Robert Cowley, or Colley (c. 1470–1546) was an English-born judge in sixteenth-century Ireland who held the office of
Master of the Rolls in Ireland
The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was respons ...
. He is chiefly remembered as a possible ancestor of the
1st Duke of Wellington.
Early life
Despite his family's later eminence, Robert's background is obscure and his early life is poorly recorded. He is the father of Walter Cowley of
Glaston
Glaston is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish remained unchanged between the 2001 and the 2011 censuses.
The village's name means 'farm/settlement of Glathr'.
Glaston is abou ...
in
Rutland
Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire.
Its greatest len ...
; the Colley/Cowley family is recorded there from about 1400. Robert is said to have seen military service with Garret Mor, the "Great"
Earl of Kildare
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 ...
, but the first definite trace of him is when he entered
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
in 1502. He then decided on a business career abt 1505 with his sons Walter & Robert (Jr), and moved to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
where he became a successful
merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
. He was made Bailiff of Dublin in 1515.
Political and judicial career
From about 1520 Cowley played an increasing role in Irish politics. He was in the retinue of the
Earl of Surrey
Earl of Surrey is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times. It was first created for William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, William de Warenne, a close Companions of William the Conqueror, companion of William the Con ...
when he was appointed
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
. In 1522 when
Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond
Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, 1st Earl of Ossory (1539) also known as Red Piers (Irish ''Piers Ruadh''), was from the Polestown–– branch of the Butler family of Ireland. In the succession crisis at the death of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl ...
replaced Surrey as Lieutenant, Cowley became his legal adviser and Clerk to the
Council
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
in 1525; thereafter the Cowley family were regarded as strong Ormond partisans. Robert also sought to gain influence by becoming a regular correspondent of
Cardinal Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...
and later of
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...
. His devices for Ireland in 1537 suggested to Cromwell that all "All Irish on this side Shannon to be prosecuted, subdued, and exiled;".
James Bathe, later
Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer
The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (judge) who presided over the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). The Irish Court of Exchequer was a mirror of the equivalent court in England and was one of the four courts which sat in the buildin ...
and a trusted Crown servant for thirty years, faced Cowley's hostility from early in his career. In 1525 Bathe, then a very young lawyer, presented the English Government with a book setting out his proposals for reform of the Irish administration: Cowley ridiculed it, writing to Wolsey that Bathe knew as much about the government of Ireland as Cowley did about that of Italy.
Feud with Patrick Barnewall
In the 1530s Robert and his brother
Walter Cowley
Walter Cowley (c.1500 – 1548) was an Irish lawyer and politician who was the first holder of the office of Principal Solicitor for Ireland, which was created for him. He was a client of Thomas Cromwell, and later of John Alan, the Lord Chanc ...
engaged in a power struggle with
Patrick Barnewall, the Irish Solicitor General, who also had considerable influence with Cromwell. The Cowleys, who had the reputation for being entirely unscrupulous in advancing their careers, kept up a flow of letters to Cromwell attempting to undermine Barnewall. They alleged that Barnewall had challenged the King's authority in religious matters, a very serious charge in the political climate of the time. For a time it seemed the Cowleys would oust Barnewall: Cowley obtained the offices of Clerk of the Crown and Receiver of Customs of the port of Dublin, and Cromwell praised him as a man of ''long established fidelity and truth'', an opinion with which few others, then or since, have ever agreed. Barnewall at one point offered to surrender the office of
Solicitor General for Ireland
The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On ra ...
to Walter Cowley. In the event Cromwell seems to have made peace between the rivals: Barnewall remained Solicitor General and a new post of
Principal Solicitor for Ireland was created for Walter. Robert became Master of the Rolls in 1539. He served on the commission for suppression of the religious houses and received as his reward the
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...
of Holmpatrick, near Dublin.
Last years
Cowley's influence declined after the downfall and death of Cromwell in 1540:
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
distrusted him, and like many leading political figures of
the Pale
The Pale (Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast st ...
he quarrelled with
Sir Anthony St. Leger, the
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive (government), executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland ...
. His efforts to block the rise to power of Chief Baron Bathe were entirely unsuccessful, even though he pointed out, correctly, that many of Bathe's friends and relatives had been deeply involved in the Rebellion of
Silken Thomas
{{Infobox noble, type
, name = Thomas FitzGerald
, title = The Earl of Kildare
, image = Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare.jpg
, caption =
, alt =
, CoA =
, ...
. In 1541 Cowley unwisely went to London without official leave: he was promptly denounced for
sedition
Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...
, imprisoned in the
Fleet Prison and deprived of office. He was released from the Fleet in 1543 and died in England three years later. His son Walter was also deprived of office and imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
– several letters from him to the King pleading for clemency still exist.
Character
Cowley was a gifted man who rose from obscurity to found one of the great
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 ...
families, but as a man, he was not highly regarded by his contemporaries, or by later historians. His letters to Cromwell, particularly those which detail his efforts to destroy Patrick Barnewall, show him in an unattractive light, and historians have described both Robert and Walter as "ambitious mischief-makers".
[Hart p.30]
Descendants
Although Walter Cowley, Principal Solicitor for Ireland, is recorded as Robert's brother he was in fact Robert's son. Records show that two Walter and Robert Colley originated from Glaston in Rutland, England, and that Walter's son was the distinguished soldier Sir
Henry Colley of
Carbury Castle. Henry was an ancestor of
Richard Colley, who adopted the surname Wesley, was created
Baron Mornington
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
and was grandfather of the
1st Duke of Wellington.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowley, Robert
English politicians
1470s births
1546 deaths
15th-century English people
16th-century English judges
English expatriates in Ireland
Members of Lincoln's Inn
Inmates of Fleet Prison
People from Lincolnshire
Masters of the Rolls in Ireland