Sir Thomas Molyneux, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland

From Darryl Lundy's Peerage page on Sir Thomas Molyneux:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p17647.htm#i176469

Sir Thomas Molyneux [1]

• M, #176469
• Last Edited=5 Feb 2009

Sir Thomas Molyneux held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer [Ireland].[2]

Child of Sir Thomas Molyneux

• 1. Daniel Molyneux+[1] d. 13 Jun 1632

Child of Sir Thomas Molyneux and Catherine Salaboethe

• 1. Catherine Molyneux+[2]

Citations

• 1. [S47] Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor, Burke's Irish Family Records (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976), page 1156. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Irish Family Records.
• 2. [S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 254. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.

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From the 1911 Classic Encyclopedia:

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Molyneux

Another Molyneux family of some importance is the Irish one, descended from Sir Thomas Molyneux (1531-1597), Irish chancellor of the exchequer, who, born at Calais, settled in Ireland in 1576. He was the great-grandfather of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart. (1661-1733), a well-known physician and zoologist, and of William Molyneux (1656-1698), the philosopher, astronomer and politician, the friend of Locke, and author of Dioptrica nova (1692), whose famous work on the legislative independence of Ireland (The Case of Ireland, &c. 1698) created much stir at the time. The latter's son Samuel Molyneux (1689-1728), was also a well-known astronomer.

From the Memoir of the Molineux Family, by Gisborne Molineux, F.R.C.I. (For Private Circulation only, 1882):

http://www.molineux.com/history/gisborne/memoir4.asp

THE CASTLE DILLON BRANCH OF THE MOLYNEUX FAMILY.

This branch of the family sprung originally , it is supposed; from Sir Thomas Molineux, second son of Sir William Molyneux, of Sefton, Knight Banneret.

The immediate ancestor was Sir Thomas Molyneux, Knt., born in Calais in 1531, who was sent to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth in 1576 as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and received extensive grants of lands. He married Katherine, daughter of Ludovic Stabcort, Governor of Bruges, and died in 1596. His eldest surviving son, Daniel Molineux, of Newlands, Co. Dublin, born at Bruges, received in 1586 the appointment of Ulster King-at-Arms, and was M.P. for Strabane in 1613.

A young Thomas Molyneux was in Calais at this time. Both his parents had died in his childhood and he was brought up by a John Bershin, who was a Burgo-Master of Calais. Briefly taken prisoner by the French, he managed to arrange a ransom of 500 Crowns and went to Flanders. Here he married Katherine Slobert, daughter of the Governor of Bruges and they made their way to England in 1568. Thomas made a good impression on Elizabeth I and she sent him, as Sir Thomas (Kt.) to Ireland in 1576, giving him many parcels of land. For an annual payment of £183 to Elizabeth I he obtained a 21 year lease of all duties on imports and exports, excepting wines, passing through Dublin. This added a vast income to an already wealthy man and provoked much jealousy. On the grounds that he was an alien and thus not permitted to hold government posts, a civil action was taken against him before the Attorney General. When Thomas proved that he had been born in Calais when it was an English possession, the challenge was dropped. He was appointed Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer in 1590 and, on his death in 1596, was found to have left £40 (then a large sum) towards the establishment of Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD). The Molyneuxs had arrived!

Thomas and Katherine, who died a year later, are buried in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. They had two sons and two daughters. Samuel, the elder son, had a practical mind and was appointed Surveyor General of Buildings and Clerk to the Queen's works in Ireland. He was MP for Mallow and, apart from official duties in Dublin, appears to have left family business there to his younger academic brother Daniel. Samuel died unmarried.

Date of death given in Burke's Landed Gentry, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099639999&view=1up&...