Leighlin to take up his residence on the estates he hoped to recover in Cork, gave over his house at Leighlin Bridge, with the whole entertainment of the garrison and charge of the barony of Idrone, to his kinsman, Peter Carew. He was eldest son of George Carew of Upton Hillion, in the county of Devon, an uncle of Sir Peter Carew. Upon Sir Peter's death, the Idrone estate passed to young Sir Peter. By an Inquisition preserved in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, it is found that Sir Peter Carew, deceased, by a feoffment, afterwards confirmed by his will, gave the barony of Idrone, after his own death, to the use of his wife, Margaret Talbois, for life, and after her death to Peter, the eldest son of Sir George Carew, his uncle, and his heirs male, remainder to George (afterwards so celebrated as Earl of Totness and President of Munster), second son of the said Sir George Carew and his heirs male, with various remainders over." Sir Peter, it may be remembered, had been appointed by the Queen Constable of the Castle of Leighlin; and, upon his death, immediate suit was made on behalf of young Sir Peter to succeed him in the office. On the 9th December, 1575, Sir Francis Walsingham writes to Sir Henry Sidney: "We have heard the news of the death of good Sir Peter Carew. Earnest suit is made here for the establishing and maintaining of his cousin Peter (whom he hath made his heir to his lands in that realm in the barony of Idrone), and forasmuch as it is given to understand that the same shall be hardly kept unless he have also her Majesty's Castle of Leighlin in keeping, as Sir Peter had. "And forasmuch as I have learned, that the upholding of a true and trustie Englishman in those parts shall stand much to the advancement of her Majesty's service, as well as the repressing of the Irishrie in those parts, I am moved to be an intercessor unto your Lordship, that it may like you to shew him as much favour, as well by placing him as aforesaid, as by aiding him with such persons as are meetest to hold him in his strength for the keeping of him in his inheritance, and to hold the country in good obedience." Peter Carew, the younger, was accordingly appointed Constable of Leighlin Castle, and so continued until his death in 1580. This occurred in an attack made by order of Lord Grey de Wilton, just then appointed Deputy of Ireland, on the stronghold of Fay, the son of Hugh O'Byrne (Fiagh M‘Hugh O'Byrne), in Glenmalur, in 1 See Carew pedigree. "Life and Times of Sir P. Carew," by Maitland. Appendix. 2 Inquisitiones post mortem. Dudleigh Bagnal. Elizabeth, No. 3. County of Carlow. 3 Collins's "Memorials of the Sidney Family," vol. i., p. 389. the county of Wicklow, about twenty miles from Dublin. It was during Lord Baltinglass's rebellion (the only rebellion of the Pale), which, though grounded on the grievances of the Lords of the Pale, of course found ready sympathizers among that nobleman's neighbours, the mountaineers of Wicklow. Fay, son of Hugh O'Byrne, called by Sir John Perrott "the firebrand of the mountains between Dublin and Wexford," was head of the clan of the O'Byrnes.1 Secure from attack in his inaccessible house of Ballinacorr, adjoining the Vale of Glenmalur, "he hung" like a sword "over the neck of Dublin." He was now aided by one of the Fitzgeralds with a company of revolted soldiers and "the remnants (as the scribe in the Four Masters calls them) of the O'Mores and O'Connors who were not extirpated by Sir Henry Sidney." Lord Grey de Wilton, within six days after his arrival in Dublin, anxious to signalize his office of Lord Deputy, marched from the Castle of Dublin with a considerable force, including both Peter and George Carew, for an attack on Fay's stronghold, which was a deep wooded glen. Lord Grey, inexperienced in Irish warfare, ordered Peter Carew (though warned of the danger by Francis Cosby) to dismount and lead his men down through the wood, while he himself on horseback, with Jaques Wingfield, George Carew, and others, watched the operation from the higher ground. The party under Peter Carew were soon attacked at a disadvantage by Fay's men, and were obliged to fly with serious loss, including Peter Carew, who, incumbered with his armour, and fatigued with running, fell in some boggy ground, was seized, stripped, and, while Fay and others were endeavouring to save him, he was treacherously slain by one of Fay's swordsmen. George Carew would have gone with his brother, but his uncle, Jaques Wingfield, who had his doubts of the result of this rash proceeding, forbade him, saying, "No: though I lose the one, yet I will keep the other." George Carew, under the limitations of Sir Peter's will, now succeeded to the lands of the barony of Idrone, and was also appointed Constable of the Castle of Leighlin in the room of his brother Peter, but his Munster claims being enough to occupy his whole attention, he sold his estate of the barony of Idrone, in the year 1585, to Dudleigh Bagnal.