John Cantwell
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John Cantwell (abt. 1510 - bef. 1571)

Sir John "of Cantwellscourt" Cantwell
Born about in Gowran, Kilkenny, Irelandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
[sibling(s) unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
Descendants descendants
Father of
Died before before about age 61 [location unknown]
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Profile last modified | Created 6 Jan 2018
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Not to be confused with John Cantwell, Lord of Moykarky, Precentor of Cashel, who was buried in St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, in 1531. They were distant cousins, both descended from Hugh Cantwell, "gateway ancestor" to Ireland with Strongbow in the 1170s.[1]

Note: For background on the Irish Cantwells, please see the page Cantwells in Ireland 1200-1600.

Contents

Biography

John Cantwell was the son of Thomas Cantwell (died 16 Aug 1535) and Joan/Joanna Fitzgerald. She was sister of David, Baron of Brownsford, and Milo, Bishop of Ossory. Her father was Piers Fitzgerald and her grandfather Thomas.[2][3]

John Cantwell of Cantwellstown,[4] gentleman, was pardoned May 18th, 1549,[5] about which time his property in the Barony of Gowran was estimated at 60 pounds, or at about the same value as the (large) estate of Geoffry Purcell of Ballyfoyle, at the same date. In the same pardon: Edmund Cantwell, horseboy.

1551: Inquisition taken at Clonmel [Co. Tipperary] in the 5th year of Edward VI [September 15, 1551] before Gerald Aylmer,[6] knight, chief justice, and his fellows, by the following jurors: Geoffrey Fannyng, Thomas Mores, Peter, Richard and John Cantwell, William Moncell, John Senjohn, William Bryt, David Walshe, Richard Butler, William Moidell and Philip Vale. The presentments of the jurors follow. Maurice Condone late of Cahir, kern, at Reaghkill stole a horse of Cornelius O'Donyll: suspensus.[7]

1555: Inquisition taken at Clonmel before David Rothe of Kilkenny, gent., and his fellows, assigned to enquire into all arsons, rapes, forestalling and treasure found in county Tipperary, also for gaol-delivery of all persons, in the 1st and 2nd years of Philip and Mary [April 25. 1555] Jurors: Thomas Cantwell, Richard and John Cantwell, William Power, Thomas Boy Purcell, The jurors say that, notwithstanding the statute passed by Parliament at Dublin before Thomas, Earl of Surrey, Nicholas, Richard and John Fanyng fitz Geoffrey of Ballyngarry, Teige Bearre O'Howlaghan and Dermod O'Treassy alias O'Twee of the same, kerns, advised, procured and abetted by Geoffrey Fanyng, gent., wilfully burned a house at Ferenrory containing 40 cows with 6ol. [?] of William Fanyng, gent., and also a girl called Sawe Iny Canlyen who was in the house.[8]

1560: John Cantwell of Cantwell's Court was one of the top 10 landowners in County Kilkenny, holding 3,550 acres.[9]

Ca.1560: 'Sir John Cantwell is mentioned as a landowner near Callan, Co. Kilkenny.[10]

June 1569: In a letter to (Sir Henry Sidney) Lord Deputy of Ireland, John Cantwell, Sheriff of Kilkenny, writes of the rage and tyranny of Sir Edmund Butler[11][12]

John Cantwell became Sheriff of Co. Kilkenny in 1569, and was murdered soon after by Geoffry Carraghe Purcell, who was himself slain for the crime by the Earl of Ormond in 1571.[13][14]

1580: "Indenture between Thomas, Earl of Ormond, and Philip O'Kearne of Ballydeagh, Co. Tipperary, and Thomas Archer of Kilkenny, witnesses that said Earl grants to Philip and Thomas all his abbey and town of Holy Cross ... in as large a manner as John Cantwell, late tenant thereof, held the same, excepting such portion of said lands as Richard Shee did allot and perambulate for Oliver Mores to be joined to Drehidnefarne,"

Research Notes

  • William Cantwell, a possible brother, events occurring in 1546: "It appears that one William Cantwell held a lease for life of three farms in Kilkenny, and that others had seized them while he was learning English at Oxford. There may have been a question of title, for it was not uncommon in Henry VIII’s time to grant the same property to several people at once. Believing that he had been kept from his own by [the 9th Earl of] Ormonde, St. Leger (= Sir Anthony St. Leger, KG, Lord Deputy of Ireland) espoused Cantwell’s cause; and it was to get the Earl out of the way that Cantwell wrote the Gowran letter."[15] William Cantwell was still alive in 1561.[16]
  • Sir James Ware the historian mentions the Bishop of Ossory Oliver Cantwell O.P. (d.1527) rebuilding "the great bridge of Kilkenny, thrown down by an inundation about the year 1447".[17]
  • Lead for further exploration: An unsourced Geni.com profile for Elizabeth Cantwell indicates she was the spouse of John and the mother of Thomas.

