Brian Fitzpatrick, 6th Lord Upper Ossory

Biography

BRIAN, or BARNABY, the sixth Lord, took his seat in the House of Peers, 16th March, 1639-40, at which date he must have been of full age. He took a prominent part in the National Movement of 1641, and was appointed a temporal Peer in the Confederate Parliament, in 1642.

In the beginning of the Outbreak, all the loyalists of Upper Ossory fled for protection to the Duke of Buckingham's castle of Borris-in-Ossory. The Lord of Upper Ossory, with his cousins, Florence Fitzpatrick of Castletown and Andrew Fitzpatrick of Castlefleming, his uncle Dermot Fitzpatrick and his (Dermot’s) son, Dermot Oge, Captain Bryan MacWilliam Fitzpatrick of Rathdownagh, and six or seven hundred men, laid siege to the castle and after a time reduced its defenders to great straits. But “in [April] 1642, the [English] garrisons I of Athy and Maryborough, with the assistance of Captain George Greames, made out 400 foot and 80 horse for the relief of Burras-in-Ossory, a house belonging to the Duke of Buckingham, in which were several English in great distress. It was no sooner resolved on, than two soldiers of that country fled and gave the enemy notice of our coming. The Lord of Upper Ossory prepared to give us resistance with above 800 foot and 60 or 80 horse, and on a strait, on a bog side, set on our men. They received them with great resolution ; and 40 of Captain Greame's troop charged and routed them, with the assistance of musketeers who were sent to clear the passage ; yet they stood again, and our foot killed about 80 of theirs. Their horse retreated further off, and on the bog side made a stand which being perceived by Cornet Wibrow, cornet to Sir Adam Loftus, he rode up to them and charged them home. They had the bog at their back ; our horse so bestirred themselves, that they slew 40 of their best freeholders : among them was a brother of the Lord of Upper Ossory, who was slain, and Florence Fitzpatrick, they say, was desperately wounded.

JThe names of the chief of the rebels who were slain were Dermot MacTeague Fitzpatrick, uncle to the Lord of Upper Ossory, and Dermot Oge, his son ; Captain Lager, a Low Country soldier, and Burke, his lieutenant ; Captain Dermot Mac Aboy, Patrick Cashin of the Cross, Bryan Connor, heir to Patrick Connor, Captain John Cashin, and Morgan Cashin, gent. ; William O'Carroll, a chief freeholder ; Donogh Fitzpatrick, gent. ; also a younger son of Bryan MacWilliam ; besides Lieutenant O’Moor, prisoner at the Burras. Moreover were slain Loughlin and Patrick Costigan, Friar John Costigan, Patrick Hore, a priest ; Mat Delany, a sub-sheriff ; John Tobin, a merchant of Kilkenny, Serjeant Bryan Burke, &c.” 2

Coote having succeeded in relieving the castle, the Upper Ossory army retired, but only, however, to return again to the siege about the first of August following, when“ they so reduced the place that the besieged for a long time fed upon horses, dogs, cats, bean-leaves, potatoe-tops, and cow-hides, being without bread, drink, or salt; and about All-l ollandtide Colonel Plunket, with about 1,000 men, demanded the surrender of the castle in the King's name saying, that if the warders held the castle to the King's use, he would send in more armed men to assist them ; unto which Andrew Brereton of Killadowle[y], Queen's County, gent. (being left by Sir Charles Coote, chief commander of the place), replied that if he would show any authority, under the King, for what he required and offered, that he would obey. Whereupon (for want of such authority, as it seems) he departed. And about the last of November, Colonel Preston, with about 1500 men, beleaguering the place and playing upon the Court-gate with two field pieces and a small battering piece, and working under ground, the besieged, in regard there were but twenty warders, the castle large, and not a day's ammunition left, were compelled to surrender under quarter, having their lives and worst clothes only granted to them."

