Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia
Encyclopedia
Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia PC
( – November 1660) was an English statesman during the colonisation of Ireland in the seventeenth century. He was a Member of Parliament
for both the English and Irish houses, and was elevated to the Irish peerage
as Baron Mountnorris, and later Viscount Valentia
.
family of Annesley, was son of Robert Annesley, high constable of Newport, Buckinghamshire, and was baptised 2 January 1586. As early as 1606 he had left England to reside at Dublin, and he took advantage of the frequent distributions of Irish land made to English colonists in the early part of the seventeenth century to acquire estates in various parts of Ireland. With Sir Arthur Chichester
, who became lord deputy
in 1604, he lived on terms of intimacy, and several small offices of state, with a pension granted 5 November 1607, were bestowed on him in his youthful days.
In the colonisation of Ulster
, which began in 1608, Annesley played a leading part, and secured some of the spoils. In October 1609 he was charged with the conveyance of Sir Neil O'Donnell and other Ulster rebels to England for trial. On 13 March 1611–12 James I
wrote to the lord deputy confirming his grant of the fort and land of Mountnorris
to Annesley "in consideration of the good opinion he has conceived of the said Francis from Sir Arthur's report of him". On 26 May 1612 Annesley was granted a reversion to the clerkship of the Checque of the Armies and Garrisons, to which he succeeded 9 December 1625.
In 1614 County Armagh returned Annesley to the Irish parliament
, and he supported the protestants there in their quarrels with the Catholics. In 1616 he was sworn of the Irish Privy Council
, on 16 July the king knighted him at Theobalds
; in 1618 he was acting as Principal Secretary of State for Ireland
, although he may not have been formally appointed; on 5 August 1620 received from the king an Irish baronetcy; and on 11 March 1620–1 received a reversionary grant to the viscounty of Valentia
, which had recently been conferred on Sir Henry Power, a kinsman of Annesley, without direct heir.
In 1625 he was elected to represent the county of Carmarthen
in the English parliament. Meanwhile in 1622 Lord Falkland
became Lord Deputy of Ireland
. Dissensions between Annesley and the new governor in the council chamber were constant, and in March 1625 the Lord Deputy wrote to Conway
, the English secretary of state, that a minority of the councillors, "amongst whom Sir Francis Annesley is not least violent nor the least impertinent", was thwarting him in every direction. But Annesley's friends at the English court contrived his promotion two months later to the important post of Vice-Treasurer and Receiver-General of Ireland, which gave him full control of Irish finance, and in 1628 Charles I
raised him to the Irish peerage as Baron Mountnorris of Mountnorris.
In October of the same year an opportunity was given Annesley, of which he readily took advantage, to make Falkland's continuance in Ireland impossible. He was nominated on a committee of the Irish privy council
appointed to investigate charges of injustice preferred against Falkland by the Byrne
Clan
, that had held land in County Wicklow
for centuries. The committee, relying on the testimony of corrupt witnesses, condemned Falkland's treatment of the Byrnes, and Falkland was necessarily recalled on 10 August 1629. On 13 June 1632 the additional office of Treasurer at Wars was conferred on Mountnorris.
, afterwards Earl of Strafford, became Lord Deputy, and Mountnorris soon discovered that he was determined to insist on the rights of his office more emphatically than Falkland. Wentworth disliked Mountnorris from the first as a gay liver, and as having been long guilty, according to popular report, of corruption in the conduct of official duties.
In May 1634 Wentworth obtained an order from the English privy council forbidding his practice of taking percentages on the revenue to which he was not lawfully entitled; this order Mountnorris refused to obey. Fresh charges of malversation were brought against him in 1635, and, after threatening to resign office, he announced that all intercourse between the Lord Deputy and himself was at an end, and that he should leave his case with the king.
