Falkiner — Parliament of Ireland under Tudor Sovereigns. 537 



Being then stripped of judicial office, Cusake resumed his parliamentary 

 eareer, and in the two Parliaments of Sussex, in 1557 and 1559-60, 

 was again a member of the House of Commons. In the latter he was 

 returned for Athenry, and appears to have been thought of as a 

 possible Speaker by Sussex, though Stanihurst was in the end pre- 

 ferred to him. It is curious that, though he survived until 1571, and 

 was much employed in Elizabeth's reign under the Governments of 

 Sussex and Sydney, Cusake never again received legal preferment. 

 Archbishop Cur wen, who succeeded Pitzwilliam after a few months, 

 retained the Chancellorship after Mary's death; and although, in view 

 of the Archbishop's expected death or resignation in 1563, Cusake was 

 designated as Lord Chancellor, on the recommendation of Sussex, yet 

 when the vacancy actually occurred three years later, his claims were 

 overlooked by Sidney, who appointed Sir Robert Weston. The ex- 

 Chancellor remained, however, an active member of the Irish Privy 

 Council, undertaking several expeditions through the country, and 

 reporting his observations to England. He frequently corresponded 

 with Cecil, to whom he wrote in 1566 that his services in Munster 

 would not be forgotten for a hundred years. Cusake died at his seat 

 of Lismullen on April 1, 1571, and was buried in the parish Church 

 of Tryvett, Co. Meath. His son Robert became in 1560 a Baron of 

 the Exchequer, but died before his father in 1570. 



Some account of Cusake is given in the Dictionary of National 

 Biography (vol. xiii., p. 355), where his birth year is given as 1490, 1 

 know not on what authority, but without any mention of his having 

 been Speaker. A very full biography of him, in which his lineage 

 and antecedents are minutely traced, appears in O'Flanagan's Lives of 

 the Lord Chancellors of Ireland (vol. i., pp. 207-237). The State 

 Papers of Hemy YIII. contain very numerous references to Cusake ; 

 and he is also frequently mentioned in the general Calendar of Irish 

 State Papers. 



James Stanihuest. 



In contrast to his predecessor in the Chair of tlic House of 

 Commons, Stanihurst belonged to a family long settled in the city of 

 Dublin, and closely associated with the commerce of the Irish capital. 

 Both the father of the Speaker, IS'icholas, and his grandfather, Richard 

 Stanihurst, held the office of Mayor of Dublin, the latter in 1489, and 

 the former in 1542. Mcholas Stanihurst is described in the list of 

 churchwardens of St. AVerburgli's, Dublin, as a public notary ; but he 

 seems to have dabbled in medicine, and is counted by AVare in his 



