where he applied, with great assiduity to the study of the law, till his father sent him to travel. He made the tour of Europe, and continued some time at Rome; from whence he returned to England in 1640, when he was elected knight of the shire for the county of Radnor in the parliament which sat at Westminster in the November of the same year; but the election being contested, he lost his seat, the votes of the House being against him, and Charles Price, Esq. his opponent, was declared duly elected. At the commencement of the dispute between King Charles I. and his parliament, Mr. Annesley inclined towards the royal cause, and sat in the parliament held at Oxford in 1643; but afterwards thought proper to abandon the king's party and reconcile himself to his adversaries, into the favour and confidence of whom he was soon admitted. In 1645 he was appointed, by the parliament, one of their commissioners in Ulster, where he managed the important business with which he was entrusted to the satisfaction of all parties, and contributed greatly to the benefit of the protestant cause in Ireland. With so much dexterity and judgment did he conclude his affairs at Ulster, that the famous Owen Roe O'Neil was disappointed in his designs, and the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, who was the chief support of his party, and whose counsels had been hitherto very successful, was not only taken prisoner, but all his papers were seized, and his foreign correspondence discovered, whereby vast advantages accrued to the protestants. The parliament had sent commissioners to the Duke of Ormond for the delivery of Dublin without success, and the precarious state of affairs making it necessary to renew their correspondence with him, they made choice of a second committee, and very wisely placed Mr. Annesley's name at the head of this second commission. The commissioners landed at Dublin on the 7th day of June, 1647; and, by their prudence and temper, brought their negociations to so happy an issue, that in a few days a treaty was concluded
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ANNESLEY.
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