Mountnorris's relatives took up the quarrel. A younger brother insulted Wentworth at a review, and another kinsman dropped a stool in Dublin castle on Wentworth's gouty foot. At a dinner (8 April 1635) at the house of the lord chancellor, one of his supporters, Mountnorris boasted of this last act as probably done in revenge of the Lord Deputy's conduct towards himself; he referred to his brother as being unwilling to take "such a revenge", and was understood to imply that some further insult to Wentworth was contemplated.
Wentworth was now resolved to crush Mountnorris, and on 31 July following obtained the consent of Charles I to inquire formally into the Vice-Treasurer's alleged malversation and to bring him before a court-martial for the words spoken at the dinner in April. At the end of November a committee of the Irish privy council undertook the first duty, and on 12 December Mountnorris was brought before a council of war at Dublin Castle
and charged, as an officer in the army, with having spoken words disrespectful to his commander and likely to breed mutiny, an offence legally punishable by death. Wentworth appeared as suitor for justice; after he had stated his case, and counsel had been refused Mountnorris, the court briefly deliberated in Wentworth's presence, and pronounced sentence of death.
The Lord Deputy informed Mountnorris that he would appeal to the king against the sentence, and added: "I would rather lose my head than you should lose your head." In England the sentence was condemned on all hands; in letters to friends, Wentworth attempted to justify it in the cause of discipline, and even at his trial he spoke of it as in no way reflecting upon himself. The only real justification for Wentworth's conduct, however, lies in the fact that he had obviously no desire to see the sentence executed; he felt it necessary, as he confessed two years later, to remove Mountnorris from office, and this was the most effective means he could take. Hume attempts to extenuate Strafford's conduct, but Hallam condemns the vindictive bitterness he here exhibited in strong terms; and although Mr. S. R. Gardiner has shown that law was technically on Wentworth's side, and his intention was merely to terrify Mountnorris, Hallam's verdict seems substantially just.
In the result Mountnorris, after three days' imprisonment, was promised his freedom if he would admit the justice of the sentence, but this he refused to do. On the report of the privy council's committee of inquiry he was stripped of all his offices, but on 13 February 1635–6 a petition to Strafford from Lady Mountnorris, which was never answered, proves that he was still in prison. Later in the year Lady Mountnorris petitioned the king to permit her husband to return to England, and the request was granted.
had begun at the close of 1640 to examine his relations with Strafford, and on 9 September 1641 a vote of the commons declared his sentence, imprisonment, and deprivations unjust and illegal. The declaration was sent up to the lords, who made several orders between October and December 1641 for the attendance before them of witnesses to enable them to judge the questions at issue; but their final decision is not recorded in their journals.
In 1642 Mountnorris succeeded to the viscounty of Valentia on Sir Henry Power's death. In 1643 the House of Commons granted him permission, after much delay, to go to Duncannon
in Ireland. In 1646 he was for some time in London, but he lived, when not in Ireland, on an estate near his birth-place, at Newport Pagnell
, Buckinghamshire, which had been sold to him by Charles I in 1627. In 1648 parliament restored him to the office of clerk of the signet in Ireland, and made him a grant of £500. Later he appears to have lived on friendly terms with Henry Cromwell
, the lord deputy of Ireland during the protectorate, and to have secured the office of secretary of state at Dublin. In November 1656 he proposed to the English government that he should resign these posts to his son Arthur
. Henry Cromwell, writing to General Fleetwood
, urges him to aid in carrying out this arrangement, and speaks in high terms of father and son. Lord Mountnorris died in 1660.
He married firstly Dorothea (died 1624), daughter of Sir John Phillipps, Bt., of Picton Castle
, Pembrokeshire
, and they had three sons. He married secondly Jane (died 1684), widow of Sir Peter Courten, 1st Baronet, of Aldington and daughter of Sir John Stanhope
, and they had at least one daughter. Valentia died and was buried in Thorganby
, Yorkshire
, in November 1660. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Arthur
, who was later created Lord Annesley and Earl of Anglesey
.
Privy Council of Ireland
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922...
