540 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



his owne Library nourished most effectually mine endeavour." Accord- 

 ing to his son Stanihurst, besides being learned in the business of his 

 profession, he was "a good orator and a proper divine." His claim 

 to the former character is vindicated by his official addresses as Speaker. 

 Two specimens of his writings remain to testify to the extent of liis 

 theological learning. But the title of a lost Latin work, *^Piae 

 Orationes," and his correspondence with O'Heernan, Dean of Cork, 

 whom Ware describes as a learned divine, suggest that this erudite 

 Speaker was an appropriate ancestor to the great Archbishop Ussher. 

 A short account of Speaker Stanihurst is prefixed to the notice of his 

 better-known son, Richard, in the Dictionary of Natiojial Biography 

 (vol. liv., p. 89). 



Sir Nicholas Walsh. 



Of the Speaker of Perrott's Parliament much less is known than of 

 either of his predecessors in the Chair of the House of Commons. N"o 

 particulars of a personal kind seem to be now recoverable concerning 

 his career; and it does not appear whether he was related to an 

 eminent namesake who became Bishop of Ossory in 1577, and who 

 was murdered at Kilkenny in 1585. Nicholas Walsh was, however, 

 eminently successful in the pursuit of the legal profession, in which 

 he held successively a number of important offices. His first judicial 

 position was that of second Justice of the Presidency Court of Munster, 

 to which he was appointed in 1571, during Sir John Perrott's 

 administration of that province. Five years later he was raised to 

 the Chief Justiceship of the same Court. He continued in that 

 position until 1584, when he was nominated second Justice of the 

 King's Bench. In 1587 he was sworn of the Irish Privy Council. 

 The Queen's letter directing his appointment states that "Nicholas 

 W^alsh, having been here in this realm about such suits and causes 

 as concerned his private estate, now departs hence with our good 

 favour, for that we are not ignorant how long and faithfully he hath 

 served us as our Chief Justice of Munster, and now likewise in the 

 second Justiceship of our bench at Dublin." But, though the letter 

 does not mention it, the Privy Councillorship must have been 

 intended mainly as the reward of Walsh's services as Speaker in 

 1585-6; for in that capacity, as the tone of his oration" at the 

 dissolution of Perrott's Parliament indicates, he had shown his 

 allegiance to the Tudor view of the Speaker's office, and had steadily 

 vindicated the prerogatives of the Crown. This speech is very fully 



