protestant, she fled with him to her family in Connaught. Esmonde thereupon repudiated her and married Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. Walter Butler, fourth son of James, ninth earl of Ormonde (Burke, Extinct Peerage; Kilkenny Archæological Journal, 1856–7; Carew Cal. iv. 93, 397; Russell and Prendergast, Irish Cal. iii. 379). In December 1606 he succeeded Sir Josias Bodley as governor of the important fort of Duncannon, a post which he continued to hold till his death in 1646. In 1611, the lord deputy Chichester having projected a plantation in Wexford, he and Sir Edward Fisher were appointed to survey the confiscated territory, and for his services he was rewarded with a grant of fifteen hundred acres. In 1618 it was discovered that great frauds had been practised, and in consequence a number of natives were restored to the lands from which they had been wrongfully ousted. In 1619, having purchased a grant of certain lands in Wicklow from Sir Patrick Maule, he became involved in it transaction known as the case of Phelim MacPheagh O'Byrne, which, however we regard it, certainly reflected the utmost discredit on him. He was charged with packing juries and torturing witnesses in order to wrest the land out of the possession of the O'Byrnes (Irish Cal. ii. 44, iii. 531, iv. 452, v. 124; Carte, Ormonde, i. 27–32; Gilbert, History of the Confederation, i. 167–217; Hickson, Irish Massacres, i. 24–8, 38–46, ii. 263–75; Gardiner History of England, chap. lxxv.) Owning large property in Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Tipperary, he was created Lord Esmonde, Baron of Limerick, co. Wexford, on 20 May 1622. In 1639 he was summoned before the Star-chamber for having conspired with Lord Mountnorris and Sir Piers Crosby to libel the lord deputy Wentworth in the matter of one Robert Esmonde, whose death they laid to his charge (Irish Cal. ii. 71; Rushworth, iii. 888–902; State Papers, Dom. ccccxx. 36), After the outbreak of the great rebellion he seems to have tried to maintain a neutral position between the king and the parliament; but the suspicions of the confederates having been aroused by the fact that many of his officers and soldiers were roundheads and had broken the Cessation, they advised Ormonde 'to have a care of the fort of Duncannon.' But that nobleman being unable or unwilling to interfere, and the defection of Lord Inchiquin coming as a warning, General Preston laid siege to Duncannon in January 1646. The place was 'extremely decayed with age;' but though 'the governor was old and unable to act anything in this exigence,' 'the defendants behaved themselves exceeding well.' The death of Captain Lorcan, however, so discouraged them that they beat a parley, and without consulting Esmonde surrendered the fort on St. Patrick's day. Next day a relief force from the parliament appeared in the river, but finding the place in the enemies' hands immediately sailed away. Esmonde, surviving the surrender of Duncannon two months, died at Adamstown, and was buried at Limerick in a church he had himself built. He is said to have been a man of 'sanguine complexion, of an indifferent tall stature, compact, solid, corpulent body, with robustious limbs.' Not having issue by his second wife, he bequeathed his immense property to Thomas Esmonde, the son of his first wife.
[Carte's Ormonde, i. 514, 528; Letters ccliii, cclviii, cclxxxiii. ccclxxvii.; Journals of the House of Lords, v. 245; Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, ii. ii. 276; Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, ed. Gilbert, i. 16. 102–4; Rinnocini MS. ii. 680–6; Account of the Barony of Forth, ed. H. F. Hore, Kilkenny Archæeological Journal, 1852; Irish MS., Chetham Library, 494; Cromwell's Letters, 14 Oct. 1649.]
ESPEC, WALTER (d. 1153), founder of Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, was probably the son of William Spech, who in 1085 held Warden, Bedfordshire, where some fifty years later Walter Espec founded and endowed an Abbey (Domesday Book, i. 214 b, 215 a; Dugdale, v. 280). Espec's chief property was in Yorkshire, and he resided at Helmsley. Under Henry I he was justice of the forests and itinerant Justice in the northern counties. Under Stephen he actively resisted the Scotch invasion. On 10 Jan. 1138 FitzDuncan failed in a night attack on Espec's castle of Wark. Then King David and his son Henry came up and formed a regular siege for three weeks, after which the main body passed on to harry Northumberland. Three months later (c. 8 May) the garrison swooped down upon the Scotch king's commissariat, and had to submit to a second siege. The castle was stoutly defended by Walter's nephew, John de Bussey, but had to surrender about 11 Nov. Two months previously (22 Aug.) Espec was one of the leaders of the battle of the Standard. According to Ailred of Rievaulx, Espec was at the time regarded by the other barons of the north as their 'dux et pater' (De Bello Stand., ap. Twysden, pp. 346–7). He was already an aged man (ib. p. 337), and there is no reason for doubting the tradition which makes him withdraw in 1162 into the abbey of Kirkham, which he had founded in 1121, and where he is said to have died 7 March 1153 (Cotton MS. Vitell F. 4, quoted in Dugdale).
