Falkiner — Parliament of Ireland under Tudor Sovereigns. 530 



the city with which he was so closely identified. Of his first election 

 to the Parliament of Philip and Mary, called by Sussex in 1557, there 

 is no record. Nor have we any account of the circumstance of his 

 election to the chair of the House of Commons, for which not merely 

 his legal training, but his association with Dublin, the long connexion 

 of his family with its neighbourhood, and his consequent acquaintance 

 with the principal members from the Pale, doubtless rendered him an 

 appropriate choice. It is curious to find that concurrently with the 

 Speakership Stanihurst also held, in the three Parliaments of 1557, 

 1559, and 1568, the office of Clerk of the Parliaments in the Upper 

 House — a position which his father had filled in St. Leger's Parlia- 

 ment of 1541. Unless the two Houses sat on separate days, it is plain 

 that Stanihurst can only haTe discharged the duties of this office 

 through a Deputy. 



Stanihurst died in Dublin on December 27, 1573, in his fifty-first 

 year. His will, dated a week earlier, is in the Dublin Record Office. 

 His son, Richard Stanihurst, the well-known translator of Virgil, and 

 author of the Description of Ireland in Holinshed, who is the chief 

 authority for the facts of the Speaker's career, states that he "wrote in 

 English the three ' orations ' which it fell to his lot as Speaker to 

 address to the Lords Deputies Sussex and Sidney." Erom the son's 

 language it is to be inferred that these survived the Speaker, either in 

 print or manuscript ; but except for Campion's report of the last of 

 them in his History, they have not come down to us. Richard 

 Stanihurst's references to his father are couched in a strain of 

 affectionate admiration ; and the Latin verses he composed in his 

 honour will be found in his Descriptio7i of Ireland. 



It would appear, too, from the few independent references to him 

 which survive, that the Speaker's was a very interesting personality. 

 Campion's remarks, too, are couched in a strain which indicates that 

 that very able writer was greatly impressed with the ability and 

 character of the Speaker, in whose house in Dublin the author of 

 the History of Ireland for a time resided. In acknowledging the 

 assistance he received from the Speaker in writing his History, 

 Campion dwells with evident affection on Stanihurst's character : — 

 " Notwithstanding as naked and simple as it [Campion's narrative] is, 

 it could never have grown to any proportion in such post-haste, except 

 I had entered into such familiar societie, and daylie table-talke with the 

 worshipfuU esquire James Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin. Who besides 

 all curtesie of hospitalitie, and a thousand loving turnes not here to be 

 recited, both by word and written monuments, and by the benefit of 



R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXV., SEC. C] [43] 