Family Origins

The Cantwells came to Ireland following the Anglo-Norman invasion. Although they produced no famous figure in Irish history, they played a prominent part in the life of the country starting in the early 13th century, when they appeared as de Kentewall, de Cantwell etc. (of Kentwell in Suffolk). In the records of the Ormond country, a witness to the foundation charter of Owney Abbey in 1200 is found. Their estates lay chiefly in the baronies of Knocktopher and Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, Cantwell's Court, 4 miles north of Kilkenny city, was their principal seat. In 1598 they were listed among the principal gentlemen both in Co. Kilkenny and Co. Tipperary.[18]

Though they appeared as soldiers and officials -- two were officers in James II's army and one was sheriff of Kilkenny and three were attainted in 1691 -- the most notable Cantwells were ecclesiastics. As early as 1208 we find a Cantwell in the registry of the monastery of Kells (Ossory). Two John Cantwells[19] were Archbishops of Cashel in the 1400s.[20][21][22] Richard Cantwell was Bishop of Waterford and Lismore from 1426 to 1446, and Oliver Cantwell (d.1527) was Bishop of Ossory for almost 40 years. Also in the 1500s, Patrick Cantwell was Abbot of Navan and Richard Cantwell was Prior of St. John's Kilkenny.[23]

Chief families since the English invasion in Kilkenny: Butler, Grace,[24] Walsh,[25] Fitzgerald, Roth,[26] Archer,[27] Cantwell,[28] Shortall [Forstall],[29] Purcell,[30] Power, Morris, Dalton or d'Alton,[31] Stapleton, Wandesford, Lawless, Langrish, Bryan, Ponsonby.[32]

Sources

  1. ↑ Paul Cockerham & Amy Louise Harris, Kilkenny Funeral Monuments 1500-1600: A Statistical & Analytical Account (p.179). Published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, Vol. 101C, No. 5 (2001):
  2. ↑ George Dames Burtchaell, "The Geraldines of the County Kilkenny. Part IV. Additional Note on the Barons of Brownsford", Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol.32, No.2, (1902), pp.128-131:
  3. ↑ http://leharivel.blogspot.com/2015/11/piers-fitzgerald.html
  4. ↑ For reference, Cantwell's Court is situation 4 miles northeast of Kilkenny, according to "The description of Ireland : and the state thereof as it is at this present in anno 1598", by Edmund Hogan, Priest of the Society of Jesus:
  5. ↑ Fiants of Edward VI:
  6. ↑ According to The Peerage, Sir Gerald Aylmer's parents were Bartholomew Aylmer (d.1501) and Margaret Chevers, daughter of Walter Cheevers and Catherine Welles. He was Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench [Ireland] between 1535-1559, and lived at Dollardstown, County Meath. Gerald's brother was Richard Aylmer, Chief Sergeant and High Sheriff of Co. Kildare in the 1540s.
  7. ↑ Calendar of Ormond Deeds, 1547-1584:
  8. ↑ Ormond Deeds
  9. ↑ "The Wealth of the Kilkenny Gentry, circa 1560", from the Lambeth Palace Library, Ms. 611, fol. 87, as published on p.18 of The Ormond Lordship in County Kilkenny, 1515-1642, a Ph.D thesis (1998) by David Edwards for the University of Dublin's History Department. The work covers the tenures of 5 successive Earls/Dukes of Ormond.
  10. ↑ Supplement to Ormond Deeds, p.188
  11. ↑ Sir Edmund Butler, the brother next-in-line after Thomas, 10th Earl of Ormond, broke rank with the family by turning against the Crown in the 1569 Desmond Rebellion. Sir Edmund's anger was due to a land dispute provoked by Sir Peter Carew MP, who claimed the land had belonged to his ancestors.
  12. ↑ From the State Papers for Ireland, 1509-1573, p.410:
  13. ↑ "History & Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory," published in 1905 by Rev. Canon William Carrigan, in the section "The Cantwells of Cantwellscourt":
  14. ↑ See also the Carew Manuscripts (1585), p.414, recounting that the Earl of Ormond slew Geoffry Carraghe Purcell and 20 of his men and sent their heads to Lord Deputy Henry Sidney:
  15. ↑ Ireland Under the Tudors, by Richard Bagwell, Vol. 1 (London, Longmans Green & Co., 1885), p.285:
  16. ↑ Calendar of State Papers for Ireland, 1509-73:
  17. ↑ Wikipedia: Greensbridge, Kilkenny
  18. ↑ Dennis Walsh, "County Kilkenny Ireland Genealogy", accessed 16 Feb 2021:
  19. ↑ See the Wikitree profiles for John Cantwell (1405-1452) and John Cantwell (1424-1484), both of whom have entries in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
  20. ↑ http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dcash.html
  21. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishop_of_Cashel
  22. ↑ "After a fire destroyed [Cashel Abbey], perhaps during an armed conflict, it was rebuilt and refurbished by John Cantwell, Archbishop of Cashel, at his own expense in 1480. Archbishop Cantwell was named both patron and co-founder of the Abbey in a document signed at a chapter meeting in Limerick ca.1480. The chapter also declared that Cantwell and all assisting his work would be beneficiaries of all the prayers of the Dominicans in Ireland."
  23. ↑ Dennis Walsh, "County Kilkenny Ireland Genealogy", accessed 16 Feb 2021:
  24. ↑ "The Graces of Courtstown", from Rev. Carrigan's History of the Diocese of Ossory (1905):
  25. ↑ http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~walsh/
  26. ↑ https://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ksurnam2.htm#rothe
  27. ↑ "The Archer Family: Early Documented History":
  28. ↑ "The Cantwells of Cantwellscourt", from Rev. Carrigan's History of the Diocese of Ossory (1905):
  29. ↑ "The Forrestall Family: Early Documented History"
  30. ↑ "The Purcell Family: Early Documented History"
  31. ↑ The family name was variously spelled Daton, D'autun, Dalton, d'Alton, Datoun:
  32. ↑ John O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees: The Origin & Stem of the Irish Nation, (P. Murphy & Son, New York, 1915), p.844




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Cantwell properties. Early 1600s.
Cantwell properties. Early 1600s.


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