Donough O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond

From Documents from the Thomond Papers at Petworth House Archive

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/images/Thomond_Pap...

Several inquisition documents of the earls of Thomond are lodged at Petworth. Inquisitions investigated land title to ascertain whether any revenues or debts were owing to the crown on the death of a proprietor and served a broader purpose of recasting customary relationships to reflect common law feudal arrangements.[28] The inquisitions post mortem of Conor O’Brien, third earl of Thomond, dated 8 August 1581 (PHA Ms 1140) and Donough (Donat) O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, dated 4 January 1624 (PHA Ms 1141) represent important touchstone documents for research into early modern Co. Clare. Likewise, the inquisition taken into the lands held by Donough O’Brien, fourth earl of Thomond, (PHA Ms B.26.T.16) on 1 April 1619 [29] is of significance to understanding the landholding matrix of Co. Clare as this inquisition details lands claimed by freeholders as their hereditament. [30] Useful information can be gleaned from these for research into seventeenth-century Co. Clare. We read in an excerpt of the 1624 inquisition post mortem of Donough O’Brien the rent-charge levied on land quarters by the earl that was initially set down in the 1585 Composition Agreement...

Footnotes:

• 28. On the role of inquisitions and their locations see Patrick Nugent, ‘The interface between the Gaelic clan system of Co. Clare and the emerging centralising English nation-state in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century’, pp 82–83.
• 29. An abstracted version of this inquisition is printed in John Ainsworth (ed.), The Inchiquin Manuscripts, p. 325 [no. 1011].
• 30. An inquisition published by James Frost and dated 19 January 1622 sets out the names of the lands granted, by letters patent, to the earl of Thomond. The inquisition also details those lands contested by the Bishop of Killaloe and Mac Conmara Fionn of Dangan-i-viggin and other freeholders who claimed lands as their hereditament. James Frost, A History and Topography of the County of Clare, p. 295.

Text of the above Composition Agreement can be found in the ‘Inquisition Post Mortem of Donough O’Brien, fourth Earl of Thomond’, [1624] (PHA, Ms. 1141) [large rolled manuscript page five, top third of page]

From Darryl Lundy's Peerage page on Donough O'Brien:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p3309.htm#i33085

Donough O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond

• M, #33085,
• d. 5 September 1624
• Last Edited=24 Oct 2011

Donough O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond was the son of Conor O'Brien, 2nd Earl of Thomond and Una O'Brien.[1]

He married Joan FitzMaurice, daughter of Thomas FitzMaurice, 14th Baron of Kerry and Lixnaw and Lady Margaret FitzGerald.[2]

He married, firstly, Helen Roche, daughter of Maurice Roche, 6th Viscount Roche of Fermoy and Eleanor FitzGerald, after September 1577.

He married, secondly, Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 1st/11th Earl of Kildare and Mabel Browne, after 6 November 1585.

He died on 5 September 1624 at Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland.

Supported the English ascendancy.[3]

Donough O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond also went by the nick-name of 'The Great Earl'. He succeeded to the title of 3rd Earl of Thomond [I., 1552] in January 1580/81.

He was Privy Counsellor (P.C.) (I ) in 1603.[3]

In 1605 Lord Pres Munster.[3]

Children of Donough O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond and Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald

• 1. Teige O'Brien
• 2. Henry O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond+[1] b. c 1588, d. c 22 Apr 1639

Children of Donough O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond and Helen Roche

• 1. Margaret O'Brien+[4]
• 2. Barnabas O'Brien, 5th Earl of Thomond+[1] b. c 1590, d. 1657

Citations

• 1. [S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003). Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• 2. [S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 2238.
• 3. [S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 2033.
• 4. [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 214. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.