Documents from the Thomond Papers at Petworth House Archive1 ...

Documents from Thomond Papers, Petworth House Archive
Brian Bóroimhe) relocating from their Irish estates, centred on the manor
of Bunratty, to England. Bunratty Castle had originally passed from Clann
Mhic Chonmara to the dynastic lineage of the Uí Bhriain during the sixteenth
century. 7 As a chief dynastic family of north Munster since medieval
times, the Uí Bhriain retained their prominence and independence as the
ruling family of the Thomond Gaelic lordship until Murchadh Ó Briain
renounced his claim to kingship and was created first earl of Thomond
and first baron Inchiquin, in 1543. 8 It was not until Donough O’Brien,
known to the English as the ‘Great Earl’, 9 firmly allied himself as a loyalist
and supporter of English law and administration and commander of royal
forces during the Nine Years War (1595–1603), that the former kingdom of
Thomond underwent anglicisation.
During the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1652) Barnaby O’Brien, sixth
earl of Thomond, left Co. Clare after the surrender of Bunratty Castle to
a Parliamentarian force in 1646 and joined his wife and son Henry at
Great Billing in Northamptonshire. 10 After the Restoration of Charles II in
1660, Barnaby’s son Henry, the seventh earl of the Thomond, inherited his
father’s estate in Thomond which amounted to 85,000 acres in Co. Clare. 11
From this point the earls of Thomond held substantial interests in England
and had become absentee landlords to their Irish estate, residing at Great
Billing. In 1741 Henry O’Brien, eighth earl of Thomond, 12 died without
issue and left his Irish estates to his nephew Percy Wyndham, son of his
wife’s sister. As a condition of the bequest, Percy was required to take the
additional name of O’Brien and was created earl of Thomond and baron
of Ibracken in 1756. 13 On the death of Percy without issue in 1774, the title
of earl of Thomond became extinct and the estates passed to his nephew
George Wyndham, third earl of Egremont.
Some of the documents contained in the Petworth House collection have
been catalogued and are available for public consultation at the West Sussex
Record Office in Chichester. 14 The Petworth House catalogue is testimony
7 George U. Macnamara, ‘Bunratty, Co. Clare’ in Journal of the North Munster Archaeological
Society, iii, 4 (1915), pp 220–286, p. 267. The background to this transfer is obscure and
subject to conjecture. The annals of Friar John Clyn record that Bunratty was destroyed by a
joint Mac Conmara and Ó Briain attack in 1332: ‘Eodem vero tempore, castrum de Bonrat (quod
multorum judicio inexpugnabile videbatur); per O’Brein et Mc Nemare destruitur’. Annals of
Friar John Clyn, sub anno, 1332.
8 John Ainsworth (ed.), The Inchiquin Manuscripts (Dublin, 1961), no.885 [1 July, 1543], p. 272.
9 Brian Ó Dálaigh, ‘From Gaelic Warlords to English Country Gentlemen: The O’Briens of
Thomond 1543–1741’ in The Other Clare, xxv (2001), pp 40–42, p. 41.
10 Ibid., p. 42.
11 Ibid.
12 Henry was created Viscount Tadcaster in 1714 and served as MP for Arundel 1710–1714 and
Lord Lieutenant of Essex in 1722–1741.
13 The Petworth House Archive: Vol 1: A Catalogue, p. viii.
14 See Ibid and subsequent volumes (2–4) detailing the full archival collection. The fifth volume
is available only in electronic form.
9