481 



them should obtain as great or greater benefit and advancement, when 

 said pensions were respectively to determine. I shall only observe in 

 reference to these ladies and their pensions, that they continaed to re- 

 ceive them down to the year 1641, when the great rebellion happened 

 in Ireland and extinguished law, order, and the royal and public reve- 

 nues together. 



The pension of the Countess was more immediately restored, as the 

 ensuiQg copy of a letter from the Lords of the Privy Council of Eng- 

 land to the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council of Ireland demonstrates, 

 viz. : — 



After* our hearty commendations to your lordships and the rest, 

 <S:c., upon humble suit made by the Countess of Desmond unto the 

 King's Majesty, his Highness is graciously pleased that she shall enjoy 

 a pension she had in Ireland of £100, Irish, per annum. These shall 

 be to require you to take order the said pension of £100, Irish, shall be 

 paid from henceforth unto the said Countess, with the arrears not ex- 

 ceeding one year, wherein this signification of his Majesty's pleasure 

 shall be your sufiicient warrant in that behalf. And so we bid your 

 lordship and the rest a hearty farewell. From the Court at Theobald's, 

 thelast of July, 1604. 



Your lordships', &c., very loving friends, 



T. Ellesmere, Cane, E. "Woecestee, 

 T. Doeset, R. Cecyll, 



!N'OTTINGHAM, W. KlS-OLLTS, 



Sufeole:, J. Stanhope." 



ISTOETHUMBEELA ND, 



This letter, reviving the grant of Queen Elizabeth, shows that the 

 pension had been stopped, and that the Countess made personal suit for 

 its revival to the King ; and it further shows, as well by the immediate 

 orders it issues as the number and rank of the names attached to it, the 

 deep interest and commiseration entertained by King James and his 

 Court for the Countess and her misfortunes ; and I think it is manifest 

 from the circumstances disclosed this letter, as well as by the letters 

 patents granting the pensions of £50 each to the Ladies EitzGerald, 

 that Sir "William Temple was in error in attributing the visit so made 

 by the Countess Elinor of Desmond at the Court of King James to 

 the ^' Old Countess," who, if she was living in July, 1604, certainly 

 died before the close of the following December. 



The pension of £100 per annum was paid to Countess Elinor, by 

 the Yice-Treasurer of Ireland, to Michaelmas, 1638, when it ceased ; and 

 I therefore conclude that she must have died before the Easter of 

 1639, when another half year of the pension would have been due and 

 payable ; and at this point I should have closed my observations, if it 



* Landed Estates' Record Office, Patents, James I., lib. 2 B, p 111. 