* 4to. Dudleigh Bagnal was a younger son of Sir Nicholas Bagnal, who, "Life of Sir John Perrott," p. 16. Small 2 Spencer's "View of Ireland," p. 81. 4 10th February, 1584-5, Inquisitiones post mortem. Dudleigh Bagnal preserved in the Exchequer, County of Carlow, No. 3. in the year 1565, was made Marshal of the army by Queen Elizabeth, in consideration, so the Patent runs, of his good and acceptable service performed to King Henry VIII., to King Edward VI., to Queen Mary, and to Queen Elizabeth herself. Dudleigh was brother to Sir Henry Bagnal, who, on the death of his father, Sir Nicholas, in 1583, was made Marshal in his room." The Bagnals were from Staffordshire, and Sir Nicholas Bagnal was the first of the family that came to Ireland, arriving in the year 1542. He settled at Newry, in the county of Down, having in the year 1552 received from King Edward a grant of the lordship of Newry, and the dissolved Abbey, and extensive lands thereto annexed; also the Lordship of Green Castle and Mourne.3 The Marshal's life seems to have been passed in the wars in Ireland, and his sons Henry, Dudleigh, and Ralphe were all officers in Queen Elizabeth's army, and were born, bred, and died amidst the conflicts and tumults of that troubled reign in Ireland. It may well be presumed that Dudleigh Bagnal was of a different temper and character from Sir Peter Carew the elder. It would be hard indeed to find a man of Sir Peter's qualifications. With his freedom from prejudice (the character of a man that had seen the manners of many nations and cities of the world), with his hospitality and soldierly qualities, he was well suited to govern the Irish. Depending altogether on the will of their landlord for their security and good treatment, they placed inestimable store on his personal disposition. The fears of Sir Peter's tenants had early presaged the possibility of his selling his estate in Idrone. A rumour to that effect got abroad once during his absence in London, and so dismayed his tenants that the whole management of his estate was interrupted, and Sir Peter was informed that, unless he came over to disabuse their minds of this false tale, it was but lost labour to travail in his business. "Your tenants," writes Hooker, "do verily refuse to take any estate at all, other than at your own hands. because they are informed that you do minde and intend to sell or conveighe the same to some one of the Earls of this land, which, if you should do so, then, besides the rents which you compounded, they shall stand at such devotion [i. e., in such thraldom], as which they do curse the time to think upon. But assuredly, if you do mind to come over yourself, you shall be assured to set the same at such rate, price, and rent, as you will yourself: for so as they may have you to be their defender, and to be free from such governors as whom they fear to offend, they care not how far they do strain themselves." thur Bagnall." Jac. I. Printed Inquisitions of Chancery. 4" Life and Times of Sir P. Carew," by Maclean. Pp. 248-9. Sir Peter, as we have seen, confirmed the principal gentlemen of the Kavanaghs in their possessions, and did not seek to remove any of the inferior families from their holdings, but made them his tenants by lease. Dudleigh Bagnal, nursed up in conflict with the Irish, held them, probably, in contempt, and they, probably, repaid his scorn with hatred. Be that as it may, he was not eighteen months in possession of his estate in Idrone before he was murdered. The cause of it was, of course, the land question. He would not permit Donough and Murtough Kavanagh to live on the lands given by Sir Peter Carew to their father. Murtough Kavanagh, the elder of the Garquill, was the chief of his name, and father of Donough and Murtough Oge, above mentioned. His chief house was the Castle of Rathnegarry, in Idrone, but he and his family dwelt at the Garquill adjoining to it.' It seems that Dudleigh Bagnal, after he had bought the baron y of Idrone, was not content to let the Kavanaghs continue in possession of certain lands which they had been permitted to enjoy under the Carews, and, consequently, an ill feeling was engendered. About the 30th of November, 1586, Henry Hern, son of Sir Nicholas Hern, and brother-in-law of Bagnal, having lost four