Geoffrey Fanning (abt. 1490 - aft. 1555)

Born about 1490 in Ballingarry, County Tipperary, Ireland

Died after 1555 after about age 65 in Ballingarry, County Tipperary, Ireland

This profile is part of the Fanning Name Study.

Note: Not to be confused with a later Geoffrey Fanning MP born in Ballingarry ca.1600. The younger Geoffrey spent the 1650s on the Continent (serving under Charles II in exile) and was restored to his lands in Ireland in the 1660s under the Act of Settlement.

Biography

Lord of Ballingarry. Son of Nicholas Fanning.

From the Ormond Deeds, born 1510-1530:

• Confirmed as father of Nicholas, Richard, John
• The likely father of Edmund, William

Family Connections:

• From context, Geoffrey appears to be a cousin or 2nd cousin to Oliver Fanning (ca.1500-1551).

• "For several centuries before the Cromwellian period, the Fanning family were seated in Ballingarry parish [Tipperary]. The head of the family resided in Ballingarry Castle, while important branches lived at Farrenrory and Ballintaggart. In 1512, the proprietor and lord of Ballingarry was Geoffrey, son of Nicholas. His successor [post-1555] was William Fanning."^[1][2]

From the "Calendar of Ormond Deeds", unless otherwise noted:^[3]

• 1512: Geoffrey son of Nicholas Fanynge, lord of Ballyngary, gives and quit-claims for him and his heirs for ever to Piers Butler, knight [future 8th Earl of Ormond], the town of Balicoyne; also one 140 acres of land both arable and in woods, moors, etc., adjacent to Balyntagyrte [Ballintaggart]. Given at Kilcowll. Witnesses: Master James Cantwell, Official; Thadeus Innem Laghnane [Laffan?], cleric; William and Peter, sons of Theobald Butler, and Redmund Purcel.

• 1519: Geoffrey Fannyng, lord of Ballyngarry, grants to Peter Butler, Earl of Ormond, and Margaret his wife, all his lands, rents, tenements, etc., in Ballycoyne, Gossescroft, Garryfynyke alias Garryconnyll, Grage Rysoyn, Codeston and Prestiston in county Tipperary.^[4]

• 1521: Geoffrey Fannyng, lord of Ballygharry, grants to Piers, Earl of Ormond, and Margaret FitzGerald his wife and their heirs, and assigns, all his lands and tenements, rents and services, meadows, pastures, woods, etc., in Ballyghoyn, "Sase his crowfte" alias Garran Connyll, and the moiety of all lands, tenements, woods, rents, etc., in Ballyntaghyrth [Ballintaggart], Grageyrysen and Codestoune in county Tipperary.^[5]

• 1548: Inquisition taken at Clonmel before Gerald Aylmer,^[6] knight, chief justice, in the 2nd year of Edward VI, by the following jurors : Geoffrey Fannyng, James Loffane, Thomas Cantwell,^[7] Maurice Stoke, Richard Cantwell, Peter Cantwell, Edmund Marener, Oliver Fanyng.

• 1549: The following 6 Fanning men are given pardons: Geoffrey, Richard, Edmund, John, all 4 of Balligarry; also William of Balliboy, and Nicholas of Garryvome.^[8]

• 1550s -- (some names repeated) At inquisitions taken at Clonmel are included the names Geoffrey Fanyng, gentleman; William Fanning, gentleman; Wilfred Faning of Ballyngarry; Oliver Fanyng, juror; William Fannyng fitz Oliver of Garynegrye, kern; James Fannyng of Garransillaghe, kern; Shane Enellan Fannyng and Maurice Fannyng, late of Cahir, kerns; Richard Fanyng, of the Carrick; Richard Reagh Fannyng of Balyngarry, Geoffry Fannyng vicar of Modessell [Modeshil], John Fanning of Carrick, burgess; Richard Mares [Morres?] of Lysnemroke and Katherin Fannyng his wife (1557); Margaret Fannyng wife of Robert Senjohn [St. John] (1551).

• 1553: The following panel of jurors is then sworn : James Oge Butler, Geoffrey Fanyng, Oliver Fanyng, Peter Cantwell, Peter Oge Butler"

• 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. 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 Farranrory containing 40 cows with 6ol. [?] of William Fanyng, gent., and also a girl called Sawe Iny Canlyen who was in the house.

Geoffrey is mentioned in the Fiants of Edward VI, as are half a dozen other male Fannings.^[9]

From the website "Historic Graves: Ballingarry Old Church":^[10]

• Ballingarry settlement was associated with the Fanning Family in the later Medieval period. In 1512 Geoffry Fannyng was described as the Lord of Ballingarry (Ormond Deeds IV, 71). Geoffry Fanning was probably the [same] freeholder called to the Liberty Court of Tipperary in 1508 as a juror (Ormond Deeds IV, 329).

• A church was at Ballingarry since 1302 (Calendar of Documents, Ireland 1302-07,285). In 1478 the church was recorded to be in ruins and the parish priest was excommunicated (Calendar Papal Regis. xiii, 606; Hennessy 1985, 69-70). The church was reconstructed, possibly by the Fanning family who resided in the Ballingarry tower house nearby. A church with its nave and chancel appear to have been standing in Ballingarry in 1615, but without services (Murphy 1902: 290,302). Unfortunately the Down Survey Parish map (post-Cromwell) depicts no structures in the townland.

