ATHENRY. 171 to Greenwich in that year,(») the second of such Barons being Kingsale, while the Uird was Kerry. Now as the Lords Commissioners (in 1013) admitted^') that "the Fit/. Maurices, Lords of Kerry aud Lixnaw, proved their possession of that dignity to be as ancient as the Conquest " (i.e. the Conquest of Ireland in 1172), aud as ' the "same Lords Commissioners adjudged the antiquity of the Lords Courey of Kinsale to lie still greater than that of the Lords Fit/, Maurice of Kerry," it follows that the antiquity of the Barony of Athenry, which immediately precedes that of Kingsale, cannot liu Inter than 1172 ; in which same year (according to their Lordships' authority) we must suppose the Barony of Kingsale, as well as that of Kerry, to have Veu <mVj created, for certainly no such Baronies could have been cr. before the Conquest abovenamed.(°)] Barons [I.] 1. RoDEUT BERM INGHAM, I)E Hlli.MIXGHAM, or Bremisg- ^ ][7-> ham, not improbably a yr. s. of Peter do B., Lord of Birmingham, co. Varwick,( u ) accompanied Hen. II, in 1172, in his invasion of Ireland, and being one of the principal Conquerors of Connaught(°) obtained (••') See " Preface," p. ii ; , note "a." {) " Kem&rka upon the Ancient Baronage of Ireland," Dublin, 1S29, p. 12. [*) The date or even approximate date of the creation of the early Irish Baronies as Peerage dignities is difficult to ascertain. Of the nine Baronies ft,] which iu 1489 were existing as separate Peeniges (the ranking whereof was usually in the order they are placed below , the date of creation was (not improbably) as follows, vi:. — 1. Athkxhy, rr. 1172. 2. Kinusai.k, cr. 1172, according to the M Lords Commissioners * of 1(513 (as quoted above in the text), but, according to icliat appears to be more reliable cridence, in 1223, when Miles, s. of John de Courey the younger, obtained the Baronies of Kiugsale aud of Riugwne from Hen. IIL 3. Kkriiy, cr. 1172, according to the authority stated above in the text. 4. St axe, probably cr. by Richard II about 138!). The creation could hardly have ben before 1389, as it seems certain that Sir Robert Preston, who in that year was made Chancellor [I.], was not then ennobled ; and the precedency of the Lords Prestou of Qormanston (afterwards Viscounts (Jortnanston) [I.] is declared in the Statute Roll, 210(1. IV (see "Lynch," p. 199, &c), to be above that of the Lords Slaue, though (pu/./.lingly enough) these Lords are said to have such precedence " as Lords of Kells in Oaaory." ff. Delvi.v,* probably cr. about 1389, iu which year William Nugent (who had m. When a minor the heiress of that vast Barony) was, under the designation of " Baron of llelv'm" in ward to the King. He is again so styled in the Plea Roll of 1391. He (/. before 141."), so that it is not impossible that the creation was a generation later, and that it was his s. and h. (who was of age before 1424), and not himself, who first obtained the Barony of Delvin as a Peerage Dignity. C. Kli.i.KKX,* probably cr. shortly before 1430. 7. Howth,* probably cr. shortly before 1430. See " Lodge," iii, p. 1S">, where the ILL is given of Christopher, " Baron Howth, and Lord of Parliament," 1430. 8. Tuimlkstox, cr. by patent 4 March 1401-2. D. Dlnsanv, cr. by Ed. IV between 1402 and 14S3. ( d ) The name of the Founder is uncertain, by some it is said to be Peter and by others William, neither of which names, however, appear in any Irish document of tliis date. The whole of the earlier part of the pedigree is most unreliable. The genealogy of this house has been ably treated of by Mr. W. F. Carter, editor of the " .Midland Antiquary, " but, at this period, it is only a matter of conjectural probabilities. (") "An ancient monument valued at £20.1 on which was represented in brass the Hiding of the first ancestor of the family of Birmingham in Ireland," is said to have been entrusted to the charge of the Portreeve of AtheurV and by him sold ill foreign parts during the Civil Wars, for which a bill iu Chancery "was filed against him iu 1007.
- "It would appear from the Close Roll of the 40 Kd. Ill [1372], Nob. 113, 114,
that not only the Peerage of h'illecn, but those [sicj of Dclcin and Uoicth were ml •» yet mated; and that the ancestors, paternal, as well as maternal, of these Peers were wen Magnates or Alii but not Peers of the Realm. For the Sheriffs of Dublin and Malta are thereby ordered to summon to a great Council then held, amongst many others John Fitz John, tiaron of IMcin, Nicholas Howth [sic Qy. ? St. Lawrcncel, tUen lord of the manor of llowth, Simon Cusak, Walter Cusak, &e." See " Remarks upon the Ancient Baronage of Ireland," Dublin, 1829, p. 115.
