Thomas Talbot (died 1487)

Thomas Talbot (c.1439-1487) was a wealthy landowner and judge in fifteenth-century Ireland. He was head of the prominent Talbot family of Malahide Castle; his descendants acquired the title Baron Talbot de Malahide, and he himself was recognised as Lord of Malahide, although this was not a hereditary title. He was also Admiral of the Port of Malahide.^[1] By the time of his death he held lands in four counties and was one of the principal landowners in the Pale.

Malahide Castle, present day

Early life

He was the only son of Richard Talbot of Malahide Castle and Matilda (or Maud) Plunkett, daughter of the first Baron Killeen.^[2] She was the widow of Thomas Hussey, feudal baron of Galtrim, who was murdered shortly after their wedding. ^[3]Richard had inherited Malahide in 1432 when he was still a minor, and died in 1442. Thomas took possession of his lands in 1460, which suggest that he had just come of age, and so was probabaly born in 1439.

In 1444 his mother made a third marriage to Sir John Cornwalsh, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, who died in 1472. Since Cornwalsh had no son Thomas inherited the Cornwalsh estates; he also acquired lands in County Louth from the heirs of Baron Darcy de Knayth.^[4]

Career

In 1460 King Henry VI by letters patent recognised Thomas as Dominus (Lord) of Malahide.^[5] In 1472 he became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland).^[6] In 1475 King Edward IV created him Admiral of the Port of Malahide, with power to hold admiralty courts and the right to levy customs duties on all merchandise coming through the port, as well as a number of other privileges, including an exemption from doing homage for his lands. ^[7]These privileges suggest that Thomas was a man whose support the House of York considered worth paying a high price for. This was part of a wider Yorkist policy, which had considerable success, of trying to win the support of Anglo-Irish leaders such as the Earl of Kildare. Many of these men remained Yorkist in sympathy even after the downfall of the dynasty in 1485, and made the mistake of supporting the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel, who unsuccessfully claimed the Crown of England in 1487; it is unclear whether Talbot was one of Simnel's backers, since he died in July of that year, at the height of the crisis.

Death and descendants

Thomas died on 23 July 1487. His first wife was from a family called Somerton, but little else is known of her. By his second wife Elizabeth Bulkeley he had five sons:

• Peter (his heir), ancestor of the Barons Talbot^[8]
• John, ancestor of the Talbots of Dardistown
• Thomas
• Richard
• William, of Templeogue, ancestor of the Talbots of Mount Talbot; he was the father of Richard Talbot who like his grandfather was a High Court judge^[9]

References