1 From A True Account of Several Overthrows Given to the Rebuls. London, 26th Sept., 1642.

2 The following account of this battle is taken from Lodge's Peerage (1779) :-"On the roth April, 1642, being Easter Sunday he [i.e. Sir Charles Coote the Elder), was sent, with Sir Thomas Lucas and six troops of horse to relieve Birr and some other fortresses ; to effect which they were to pass a cause. way, broken by the rebels, who had cast up a ditch at the end of it. Sir Charles headed 30 dragoons on foot, beat off the enemy with the loss of their Captain and 40 men; relieved the Castles of Birr Burrass and Knocknemease; and having continued almost 48 hours on horseback, returned to the camp on Monday night, without the loss of one man."

On June, 27th, 1648, the Lord of Upper Ossory's name occurs among those of many other Catholic noblemen and gentlemen who refused to acknowledge the validity of the Nuncio, Rinuccini's, censures, pending their appeal therefrom to His Holiness the Pope.2

In the Cromwellian confiscations, a few years later, he suffered the full penalty of his loyalty to his country, all his ancestral estates in Upper Ossory, about 11,444 acres, having been declared forfeited, with the exception of 1,020 acres near Durrow. “After the Restoration, his Lordship claiming his seat in Parliament, it was referred, 20th May, 1661, to the Committee for Privilege to consider whether, being indicted for high treason, and not outlawed, he should be admitted to sit in the House ? On the 20th September, the Lord Viscount Massereene reported, that the Committee were of opinion, that as he was only indicted and not outlawed, or any ways attainted, he was not deprived from sitting in Parliament: with which report the House concurred.”3

According to the Hearth-Money returns for 1665, he resided, in this year, in the castle of Cahir, now Newtown, near Cullahill, and paid 4s. hearth money (the tax upon two hearths), for same. He seems to have been dead in 1666, when MacFirbis compiled his genealogical work on the Irish families.

Family

By his wife, Catherine, daughter of Sir Edward Everard, of Fethard, Co. Tipperary, he had issue :

• BRIAN, his successor.
• JOHN. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Brian Kavanagh of Powlmonty, Co. Carlow, by whom he had Brian, Catherine, Mary and Elizabeth. The last-named died in 1754, aged 75 years, leaving by her husband, John Molloy, of Graigueavallagh, Esq., (son of Captain Kieran Molloy, who died in 1718, aged 38 years), a son, Brian Molloy, Esq., of Graigueavallagh (died issueless, in 1762, aged 50 years), and three daughters, viz.: Elizabeth, married to -- Duigan or Deegan; Dorothy, married to — Power, and - married to -- Kinin or Keenan.
• MARY.
• ELLEN, wife of Robert Vicars, Esq., of Killeany, Queen's Co. Their son Bernard Vicars, of Killeany, by his will, dated January 2nd, 1713, and proved February 18th following, directs his remains to be interred at Aghaboe, at the discretion of his well-beloved cousin, Mr. William Vicars of Grantstown; mentions his sons, Laurence (his heir), William, Thomas and Alexander ; his grandsons, Bernard (son of Alexander, and Bernard (son of Thomas); and his sons-in-law, Edward Laurence (or Laurenson), and William Ruth ; he leaves “ five pounds to the popish clergy." Testator's wife was Johanna, daughter of Geoffry Brenan, Esq. Their issue, according to Lodge, were four sons, viz. : William, Laurence, Alexander and Jacobus a Sta. Cruce.

References

• http://thepeerage.com/p65652.htm#i656515
• 1. [S22] Sir Bernard Burke, C.B. LL.D., A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, new edition (1883; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978), page 209. Hereinafter cited as Burkes Extinct Peerage.
• 2. [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 2811. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• ”The Mansions of England: Or, Picturesque Delineations of the Seats ...,“ Volume 1- . “The Ladies Anne and Gertrude Fitz-Patrick.” Page 3c1. GoogleBooks
• Carrigan, William. The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, Volume 1. (1905) p 98-99 GoogleBooks