish history links) have used FitzGerald for clarity, even when referring to the 1100s. The same goes for spellings, which jumped around endlessly among FitzGerrot, FitzGerrold, many other Irish variants, with or without a space, with or without a capital G in the middle, etc. Unfortunately, genealogy is not always an exact science. For usability, the Medieval team have needed to pick a standard (FitzGerald) that would make Wikitree as clear and searchable as possible.

There are exceptions of course -- the well-known FitzGibbon (White Knights) and FitzMaurice branches, among others.

posted by Z Fanning
edited by Z Fanning
FitzThomas-25 and FitzGerald-3758 appear to represent the same person because: same name, same parents, death date the same, my birth date an estimate, same locations, my profile's son is the First Knight of Glin.