(Vol. vi., pp. 508. 585.)
There is an anxiety to obtain further particulars on this interesting
subject, and I have searched my Genealogical MSS. Collections for such; the
result has extended farther than I could have wished, but, while I am able
to furnish _dates_ and _authorities_ for hitherto naked statements, I have
inserted two or three links of descent not before laid down.
A member of the Somersetshire Wellesleighs is said to have accompanied
Henry II. to Ireland.
Walleran or Walter de Wellesley, living in Ireland in 1230 (Lynch, _Feud.
Dig._), witnessed a grant of certain townlands to the Priory of Christ
Church about 1250 (_Registry of Christ Church_); while it is more
effectively stated that he then "endowed the Priory of All Saints with 60
a. of land, within the manor of Cruagh, _which then belonged, with other
estates, to his family_, and that he gave to the said priory _free common
of pasture, of wood and of turbary, over his whole mountain there_."
His namesake and son (according to Lynch, _Feud. Dig._), "Walran de
Wylesley," was in 1302 required, as one of the "Fideles" of Ireland, by
three several letters, to do service in the meditated war in Scotland
(_Parl. Writs_, vol. i. p. 363.), and in the following year he was slain
(_MS. Book of Obits, T.C.D._). The peerage books merge these two Wallerans
in one.
William de Wellesley, who appears to have been son to Walleran, was in 1309
appointed Constable of the Castle of Kildare (_Rot. Pat. Canc. Hib._),
which he maintained when besieged by the Bruces in their memorable invasion
of Ireland, and their foray over that county. For these and other services
to the state he received many lucrative and honourable grants from the
crown, and was summoned to parliament in 1339. In 1347 he was slain at the
siege of Calais. (_Obits, T.C.D._)
Sir John de Wellesly, Knight, son of William, having performed great
actions against the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes of Wicklow, had grants of sundry
wardships and other rewards from the year 1335. In 1343 he became one of
the sureties for the appearance of the suspected Earl of Desmond, on whose
flight Sir John's estates were seised to the crown and withheld for some
years. (Lynch's _Feud. Dig._)
His successor was another John de Wellesley, omitted in the peerage books,
but whose existence is shown by _Close Roll 29 & 30 Edw. III., C. H._ He
died about the year 1355.
William Wellesley, son of John, was summoned to great councils and
parliaments of Ireland from 1372; he was also entrusted by the king with
various important commissions and custodies of castles, lands, and wards
(_Patent Rolls C. H._). In 1386 he was Sheriff of Kildare, and Henry IV.
renewed his commission in 1403.
Richard, son and heir of William de Wellesley, as proved by _Rot. Pat. 1
Henry IV., Canc. Hib._, married Johanna, daughter and heiress of Sir
Nicholas de Castlemartin, by whom the estates of Dangan, Mornington, &c.
passed to the Wellesley family; he and his said wife had confirmation of
their estates in 1422. (_Rot. Pat. 1 Henry VI., C. H._) He had a previous
grant from the treasury by order of the Privy Council, in consideration of
his long services as sheriff of the county of Kildare, and yet more
actively "in the wars of Munster, Meath, and Leinster, with men and horses,
arms and money." (_Rot. Claus. 17 Ric. II., C. H._) In 1431 he was
specially commissioned to advise the crown on the state of Ireland, and was
subsequently selected to take charge of the Castle of Athy, as "the fittest
person to maintain that fortress and key of the country against the malice
of the Irish enemy." (_Rot. Pat. et Claus. 9 Henry VI., C. H._) In
resisting that "malice" he fell soon after.
The issue of Sir Richard de Wellesley by Johanna were William Wellesley,
who married Katherine ----, and dying in 1441 was succeeded by his next
brother, Christopher Wellesley, whose recorded fealty in the same year
proves all the latter links; his succession to William as brother and heir,
and the titles of Johanna as widow of his father Richard, and of Katherine
as widow of William, to dower off said estates. (_Rot. Claus. 19 Henry
VI._, _C. H._) At and previous to this time, another line of this family,
connected as cousins with the house of Dangan, flourished in the co.