( – November 1660) was an English statesman during the colonisation of Ireland in the seventeenth century. He was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for both the English and Irish houses, and was elevated to the Irish peerage
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...
as Baron Mountnorris, and later Viscount Valentia
Viscount Valentia
Viscount Valentia is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It has been created twice. The first creation came in 1621 for Henry Power. A year later, his kinsman Sir Francis Annesley, 1st Baronet, was given a "reversionary grant" of the viscountcy, which stated that on Power's death Annesley would be...
.
Rise to power
Annesley, descended from the ancient NottinghamshireNottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
family of Annesley, was son of Robert Annesley, high constable of Newport, Buckinghamshire, and was baptised 2 January 1586. As early as 1606 he had left England to reside at Dublin, and he took advantage of the frequent distributions of Irish land made to English colonists in the early part of the seventeenth century to acquire estates in various parts of Ireland. With Sir Arthur Chichester
Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester
Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester , known between 1596 and 1613 as Sir Arthur Chichester, was an English administrator and soldier, best known as the Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1604 to 1615.- Early life :...
, who became lord deputy
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...
in 1604, he lived on terms of intimacy, and several small offices of state, with a pension granted 5 November 1607, were bestowed on him in his youthful days.
In the colonisation of Ulster
Plantation of Ulster
The Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster—a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609...
, which began in 1608, Annesley played a leading part, and secured some of the spoils. In October 1609 he was charged with the conveyance of Sir Neil O'Donnell and other Ulster rebels to England for trial. On 13 March 1611–12 James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
wrote to the lord deputy confirming his grant of the fort and land of Mountnorris
Mountnorris
Mountnorris is a small village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about six miles south of Markethill. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 165 people. It is within the Armagh City and District Council area.- History :...
to Annesley "in consideration of the good opinion he has conceived of the said Francis from Sir Arthur's report of him". On 26 May 1612 Annesley was granted a reversion to the clerkship of the Checque of the Armies and Garrisons, to which he succeeded 9 December 1625.
In 1614 County Armagh returned Annesley to the Irish parliament
Irish Houses of Parliament
The Irish Houses of Parliament , also known as the Irish Parliament House, today called the Bank of Ireland, College Green due to its use as by the bank, was the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house...
, and he supported the protestants there in their quarrels with the Catholics. In 1616 he was sworn of the Irish Privy Council
Privy Council of Ireland
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922...
, on 16 July the king knighted him at Theobalds
Theobalds House
Theobalds House , located in Theobalds Park, just outside Cheshunt in the English county of Hertfordshire, was a prominent stately home and royal palace of the 16th and early 17th centuries.- Early history :...
; in 1618 he was acting as Principal Secretary of State for Ireland
Secretary of State (Ireland)
The Principal Secretary of State, or Principal Secretary of the Council, was a government office in the Kingdom of Ireland. It was abolished in 1801 when Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union 1800....
, although he may not have been formally appointed; on 5 August 1620 received from the king an Irish baronetcy; and on 11 March 1620–1 received a reversionary grant to the viscounty of Valentia
Viscount Valentia
Viscount Valentia is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It has been created twice. The first creation came in 1621 for Henry Power. A year later, his kinsman Sir Francis Annesley, 1st Baronet, was given a "reversionary grant" of the viscountcy, which stated that on Power's death Annesley would be...
, which had recently been conferred on Sir Henry Power, a kinsman of Annesley, without direct heir.
In 1625 he was elected to represent the county of Carmarthen
Carmarthen (UK Parliament constituency)
Carmarthen was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Wales which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1542 and 1997...
in the English parliament. Meanwhile in 1622 Lord Falkland
Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland
Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland ; son of a Hertfordshire knight; said to have studied at Oxford; served abroad; gentleman of the bedchamber to King James I; K.B., 1608; controller of the household, 1617-21; created Viscount Falkland in the Scottish peerage, 1620; lord-deputy of Ireland, 1622;...
became Lord Deputy of Ireland
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...
