Earl of Howth ( ) was a title in the

Peerage of Ireland The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...

. It was created in 1767 for Thomas St Lawrence, 15th Baron Howth, who was elevated to Viscount St Lawrence at the same time, also in the Peerage of Ireland. The St Lawrence family descended from Christopher St Lawrence who was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Howth in about 1425. The third and fourth Barons both served as

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

. The family's origins are thought to go back to Almeric Tristram, a

liegeman A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...

of the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

knight

John de Courcy {{Infobox noble , image = Sir John de Courcy (1150-1219).jpg , caption = , alt = , more = no , succession = , reign = , predecessor = , successor = , ...

, who conquered

Howth Howth ( ; ; non, Hǫfuð) is an affluent peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes ...

in 1177. The St Lawrence family claimed significant

prerogative In law, a prerogative is an exclusive right bestowed by a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law. It was a common facet of feudal law. The ...

rights as Lords of Howth over the whole

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

, and were prepared to maintain their rights even against the

English Crown This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Sax ...

. The fourth baron was Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and a distinguished soldier who fought at the

Battle of Knockdoe The Battle of Knockdoe took place on 19 August 1504 at Knockdoe, in the Parish of Lackagh (Irish ''Leacach''), County Galway, between two Anglo-Irish lords— Gerald FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Ulick Fionn B ...

; his grandson, the seventh baron, was also a notable soldier. The eighth baron, commonly known as "the blind lord", was one of the leading Irish statesmen of his time, and led the opposition to the Government's taxation policy in the 1570s. His son, the ninth baron, was an open

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, and led the opposition to the Penal Laws in the early 17th century. The tenth baron was a notable military commander who served in the

Nine Years War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

with the

Earl of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

and Lord Mountjoy. The fourteenth Baron represented

Ratoath Ratoath () is a commuter town in County Meath, Ireland. A branch of the Broad Meadow Water (Broadmeadow River) () flows through the town. The R125 and R155 roads meet in the village. At the 2016 census, there were 9,533 people living in Ratoa ...

in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

, and was a friend of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

. The third Earl served as Lord-Lieutenant of Dublin. The fourth Earl sat as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Galway Borough, and in 1881 he was created Baron Howth, of Howth in the County of Dublin, in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...

. All these titles became extinct upon his death in 1909 as he left no male heir. The family seat,

Howth Castle Howth Castle ( ) and estate lie just outside the village of Howth, County Dublin in Ireland, in the administration of Fingal County Council. The castle was the ancestral home of the line of the St Lawrence family (see: Earl of Howth) that had ...

, remained in the hands of their descendants in the female line, the Gaisford-St Lawrence family, until the twenty-first century.

Lords of Howth

* Almeric (1177-??) * Nicholas (1187) * Almeric (1200) * Henry (1250) * Nicholas (1270) * Adam (1290-1325) * Adam (1325-1334) * Nicholas (1334-1404) * Stephen r Christopher(1404–35)

Barons Howth (c. 1425)

* Christopher r StephenSt Lawrence, 1st Baron Howth (died 1430 or 1435) *

Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth ( died 1462 or 1465 ) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman. He was a key figure in fifteenth-century Irish politics, and one of the strongest supporters in Ireland of the House of York, who seized the English Crown ...

(died 1462 or 1465) *

Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth (born c.1435 – died before 1488) was a leading statesman in 15th-century Ireland who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Through his second marriage, he was a close connection to the new Tudor dyna ...

(died c.1485) *

Nicholas St Lawrence, 4th Baron Howth Nicholas St Lawrence, 4th Baron Howth (c. 1460 – 1526) was a leading Irish soldier and statesman of the early Tudor period, who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Early life He was born about 1460, eldest son of Robert St Lawrence, ...

(died 1526) * Christopher St Lawrence, 5th Baron Howth (died 1542) * Edward St Lawrence, 6th Baron Howth (1508–1549) *

Richard St Lawrence, 7th Baron Howth Richard St Lawrence, 7th Baron Howth (c. 1510–1558) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and military commander of the Tudor era. Family He was the second son of Christopher St Lawrence, 5th Baron Howth and his wife Anne Bermingham. He succeeded to t ...

(died 1558) * Christopher St Lawrence, 8th Baron Howth (died 1589) *

Nicholas St Lawrence, 9th Baron Howth (1555–1606) Nicholas St. Lawrence, 9th Baron Howth (c.1550–1607) was a leading member of the Anglo-Irish nobility in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Despite openly professing his Roman Catholic faith, he enjoyed the trust of Elizabeth ...

* Christopher St Lawrence, 10th Baron Howth (died 1619) *

Nicholas St Lawrence, 11th Baron Howth Nicholas St Lawrence, 11th Baron Howth (1597–1643) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the seventeenth century. The Lords of Howth for over a century had played a crucial role in Irish politics; but Nicholas, unlike many of his ancestors, preferred ...

(1597–1643) *

William St Lawrence, 12th Baron Howth William St Lawrence, 12th Baron Howth (1628–1671) was an Irish nobleman of the Restoration period. He was an intelligent and popular man who would undoubtedly have played an influential role in Irish politics had it not been for his premature de ...

(died 1671) *

Thomas St Lawrence, 13th Baron Howth Thomas St Lawrence, 13th Baron Howth (1659–1727) was an Irish nobleman of the later Stuart and early Georgian era. Early life He was born in 1659, eldest son of William St Lawrence, 12th Baron Howth, and Elizabeth Fitzwilliam. He was only t ...

(1659–1727) * William St Lawrence, 14th Baron Howth (1688–1748) * Thomas St Lawrence, 15th Baron Howth (1730–1801; created Earl of Howth in 1767)

Earls of Howth (1767)

Thomas St Lawrence, 1st Earl of Howth Thomas St Lawrence, 1st Earl of Howth (10 May 1730 – 29 September 1801) was Anglo-Irish peer and lawyer. Howth was the eldest son of William St Lawrence, 14th Baron Howth and Lucy Gorges, daughter of General Richard Gorges and his first wife Nic ...

(1730–1801) * William St Lawrence, 2nd Earl of Howth (1752–1822) *

Thomas St Lawrence, 3rd Earl of Howth Thomas St Lawrence, 3rd Earl of Howth KP (16 August 1803 – 4 February 1874) was an Irish peer, styled Viscount St Lawrence until 1822. He became Earl of Howth in 1822 on the death of his father, William St Lawrence, 2nd Earl of Howth. His mot ...

(1803–1874) * William Ulick Tristram St Lawrence, 4th Earl of Howth (1827–1909)

References

Work cited

* * *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howth, Earl of 1767 establishments in the British Empire Extinct earldoms in the Peerage of Ireland

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

Noble titles created in 1767