Thomas Jenison

JENISON, THOMAS (1525?–1587), auditor-general of Ireland, was the eldest son of Robert Jenison of Yokeflete, Yorkshire, and Agnes, daughter of William Wren of the Isle of Ely. He was appointed auditor-general of Ireland on 10 Feb. 1550, but being charged with defalcations in his accounts he was in 1553 suspended for a time from his office. On 25 Nov. 1560 he was appointed controller of the works and keeper of the stores at Berwick. In 1564 he again found employment in Ireland, though still retaining his office at Berwick. In 1568 he was appointed to audit the accounts of Sir William Fitzwilliam for the ten years ending midsummer 1569, and in 1573 he was employed ‘to make an exact book of the gift of the country.’ He was attacked by gout in 1580, and obtained some relief from the prescription of a poor Irish priest. He himself incurred the charge of being a papist, and was greatly afflicted by the conversion to Roman catholicism of his eldest son, whom he thereupon disinherited. In June 1584 he was appointed a commissioner to survey the forfeited lands in Munster, but was prevented by ill-health from attending to the business. On 20 Oct. 1587 he surrendered his office to Christopher Payton and died almost immediately afterwards, 17 Nov. He was a capable and diligent official, and, notwithstanding the charges of corruption preferred against him, he was an honest servant of the crown, though, according to Sir John Perrot, he ‘lived like a hog and died like a dog.’ His letters throw much light on the state of Ireland in Elizabeth's reign, and reveal very clearly the chief difficulties with which the Irish government had to contend. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Birch of Sandon in Bedfordshire, groom-porter to Henry VIII, and by her had five sons and a daughter. He bought the property of Walworth in Durham from the Ayscough family, and rebuilt the castle. It was here that on 14 April 1603 his widow, who survived till 1605, entertained James I on his first journey into England. His grandson, Robert Jenison, jesuit, is separately noticed.

[Liber Hiberniæ, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 53; Surtees's Durham, iii. 320; Nichols's Progresses of James I, i. 75; Morrin's Cal. of Patent Rolls, Eliz.; Cal. State Papers, Ireland, ed. Hamilton, vols. i. ii. iii.; Cal. Carew MSS. vols. i. ii.; Cal. Foreign Correspondence, vols. iii–ix.]