. Dissensions between Annesley and the new governor in the council chamber were constant, and in March 1625 the Lord Deputy wrote to Conway
Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway
Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway PC was an English soldier and statesman.-Life:He was the son and heir of Sir John Conway of Arrow, and his wife Ellen or Eleanor, daughter of Sir Fulke Greville of Beauchamp's Court, Warwickshire....
, the English secretary of state, that a minority of the councillors, "amongst whom Sir Francis Annesley is not least violent nor the least impertinent", was thwarting him in every direction. But Annesley's friends at the English court contrived his promotion two months later to the important post of Vice-Treasurer and Receiver-General of Ireland, which gave him full control of Irish finance, and in 1628 Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
raised him to the Irish peerage as Baron Mountnorris of Mountnorris.
In October of the same year an opportunity was given Annesley, of which he readily took advantage, to make Falkland's continuance in Ireland impossible. He was nominated on a committee of the Irish privy council
Privy Council of Ireland
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801-1922...
appointed to investigate charges of injustice preferred against Falkland by the Byrne
Byrne
Byrne meaning 'raven', is derived from the Irish name Ó Broin, and is the seventh most common surname in Ireland today.-History:...
Clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
, that had held land in County Wicklow
County Wicklow
County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wicklow, which derives from the Old Norse name Víkingalág or Wykynlo. Wicklow County Council is the local authority for the county...
for centuries. The committee, relying on the testimony of corrupt witnesses, condemned Falkland's treatment of the Byrnes, and Falkland was necessarily recalled on 10 August 1629. On 13 June 1632 the additional office of Treasurer at Wars was conferred on Mountnorris.
Sir Thomas Wentworth
In 1633 Sir Thomas WentworthThomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland...
, afterwards Earl of Strafford, became Lord Deputy, and Mountnorris soon discovered that he was determined to insist on the rights of his office more emphatically than Falkland. Wentworth disliked Mountnorris from the first as a gay liver, and as having been long guilty, according to popular report, of corruption in the conduct of official duties.
In May 1634 Wentworth obtained an order from the English privy council forbidding his practice of taking percentages on the revenue to which he was not lawfully entitled; this order Mountnorris refused to obey. Fresh charges of malversation were brought against him in 1635, and, after threatening to resign office, he announced that all intercourse between the Lord Deputy and himself was at an end, and that he should leave his case with the king.
Mountnorris's relatives took up the quarrel. A younger brother insulted Wentworth at a review, and another kinsman dropped a stool in Dublin castle on Wentworth's gouty foot. At a dinner (8 April 1635) at the house of the lord chancellor, one of his supporters, Mountnorris boasted of this last act as probably done in revenge of the Lord Deputy's conduct towards himself; he referred to his brother as being unwilling to take "such a revenge", and was understood to imply that some further insult to Wentworth was contemplated.
Wentworth was now resolved to crush Mountnorris, and on 31 July following obtained the consent of Charles I to inquire formally into the Vice-Treasurer's alleged malversation and to bring him before a court-martial for the words spoken at the dinner in April. At the end of November a committee of the Irish privy council undertook the first duty, and on 12 December Mountnorris was brought before a council of war at Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
and charged, as an officer in the army, with having spoken words disrespectful to his commander and likely to breed mutiny, an offence legally punishable by death. Wentworth appeared as suitor for justice; after he had stated his case, and counsel had been refused Mountnorris, the court briefly deliberated in Wentworth's presence, and pronounced sentence of death.
The Lord Deputy informed Mountnorris that he would appeal to the king against the sentence, and added: "I would rather lose my head than you should lose your head." In England the sentence was condemned on all hands; in letters to friends, Wentworth attempted to justify it in the cause of discipline, and even at his trial he spoke of it as in no way reflecting upon himself. The only real justification for Wentworth's conduct, however, lies in the fact that he had obviously no desire to see the sentence executed; he felt it necessary, as he confessed two years later, to remove Mountnorris from office, and this was the most effective means he could take. Hume attempts to extenuate Strafford's conduct, but Hallam condemns the vindictive bitterness he here exhibited in strong terms; and although Mr. S. R. Gardiner has shown that law was technically on Wentworth's side, and his intention was merely to terrify Mountnorris, Hallam's verdict seems substantially just.
