Thomas FitzJames Fitzgerald (abt. 1532 - 1595)

Born about 1532 in Desmond Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 18 Jan 1595 at about age 63 in Castle of Connagh, County Cork, Ireland

Sir Thomas Fitzgerald was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

Thomas was the eldest son of James FitzJohn FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond. However, because his father's first marriage was annulled (consanguinity), Thomas was disinherited and instead the title passed to his younger brother Gerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, upon the death of their father in 1558.

[Thomas' father] "James FitzJohn FitzGerald [14th Earl of Desmond] married 4 times: first, Joan Roche, daughter of Maurice, [6th] Lord Fermoy, and his own grandniece, for which reason she was put away, and her son, Thomas Roe (father of James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald, the Sugan Earl), known as Sir Thomas of Desmond, disinherited."^[1]

Disinherited by his father, Thomas supported the English Crown. From the book Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family:^[2]

• On the 10th of May, 1579, Sir William Pelham, the Lord Justice [of Ireland], called a general assembly of the Munster lords at Limerick. [Thomas, 10th Earl of] Ormond duly appeared, bringing with him White, the Masters of the Rolls; Lords Dunboyne and Power, and Sir James FitzGerald of Decies. Lord Roche and his son Maurice, and Sir Thomas of Desmond came from Cork, followed later by a few others. None of the Western chiefs came, and Pelham, seeing no hopes of more coming, conferred with those who were present. They swore to forego private quarrels, and to band against [Gerald, 15th Earl of] Desmond and his rebel followers.

Notes from Thomas' life, including details from the "Pedigree of the Earls of Desmond", as included in the series "Unpublished Geraldine Documents":^[3][4]

• As Thomas' mother was the very young bride Joan Roche (marriage annulled due to consanguinity), Thomas' birth must be pre-1933, which is the year his father married his 2nd wife Móre O'Carroll.

• Thomas was knighted in 1569 by Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland.

• Sir Thomas died on 18 Jan 1595 at the Castle of Connagh [probably Counagh], Ireland.^[5]

Marriage & Children

• Thomas married Ellice le Poer, daughter of Richard, Baron le Poer and they had the following children:^[6]
  • James, eldest son, who became the 17th "Sugan" Earl of Desmond and died in the Tower of London in 1608
  • Gerald, who became a count in Spain
  • Ada, who married Donough, 2nd son of Sir Owen MacCarthy Reagh, 16th Prince of Carbery, ob.s.p. (Harleian Manuscripts)
  • Margaret, who married Donal na Pipi MacCarthy Reagh, 17th Prince of Carbery (and their son Cormac married Ellinor, daughter of Edmund FitzGibbon, the 11th White Knight)
  • John, living in Spain in 1615, where he was styled Conde de Desmond. He died in Barcelona. He married a daughter of Richard Comerford^[7] of Dangenmore, Co. Kilkenny.

• Some sources indicate that Thomas also married his cousin, a daughter of David Roche, 2nd Viscount Roche. No known issue.

Sources

1. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: James FitzJohn FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond
   • https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fitzgerald,_James_Fitzjohn_(DNB00)
2. ↑ Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family, by Therese Muir MacKenzie (Therese Villiers Stuart), published 1907 (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker), p.66:
   • https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/thrse-mackenzie/dromana--the-memoirs-of-an-irish-family-ala.shtml
3. ↑ Extensive "Pedigree of the Earls of Desmond" appears after p.460:
   • https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25497799.pdf
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_FitzThomas_FitzGerald#Life
5. ↑ The Peerage quoting Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume IV, page 255.
6. ↑ Extensive "Pedigree of the Earls of Desmond" appears after p.460:
   • https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25497799.pdf
7. ↑ Not to be confused with his 1st cousin Richard Comerford of Ballyburr, who married Mary Purcell, daughter of Thomas, Baron of Loughmoe.

• The Peerage
• Cracroft's Peerage
• Cokayne's Peerage, 2nd Edition (London, 1916), Vol.4, p.255:
  • https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo04coka/page/254/mode/2up