John de Courcy, 21st Baron Kingsale (died 1667) sat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

of the Irish Parliament of 1661–1666.

Birth and origins

John was born the eldest son of Patrick de Courcy and Mary FitzGerald. His father was the 20th

Baron Kingsale Baron Kingsale is a title of the premier baron in the Peerage of Ireland. The feudal barony dates to at least the thirteenth century. The first peerage creation was by writ. Name and precedence In the early times the name was "Kinsale" or " ...

(also counted as the 19th or the 15th). His father's family, the de Courcys, were

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

and claimed descendence from

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

, who had arrived in Ireland in 1176. His mother was a daughter of John Oge FitzGerald of Dromana. Her eldest sister, Helen (or Ellen) was the wife of his uncle

Gerald Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Iris ...

, the 19th Baron Kingsale. The FitzGeralds of Dromana were

like the de Courcys. They were a cadet branch of the FitzGeralds of Desmond that started when Gerald FitzGerald, the second son of

James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond (d. 1462), called 'the Usurper', was a younger son of Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond, and Lady Eleanor, daughter of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond. Life The younger brother of John FitzGerald, 4 ...

(d. 1462) was given Dromana as an appanage. His parents married when his father was already 48 years old but had 23 children. However, only seven seem to be known by name.

Early life

His father was Baron Kingsale from about 1642 to 1663, during the 11 years of war that followed the Irish Rebellion of 1641, through the eight years of Cromwellian rule in Ireland, and through the Restoration.

Marriage and children

De Courcy married Ellen, daughter of Charles MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain and granddaughter of Donal MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain. John and Ellen had three sons: #Patrick (1660–1669), succeeded as the 22nd Baron # Almeric (1664–1720), succeeded as the 23rd Baron #William —and at least one daughter: #Ellen, married Sir John Magrath, 3rd Baronet

21st Baron

John succeeded his father in 1663 as the 23rd Baron Kingsale. He took his seat in the

Irish House of Lords The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from medieval times until 1800. It was also the final court of appeal of the Kingdom of Ireland. It was modelled on the House of Lords of England, with membe ...

as Lord Kingsale on 9 November 1665.

Death

Kingsale died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

on 19 May 1667. He was succeeded by his eldest son Patrick aged seven.

Notes and references

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * – G to K (for Kingsale) * – 1625 to 1649 (for Magrath) * – Hussey to Lincolnshire * * * – Viscounts, barons * – Normans, English, Huguenots etc. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsale, Almeric de Courcy, 23rd Baron 1664 births 1720 deaths 17th-century Irish people 18th-century Irish people Barons in the Peerage of Ireland Burials at Westminster Abbey Irish Jacobites Irish people of French descent Irish soldiers in the army of James II of England Members of the Irish House of Lords Politicians from County Cork Politicians from County Dublin