Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 3.djvu/85

DESMOND. 83 Tho very interesting " Relation of the Fitz Geralds of Ireland written in the co. of Clare, 22 die Oct. Anno Dom. 1038," by Mr. Thomas Russell, with copious pedigrees of the Desmond branch thereof, has been printed in the " Arch. Assoc. of Ireland " and re-issued (by the Rev. Samuel Hayman) in " Unpublished Geraldine Documents," 188L] Barony [I]. j on x - Fitz - Tiiomas (Fitz-Gerald), of Connelloe [or I. 1259. O'Gonnell], co. Limerick, B. and h. of Thomas Fitz-Maurice ( Fitz- Gerald) of the same by Ellenor, da. of Jordan and sister of Geoffrey DE Marisco, Justice of Ireland (which Thomas is said to have been s. to Maurice Fitz Gerald, one of the Conquerors of Ireland, and br. to Gerald, ancestor of the Earls of Kildaru [I].) site, his father in 1213, and having m. Margery, da. and coheir of Thomas Fitz Anthony, of Thomastown, co. Kilkenny, Lord of the Honour of Kerry ( n ) and Seneschal of Leinster, acquired with her (before 1232) the Baronies of Decies( b ) and Desmond, and obtained from Prince Edward (to whom the dominion of Ireland had been granted) by charter 7 Nov. (1259) 44 Henry III a grant of those Baronies together with the Castle of Dungarvan(fc) whereby he may not improbably he considered a peer as LORD OF DECIES AND DESMOND ( c ) [I]. He is sometimes stated to have m., secondly, Ilonora O'Connor, but it is doubtful whether this lady (by whom he had four sons, each ancestor of a numerous race) was his v:ife. He d. 1201 being shin in a fight at Callan and was bur. in the Monastery of Tralee of which he was founder. II. 1261. Thomas Fitz-^iauhice (Fitz-Gerald), Lord of Decies and Desmond [1]., grandson and h., being s. and h. of Maurice Fm- Joiin (by his 1st wife( d ) Joan, da. of John rm Cooan, of Carrigaline), which Maurice was s. and h. ap. of the last Lord, with whom he was slain in 1261. He was aged nine months at his father's death. («) In 1295 he was for some months Chief Gov. of Ire- land as Lord Justice. He m. Margaret de Rurqii. He was living 4 May 1290 but d. before 12J9 and was bur. in the Friary at Youghal which in 1208 he had completed. His widow m. i: 1299 (without the Royal lie.) Reginald Rosel, and was living Easter (1300) 28 Ed. I. III. 1298 ? TnoMAS-FiTz-TiioM.s (Fitz-Gerald), Lord of Decies and Desmond [I]., s. and h., aged 10 years, Easter (1300) 28 Ed. I. He d. a minor and unm. before 2 April 130", as appears by a writ of that date. (") Sec some account of this honour of Kerry vol. i, preface, p. xi- ( b ) See some account of " the Decies " ante, p. 34, sub. " Decies." Dungarvan being the eapitt baronicc thereof, was itself considered a palatine honour. See voL i, preface, p. xii. ( c ) It is, of course, doubtful whether the Lord of Decies and Desmond can be considered as holding a Feerage Barony in the sense now attributed thereto and consequently whether he is entitled to a place in this work. The same remark would, however, apply to other earlv Irish Baronies (Athenry, Kingsale, Kerry, &c.), which, tho' their origin is as uncertain as in this case, unquestionably crystalised into actual Peerage dignities. The ancestors of the Earls of Kildare, Ormonde, and Desmond, were, at the time of the creation of these respective Earldoms (1310, 1328, and 1329), in a position certainly equal to, if not greater than these Barons, and may, therefore, not unreasonably be supposed to have held similar Bavonies. This Barony, however, the holder thereof having subsequently obtained an unquestionable peerage dignity in the Earldom, did not undergo a Bimilar process of crystalisation. See also vol. ii, p. 94, no te " c," sub "Butler." i (<>) The second wife Matilda de Barry was living as his widow, Easter (1300) 28 Ed. (°) He it is, probably, who was known as " Nappagh," i.e. (Simiacus) the ape, the tradition being that at the news of the death of his father and grandfather the servants ran away from the house at Tralee where he was in his cradle whence a Baboon carried him to the battlements of the Friary but brought him buck safely, See " Lodge " i, p. 02, note ; confirmed by Canon Hayman's " Geraldine Documents." The same story, somewhat differently told, is also applied to John Fltz-Thomas- Fitz-Gerald, of Offaly, who was in 1310 a: Earl of Kildare LI].