Formal complaint to Henry VIII

Excerpted from History of Clonmel, with light edits for clarity:^[11]

• In 1542 a body of [Irishmen]^[12] petitioned King Henry VIII and told a story piteous in its quaint details. The petitioners were Thomas Prendergast^[13] of Newcastle, James Keating of Moortown, James Walsh of Rathronan, James Oge Wall of Finglas, Richard son of William Butler of Kilcash, Geoffry Mockler of Mocklerstown, St. John of St. Johnstown, William Power^[14] of Rathcoole, John Comyn of Kilconnell, Richard fitz Theobald of Ballylynch, Richard son of William and grandson of John Butler^[15] of Cabragh, James Oge Butler^[16] of Lismalin, Geoffry Fanning of Ballingarry, James Laffan of Graystown, Pierce fitz Richard Butler of Moykelly and John O'Neill of Maynestown.

• They and their ancestors, they said, provided a retinue by which the Earls of Ormond as lords of the liberty of Tipperary right well governed and defended the said county. On the departure of the White Earl to England in 1430 he divided the county into certain districts among his kinsfolk assigning to each of them a proportion of the agreed retinue. These kinsfolk "entered into such a wrongfull inordynate pride and malicious division between them selfs that they fell suddenly out of their good obedience to be murderers and mansleers of either other."

• Though the Earl on his return restored the county to its " prestynate estate," his sons as Earls of Wiltshire [5th, 6th, 7th Earls of Ormond] resided wholly in England. During this period again the Ormond kinsfolk partly by joining in the Irish wars, partly by internecine strife "brought the countrie not oonely into disobedience but also in effect, into utter desolation and waste saving a few castells and so contynued till about 1524."

• The late Earl of Ormond [referring to Piers, 8th Earl, d.1539] "to the great daunger of his person at sundry tymes began to styrr soo with Syr Edmunde Butler [of Cahir] and Syr James Butler [of Kiltinane]^[17] being then men of good power and strongely allied with the Brenes [O'Briens] as with the Desmonds that he readoptid vnto him agayn moche of the power of the same retynue that were so commytted by his auncestors vnto the auncestors of the said Syr Edmonde and Syr James."

• The Kiltinane Butlers were soon brought into subjection but not so with the lords of Cahir. Edmund Butler cousin german of the Earls of Desmond and married to a daughter of Lord Power [Piers], despised the orders of the lords deputy though sworn for performance thereof. His son Sir Thomas Butler [created 1st Baron Cahir in 1543] "slakith not to sesse [cess] and exacte many kinds of inordynate exactions and taxes daily."

Sources

1. ↑ Millett, Benignus. "Fabian Ryan, O.P., Postulated as Bishop by Clergy and Laity of Cashel and of Emly 1652.” Collectanea Hibernica, no. 29, 1988, p.24.
   • www.jstor.org/stable/30004649
2. ↑ William's father Oliver appears to have been Geoffrey's cousin or 2nd cousin. It is unclear why the title did not pass to Geoffrey's sons.
3. ↑ The invaluable Calendar of Ormond Deeds were legal and land transactions involving the powerful Butlers of Ormond, in 6 volumes covering 1172 to 1603. Transcribed in the 1930s by historian Edmund Curtis from records preserved in Kilkenny Castle. Geoffrey (born ca.1490) appears often in Volumes 4 and 5 as Lord of Ballingarry and juror. Search here for "Ormond Deeds":
   • https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/product-category/imc-digital-editions/
4. ↑ Ormond Deeds, v.5, entry 58, p.59.
5. ↑ Ormond Deeds, v.5, entry 78, p.71.
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. ↑ Thomas and Richard were possible brothers of Piers Cantwell of Mokarky
8. ↑ Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records and of the Keeper of the State Papers in Ireland, Vols 1-10 (1869), Fiants of Edward VI, p.70, entry#399:
   • https://books.google.nl/books?id=misNAAAAYAAJ&q=fanning#v=snippet&q=fanning&f=false
9. ↑ Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, index to Fiants of Edward VI, p.185:
   • https://archive.org/details/reportofdeputyke610irel/page/185/mode/1up
10. ↑ Richard Clutterbuck , The Settlement and Architecture of Later Medieval Slieveardagh, County Tipperary, Volume 2. This thesis is presented in fulfilment of the regulations for the degree of M.Utt in Archaeology, University College Dublin. Supervisors: Prof. Barry Raftery, Dr. Tadhg O’Keeffe, Dr. Muiris 0’Sullivan, August 1998:
    • https://historicgraves.com/graveyard/ballingarry-old-church/ts-bgoc
11. ↑ William P. Burke, History of Clonmel (N. Harvey & Co., Waterford, Ireland, 1907), Chapter 3, pp.22-23:
    • https://archive.org/details/historyclonmel00burkgoog/page/n40/mode/1up?view=theater
12. ↑ The author refers to them as "younger sons" of great Irish families, but the list also appears to include hereditary lords (eldest sons) of smaller landholdings, such as Geoffrey Fanning.
13. ↑ Given the family context, Thomas Prendergast of Newcastle was the likely father of James FitzThomas Prendergast (d.1575)
14. ↑ Possibly the same Sir William Power (born ca.1500) who was the younger son of Sir Piers Power.
15. ↑ John Butler of Cabragh was the son of James, 7th Baron Dunboyne (ca.1406-1445)
16. ↑ Father of Piers Oge Butler of Lismalin
17. ↑ Possibly referring to James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne, whose son Edmond (the next Baron Dunboyne) held lands in Kiltinan ca.1550. See History of Clonmel, p.433:
    • https://archive.org/details/historyclonmel00burkgoog/page/n485/mode/1up?view=theater