cows, proceeded with twenty men to the house of Murtough Oge, chief of the Kavanaghs, who was at this time upwards of seventy years old. They entered the house with their swords drawn, which the old man seeing, attempted to effect his escape, but was taken and brought before Mr. Hern, who laid to his charge that one of his sons had taken away the cows. Murtough Oge fairly promised to pay for the cattle if this could be proved, and appealed to the sessions; but this would not satisfy his accusers, who barbarously put him to death. This led to a deadly feud. In the following spring Murtough's two sons, Murtough and Donough Caraghe, assembled their followers with a determination of avenging their father's death, and on the 21st May, 1587, with twenty men they attacked a place called Ballymoiva, which they plundered, and then returned with the expectation of being followed by Bagnal, in anticipation of which they had set an 1 The Garquill is the same as Garryhill, at present the property of the Earl of Bessborough. There is a mansion on it, built some 80 or 100 years ago, still occasionally occupied by the owner for a few weeks in the year. About the place are certain marks of antiquity, a few ancient trees, two remarkable old gate piers, standing in a field in front of the house, and, in the garden, part of a very ancient wall. Near the house, in the rere, is a circular enclosure within a ditch, apparently the site of some old Irish dwelling. Garryhill has evidently been, from remote times, the chief place of a district. It commands a most extensive view on all sides, and lies on the road from Myshall to Bagnalstown, being about five miles from the latter. At the distance of a mile and a half from Garryhill are seen the ruins of Rathnaree Castle. ambush of forty men to intercept him. Nor were they disappointed. Mr. Bagnal pursuing fell into the trap, and with thirteen others was slain. He was found to have received sixteen wounds above the girdle, one of his legs was cut off, and his tongue was drawn out of his mouth and slit. These details are all taken from the contemporary account written by Henry Sheffield to Lord Burleigh,1 and, in addition to the judgment thus pronounced on the injustice of Dudleigh Bagnal's proceedings, Sir John Perrott seems to have formed the same opinion of his conduct, for, after giving a similar account, and stating that Donough and Murtough Kavanagh assigned those acts of Dudleigh Bagnal as the cause of their rebellion, he seems to have taken them into protection, and advocated their pardon.2 Dudleigh Bagnal, at his death, left his son Nicholas, an infant, his heir-at-law, to whom, of course, the estate of Idrone descended. The castle and mansion-house attached to it at Leighlin Bridge, where Dudleigh resided, were held, however, merely in right of his Constableship of the Castle, and now passed to Ralph Bagenal, Dudleigh's brother, the uncle of the minor, who got himself appointed Constable, and, on Ralphe's death, to Sir Henry Bagnal, the eldest brother of Dudleigh, who succeeded him in the office.3 It appears, from a very curious recital in the patent of office, appointing Nicholas Bagnal to the Constableship of Leighlin Castle on his coming of age, that at the time of the purchase of Idrone by Dudleigh Bagnal, Sir George Carew got permission to surrender the Constableship, with the house and lands attached to the Castle (so necessary to the management of the estate), to Dudleigh. On Dudleigh's death, however, Sir George's surrender not being complete, Ralphe Bagnal, Dudleigh's brother, got liberty to stand in Dudleigh's place, but he, too, died before the transaction was perfected, whereupon Sir Henry Bagnal, the elder brother of Dudleigh and Ralphe, entered into possession of the castle and premises at Leighlin Bridge, and occupied them until his, Sir Henry's, death, which occurred at the fatal overthrow of the English forces at the battle of the Blackwater, near Armagh, in the month of August, 1598, where he was killed, leading the Queen's army against his brother-in-law, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, then in revolt. Upon Sir Henry Bagnal's death, Sir George Carew found himself liable to large arrears of rent, due to the Queen for the premises attached to the Castle at Leighlin Bridge, as Sir Henry Bagnal had neglected to discharge the rent during his occupancy, and the surrender of Sir George Carew's interest and patent had not been pro 1"Life of Sir P. Carew," by Maclean, p. 254 n. 2" Life of Sir John Perrott," p. 122. 3 The uncles, probably, took the office to secure the residence for their nephew during his minority. Ꭰ |