479 



bounty from Queen Elizabeth, it would be needless to repeat the same 

 arguments to disprove an assumed subsequent visit of the same Countess 

 to the court of King James, and at this point Mr. Sainthill abruptly con- 

 cludes his inquiry. 



It must, however, strike the mind of an accurate investigator, that 

 although the imputation of Lord Leicester and Sir William Temple may 

 have been wrong as respects the Old Countess of Desmond, it might be 

 applicable to a younger Countess of Desmond, namely, Elinor, wife of 

 the ill-fated and unfortunate Garrett — alias Gerald — sixteenth and last 

 Earl of Desmond of the Fitz Gerald line — who was cotemporaneous 

 with the older Countess during the limited period of this inquiry ; and 

 that, therefore, Mr. Sainthill would have done well to have proceeded 

 one step further than he did, cleared up this remaining point, and with 

 it have exhausted the subject. 



In 1579 Garrett, Earl of Desmond, was proclaimed a traitor b}^ mili- 

 tary law. In 1583 he was barbarously murdered for the money reward 

 set upon his head, and in 1586 be was attainted, when his immense ter- 

 ritorial possessions were vested in the Crown b}^ Act of Parliament. 



This transfer of the Desmond estates to the Crown did not affect the 

 ancient jointure charge to which the In chiquin manor fragment of them 

 was liable, in favour of the Countess Catherine, alias the Old Countess ; 

 but it annihilated, swept away every other charge and interest to which 

 they might have been subject, so far as Elinor, the young Countess 

 Dowager, and all the sisters of her then late husband, Garrett, were con- 

 cerned. 



I need scarcely remind my auditory of the intensity of feeling that 

 subsisted in the minds of the British rulers then in power in Ireland 

 against the Desmond race ; and helpless and destitute as the widow of 

 Garrett and his sisters were at that time, there was not, I believe, to be 

 found one amongst these rulers who would publicly support a claim 

 for a pension to relieve and comfort their helplessness and destitution. 



The individuals placed in the year 1586 in the position I have de- 

 scribed were, Ellen, Countess Dowager of Desmond ; Lady Jane Fitz- 

 Gerald ; Lady Ellen FitzGerald ; and Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, sis- 

 ters of the Earl Garrett. 



There can be no doubt, as evidenced by a license granted to the 

 Countess of Desmond to return*^ to Ireland from England, where she had 

 been for some time staying, dated 23rd June, 39th Elizabeth, that she 

 went over to the Court of St. James's, where she was presented to the 

 Queen, and successfully urged her melancholy suit. 



The result of that suit was a grant by letters patent, f under the 

 great seal of Ireland, dated 25th ]S"ovember, 29th Elizabeth, Anno 



* Morrin's " Calendar to Patent and Close Rolls, Court of Chancery, Ireland," 

 vol. ii., p. 479. 



t Landed Estates' Record Office, liber 15, f. 128, Patents, Elizabeth. 

 K. I. A. PROG. VOL. VIII. 3 S 



