Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/269

DESMOND 251 the White Knight.(*) He d. (six months after his father became Earl) of plague, at Jerpoint, in Kilkenny, 1529, v.p.^ and was bur. there.] XII. I534-C') 12. James FitzMaurice (FitzGerald), Earl of Desmond [I.], called The Court P<-ige, grandson and h.jC") being only s. and h. of Maurice FitzThomas and Joan his wife, abovenamed. Havingbeensentto England by his grandfather, he was brought up in the English Court, and became Page to Henry VIII. (') He was sent back to Ireland with a great retinue, but was slain at Leacansgail, co. Kerry, "the friday before Palme Sondaie," 1 539/40, by his cousin Maurice Fitzjohn (called Maurice an Toihuhi, or "of the burnings"), br. to the next Earl.() He m. Mary, da. of Cormac Oge MacCarthy, Lord of Mus- kerry, who was br. to his grandmother abovenamed. He d., as above stated, s.p.m.,(^) 19 Mar. 1539/40, and was bur. with his grandfather at Youghal. His widow m. Daniel O'Sullivan-More, and d. 1548. XIII. 1540. 13. James FitzJohn (FitzGerald), Earl of Des- mond [I.], cousin and h. male, being 2nd but ist surv. s. and h. male of Sir John of Desmond, by More, da. of Donogh O'Brien, of Carrigogunnell, co. Limerick, which Sir John was 4th s. of the 7th Earl, and had himself assumed the Earldom in 1534 to the exclusion of his great-nephew next abovenamed. (*") On 4 Feb. 1536/7, the Lord Deputy Grey wrote to the King recommending that the claim of James Fitzjohn [doubtless based on his father's claim] to the Earldom should be allowed. He himself petitioned the King 3 Mar. 1538/9. On his prede- C) This John was son of Maurice Mor FitzGibbon, by Ellice, widow of Thomas, 7th Earl of Desmond {d. 1468), who was grandfather of Maurice FitzThomas {d. 1529). See letter from "James FitzJohn of Desmond" to Henry VIII, dat. 3 Mar, 1538/9, in which he states that "the mother of the said James FitzMorice, being daughter to the late White Knyght deceased," was '■^coayn germaine to the said Morice." V.G. (•*) The succession of the 12th Earl was disputed by Sir John (FitzThomas FitzGerald), of Desmond, his great-uncle, 4th s. of the 7th, and yr. br. of the 8th, 9th, and nth Earls. This John, who styled himself "Earl of Desmond," and is sometimes so considered, is mentioned in the letter of Stephen ap Parry (see next note) as " an old man " who can speak very good English. He d. at a great age, in the Abbey of Tralee (having assumed the habit of a Dominican friar), in June 1536. G.E.C. and V.G. (=) Captain ap Parry writes to Cromwell, from Waterford, 6 Oct, 1535: — "Thys yeong mane [the Earl of Desmond] spelces very good Ynglyshe, and kepthe hys here and cap after the Ynglyshe faschion upone hys hede . . . And hys sayng was that he wold be content with all his hert yf Sir John a Desmond, hys uncyl, wold cume and submyt hymeself un too the King and hys counsell." V.G. {^) On 4 Apr. 1540, the Council of Ireland write to the King, "James Fitz- maurice of Desmond has been slain by Maurice, the brother of James Fitzjohn, whereby the latter has concentrated in himself the whole title to the Earldom." {Letters and Papers [I.], Hen. Fill, 1 509-1573, p. 53). V.G. (*) His only da., Judith, d. unm. 1565.