Kildare, where they were recognised as Palatine Barons of Norragh to the
close of the seventeenth century. William Wellesley of Dangan was the son
and heir of Christopher. An (unprinted) act of Edward IV. was passed in
1472 in favour of this William; and his two marriages are stated by Lynch
(_Feud. Dig._): the first was to {88} Ismay Plunkett; the second, to Maud
O'Toole, was contracted under peculiar circumstances. The law of Ireland at
the time prohibited the intermarriages of the English with the natives
without royal licence therefor being previously obtained, and not even did
the licence so obtained wash out the _original sin_ of Irish birth; for, as
in this instance, Maud, having survived her first husband, on marrying her
second, Patrick Hussey, had a fresh licence to legalise that marriage. It
is of record (_Rot. Pat. 21 Henry VII., C. H._), and proves the second
marriage of Sir William clearly: yet it is not noticed in any of the
peerage books, which derive his issue from the first wife, and not from the
second, as Lynch gives it, that issue being Gerald the eldest son, Walter
the second, and Alison a daughter.
Gerald had a special livery of his estate in 1539; Walter the second son
became Bishop of Kildare in 1531, and died its diocesan in 1539 (see Ware's
_Bishops_); and the daughter Alison intermarried with John Cusack of
Cushington, co. Meath. (Burke's _Landed Gentry_, Supp. p. 88.)
Gerald, according to all the peerage books, married Margaret, eldest
daughter of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, who was Lord Chancellor of Ireland in
1483, and had issue William, his eldest son, Lord of Dangan, who married
Elizabeth Cusack, of Portrane, co. Dublin, and died previous to 1551 (as I
believe is proveable by _inquisitions_ of that year in the office of the
Chief Remembrancer, Dublin), leaving Gerald, his eldest son and heir. An
inquiry taken in 1579 as to the extent of the manor of Dangan, finds him
then seised thereof (_Inquis. in C. H. 23 Eliz._). Previous to this he
appears a party in conveyances of record, as in 1564, &c. He had a son
Edward (not mentioned in the peerage books), who joined in a family
conveyance of 1599, and soon after died, leaving a son, Valerian Wellesley.
Gerald himself died in 1603, leaving said Valerian, his grandson and heir,
then aged ten (_Inquis. 5 Jac. I. in Rolls Office_), and _married_, adds
the Inquisition; and Lynch, in his _Feudal Dignities_, gives interesting
particulars of the betrothal of this boy, and his public repudiation of the
intended match on his coming to age. This Valerian is traced through Irish
records to the time of the Restoration; he married first, Maria Cusack (by
whom he had William Wellesley, his eldest son), and, second, Anne Forth,
otherwise Cusack, widow of Sir Ambrose Forth, as shown by an Inquisition of
1637, in the Rolls Office, Dublin.
William Wellesley, son and heir of Valerian, married Margaret Kempe
(_Peerage Books_), and by her had Gerald Wellesley, who on the Restoration
petitioned to be restored to his estates, and a Decree of Innocence issued,
which states the rights of himself, his father, and his grandfather in
"Dingen." This Gerald married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Dudley
Colley, and their first daughter was baptized in 1663 by the name of
Margaret, some evidence, in the courtesy of christenings, of Gerald's
mother being Margaret. (_Registry of St. Werburgh's._) Gerald was a suitor
in the Court of Claims in 1703: he left two sons; William the eldest died
_s. p._, and was succeeded by Garrett, his next brother, who died also
without issue in 1728, having bequeathed all the family estates to Richard
Colley, second son of the aforesaid Sir Dudley Colley, and testator's
uncle, enjoining upon said Richard and his heirs male to bear thenceforth,
as they succeeded to the estates, the name and arms of Wellesley.
This Richard Colley Wellesley married Elizabeth, daughter of John Sale,
LL.D. and M.P., by whom he had issue Garrett Wellesley, born, as the
_Dublin and London Magazine_ for 1735 announces, "19th July," when "the
Lady of Richard Colley Westley was delivered of a son and heir, _to the
great joy of that family_." This son was father of the Marquis Wellesley
and of the DUKE OF WELLINGTON!