In the result Mountnorris, after three days' imprisonment, was promised his freedom if he would admit the justice of the sentence, but this he refused to do. On the report of the privy council's committee of inquiry he was stripped of all his offices, but on 13 February 1635–6 a petition to Strafford from Lady Mountnorris, which was never answered, proves that he was still in prison. Later in the year Lady Mountnorris petitioned the king to permit her husband to return to England, and the request was granted.
Life after Stafford
The rest of Mountnorris's life was passed in attempts to regain his lost offices. On 11 May 1641 he wrote to Strafford enumerating the wrongs he had done him, and desiring, in behalf of wife and children, a reconciliation with himself, and his aid in regaining the king's favour. But other agencies had already been set at work in his behalf. A committee of the Long ParliamentLong Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
had begun at the close of 1640 to examine his relations with Strafford, and on 9 September 1641 a vote of the commons declared his sentence, imprisonment, and deprivations unjust and illegal. The declaration was sent up to the lords, who made several orders between October and December 1641 for the attendance before them of witnesses to enable them to judge the questions at issue; but their final decision is not recorded in their journals.
In 1642 Mountnorris succeeded to the viscounty of Valentia on Sir Henry Power's death. In 1643 the House of Commons granted him permission, after much delay, to go to Duncannon
Duncannon
Duncannon is a village in southwest County Wexford, Ireland. Bordered to the west by Waterford harbour and sitting on a rocky promontory jutting into the channel is the strategically prominent Duncannon Fort which dominates the village.Primarily a fishing village, Duncannon also relies heavily on...
in Ireland. In 1646 he was for some time in London, but he lived, when not in Ireland, on an estate near his birth-place, at Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...
, Buckinghamshire, which had been sold to him by Charles I in 1627. In 1648 parliament restored him to the office of clerk of the signet in Ireland, and made him a grant of £500. Later he appears to have lived on friendly terms with Henry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in Ireland.-Life:...
, the lord deputy of Ireland during the protectorate, and to have secured the office of secretary of state at Dublin. In November 1656 he proposed to the English government that he should resign these posts to his son Arthur
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey PC was an Anglo-Irish royalist statesman. After short periods as President of the Council of State and Treasurer of the Navy, he served as Lord Privy Seal between 1673 and 1682 for Charles II...
. Henry Cromwell, writing to General Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652–55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...
, urges him to aid in carrying out this arrangement, and speaks in high terms of father and son. Lord Mountnorris died in 1660.
He married firstly Dorothea (died 1624), daughter of Sir John Phillipps, Bt., of Picton Castle
Picton Castle
Picton Castle is a medieval castle near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Originally built at the end of the 13th century by Sir John Wogan and is still inhabited by his descendants, the Philipps family ....
, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, and they had three sons. He married secondly Jane (died 1684), widow of Sir Peter Courten, 1st Baronet, of Aldington and daughter of Sir John Stanhope
Sir John Stanhope
Sir John Stanhope was an English knight and landowner and father of the 1st Earl of Chesterfield.He was appointed Postmaster General to Queen Elizabeth on 20 June 1590....
, and they had at least one daughter. Valentia died and was buried in Thorganby
Thorganby, North Yorkshire
Thorganby is a small village and civil parish in the Selbydistrict of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated next to the village of Wheldrake.-External links:*...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, in November 1660. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Arthur
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey
Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey PC was an Anglo-Irish royalist statesman. After short periods as President of the Council of State and Treasurer of the Navy, he served as Lord Privy Seal between 1673 and 1682 for Charles II...
, who was later created Lord Annesley and Earl of Anglesey
Earl of Anglesey
The title of Earl of Anglesey was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1623 when Christopher Villiers was created Earl of Anglesey, in Wales, as well as Baron Villiers. He was the younger brother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and the elder brother of John...
.