A CHAPTER OF IRISH HISTORY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 207, 23 March 1877, Page 15

A CHAPTER OF IRISH HISTORY.

In the recent death of Sir John Esmonde, Bart., at the comparatively early age of fifty, the representative of one of the oldest Anglo-Irish families in County Wexford has passed away. Seated in that county with the early English settlers, the family became conspicuous in the age of Elizabeth. Sir Lawrence, the representative at that time, adopted the Protestant religion, and commanded a troop of horse in 1601-2 He was knighted by Sir Henry Sydney, and in an expedition to West Connaught with Sir Thomas Burke and Morough na doc O'Flaherty, f ell in love with and married the beautiful sister of the latter. For his services he was created T?™ smonde ' Baron of Limerick, County Wexford. He died in 1012, General of all the English forces in Ireland, and Governor of Duncannon Fort. During his life his wife, who was a pious Catholic, tearing that her son would be reared in the Protestant reli°-ion fled with their only son to her relatives in Connaught. Accepting her flight as an abrogation of the marriage, Lord Esmonde, with°out the formality of a divorce, married again, but had no other issue. At his death his son applied for his father's titles, but he was a Catholic, and his claim was coldly received. He died before obtaining his paternal peerage. From Sir Thomas' second son James ot Ballytrasnagh, the present family are descended This James died from a fall in the hunting field, aged eighty-four. His third daughter married Howard Kyan, of Mount Howard, County Wexford, and one of the sons of this marriage, Esmonde Kyan was the most heroic of the rebel chiefs during the insurrection of 1798 bir James, son of the aforesaid James, survived his three cousins of the elder branch only a few days. He had been an officer in the ■ervice of France. He left two sons, Thomas, his heir ; and John who was executed on Carlisle bridge, Dublin, as a rebel in 1798 Johns sons were Thomas the eighth Baronet; Bartholomew, a distinguished member of the Society of Jesus ; James, a Lieutenant m the Royal Navy; Lawrence, a captain of grenadiers in the ™ .^f r Y lee; and a fifth son, a naval captain in the service of o- mV in actiou witL a ss PP a nish frigate. The Right Hon Sir Thomas, ninth Baronet, was born in 1786; dying without issue! he was succeeded by his nephew, the late Sir John, whose father James, manned Maria Murphy, daughter of James Murphy, of Ringrnahon Castle, County Cork, The eldest born of this marriage was the late Sir John, born in 1826, and succeeded to the baronetcy "J m® J n i c married a daughter of the late Henry Grattan of Tmnehinch, County Wicklow, and granddaughter of the famous orator Henry Grattan Sir John leaves a son named Thomas Henry Grattan Esmonde, aged 14, as heir to his titles. This f Amily history is a good illustration of the manner in which foreign blood vi Ireland, in the course of generations, becomes mingled with the deep fount of the ancient nationality.— < Pilot.'