Patent Rolls, ii. 114). He carried letters of commendation to the lord-deputy, Sir John Perrot; and the queen, 'the better to express her favour towards him,' granted him a renewal of the leases he held from the crown (ib. ii. 106). He was under obligations to return to England as soon as he had transacted his business. But during his absence many suits to his lands had arisen, and, owing to the hostility of Sir Robert Dillon, chief justice of the common pleas, and Chief-baron Sir Lucas Dillon, his hereditary enemies, he found it difficult to put the law in motion. However, he seems to have returned to England in 1587, and, having succeeded in securing Burghley's favour, he was allowed in October 1588 to return to Ireland. Lord-deputy Sir William Fitzwilliam was not without his doubts as to the wisdom of this step. He hoped, he wrote to Burghley, that Delvin would 'throughly performe that honorable and good opynion it hath pleased yr Lp. to conceave of him, wch no doubt he may very sufficiently do, and wth all do her matie great service in action, both cyvill and martiall, if to the witt wherewth God hath indued him and the loue and liking wherewth the countrey doth affect him, he applie him self wth his best endevor' (State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. cxxxvii. 38). All the same he included him in his list of 'doubtful men in Ireland.' One cause that told greatly in his disfavour was his extreme animosity against Chief-justice Dillon, whom, rightly or wrongly, he regarded as having done to death his kinsman Nicholas Nugent [q. v.] To Burghley, who warned him that he was regarded with suspicion, he protested his loyalty and readiness to quit all that was dear to him in Ireland, and live in poverty in England, rather than that the queen should conceive the least thought of undutifulness in him. He led, he declared, an orderly life, avoiding discontented society, every term following the law in Dublin for the recovery of his lands, and serving the queen at the assizes in his own neighbourhood. The rest of his time he speut in books and building (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. iv. 420).
All this was probably quite true; but the extreme violence with which he prosecuted Chief-justice Dillon certainly afforded ground to his enemies to describe him as a discontented and seditious person, especially when, after the acquittal of Dillon, he charged the lord-deputy with having acted with undue partiality. However, in 1593 he was appointed leader of the forces of Westmeath at the general hosting on the hill of Tara, and during the disturbed period (1593-7) that preceded the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, he displayed great activity in his defence of the Pale, he was warmly commended for his zeal by Sir John Norris [q. v.] He obtained permission to visit England in 1597, and in consequence of his recent 'chargeable and valourous' services, he was, on 7 May, ordered a grant of so much of the O'Farrells' and O'Reillys' lands as amounted to an annual rent to the crown of 100l.; but, by reason of the disturbed state of the country, the warrant was never executed during his lifetime. On 20 May he was appointed a commissioner to inquire into abuses in the government of Ireland. On 17 March 1598 a commission (renewed on 3 July and 30 Oct.) was issued to him and Edward Nugent of the Disert to deliver the gaol of Mullingar by martial law, for 'that the gaol is now very much pestered with a great number of prisoners, the most part whereof are poor men . . . and that there can be no sessions held whereby the prisoners might receive their trial by ordinary course of law' (Cal. Fiants. Eliz. 6215, 6245, 6255). On 7 Aug. 1599 he was granted the wardship of his grandson, Christopher Chevers, with a condition that he should cause his ward 'to be maintained and educated in the English religion, andinEnglish apparel, in the college of the Holy Trinity, Dublin' (ib. 6328); in November he was commissioned by the Earl of Ormonde to hold a parley with the Earl of Tyrone (cf. manuscripts in Cambridge University Library, Kk. 1. 15, ff. 425, 427).
On the outbreak of Tyrone's rebellion his attitude at first was one of loyalty, but the extreme severity with which his country was treated by Tyrone on his march into Munster, early in 1600, induced him to submit to him (Annals of the Four Masters, vi. 2147); and, though he does not appear to have rendered him any active service, he was shortly afterwards arrested on suspicion of treason by Lord-deputy Mountjoy, and confined in Dublin Castle. He died in confinement before his trial, apparently on 17 Aug. 1602, though by another account on 5 Sept. or 1 Oct., and was buried at Castle Delvin on 5 Oct. Delvin married Marie, daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, eleventh earl of Kildare, who survived till 1 Oct. 1610. By her he had issue: Richard, created Earl of Westmeath (1583-1642) [q. v.], Christopher of Corbetstown, Gerald, Thomas, Gilbert, and William; also Mabel, who married, first, Murrough O'Brien, third baron Inchiquin: secondly, John Fitzpatrick, second son of Florence, lord of Upper Ossory; Elizabeth, who married Gerald Fitzgerald, fourteenth
