Gerald Aylmer (Irish judge)
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Sir Gerald Aylmer (ca. 1490–1560) was an Irish judge in the time of
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 ...
, who played a key part in enforcing the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His numerous descendants included the Barons Aylmer.


Early life

He was the younger son of Bartholomew Aylmer of
Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
, Ardclough,
County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...
, and his wife Margaret Cheevers, daughter of Walter Cheevers and Catherine Welles. He married Alison, daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald of Alloone (a cousin of the Knight of Kerry) and his wife Isabel Delafield, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Delafield of Culduffe, County Dublin. His sister Anne married Sir Thomas Luttrell,
Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the s ...
. In early life he was loyal to Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare when he served as
sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of Limerick in the earlier 1520s. As a partisan of Kildare, (their faction were the so-called Geraldines) he was made second justice of the
Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) The Court of Common Pleas was one of the principal courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror image of the equivalent court in England. Common Pleas was one of the four courts of justice which gave the Four Courts in Dublin, which is still ...
on 19 December 1528. He was confirmed in that role on 23 August 1532, then presented a critique of the Geraldine administration at the English court in 1533, along with his colleague John Alan, the Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Just before the rebellion of Silken Thomas, the new Earl of Kildare, Aylmer was appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer on 25 June 1534. When Sir
Bartholomew Dillon Sir Bartholomew Dillon (died 1533) was a leading Irish judge of the sixteenth century who held the offices of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and Lord Justice of Ireland. Birth and origins Bartholomew was born at Riverston, County Meath, ...
died unexpectedly after only one year on the bench, Aylmer was named Lord Chief Justice of Ireland on 12 August 1535.


Military career

Aylmer became a principal agent of Thomas Cromwell in Ireland and worked closely with John Alan, the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, in bringing about the defeat of Silken Thomas. He assisted various English Lord Deputies in Ireland in expeditions against the O'Connors (1537) and the Kavanaghs (1538) and was employed in military campaigns against the Geraldines and the O'Neills. He was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in the field after the
Battle of Belahoe The Battle of Belahoe or Ballyhoe ( ga, Béal Átha hÓ) was fought in 1539 between the O'Neills and O'Donnells against English forces, in which the O'Neills and O'Donnells were defeated. The battle occurred while the English Lord Deputy of Ire ...
, near
Carrickmacross Carrickmacross () is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The town and environs had a population of 5,032 according to the 2016 census, making it the second-largest town in the county. Carrickmacross is a market town which developed around a ca ...
,
County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County C ...
, in 1539 (a crushing defeat for the O'Neills and their allies), and given a grant of the lands of Dollardstown, near
Athy Athy ( ; ) is a market town at the meeting of the River Barrow and the Grand Canal in south-west County Kildare, Ireland, 72 kilometres southwest of Dublin. A population of 9,677 (as of the 2016 census) makes it the sixth largest town in Kild ...
,
County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...
.


Suppression of the Monasteries

Aylmer and John Alan travelled to England in 1536 to receive the bill for the suppression of the Irish monasteries, bringing the legislation to the Reformation Parliament of 1536–7. The resulting Act involved in the first instance the suppression of the monastery of St Wolstan's, near
Celbridge Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...
, Co Kildare, and assured Aylmer and his fellow chief justice and brother-in-law Thomas Luttrell an annual rent of £4 during the life of Sir Richard Weston, the last prior: in 1538 St. Wolstan's itself was granted to John Alan and his heirs. The Alans remained there for several generations. Aylmer joined with Alan and others in the comprehensive commission to dissolve other Irish monastic houses, gaining profitable estates in County Meath as a result. He conducted an inquisition at Limerick of ecclesiastical
shrines A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
in 1541, and he obtained the Franciscan friary at
Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...
by patent of 16 February 1543 for the price of £54 17s. 3d. Despite his loyalty to Henry VIII is not clear whether he was committed to the Protestant faith: it was not unusual then for members 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 ...
gentry class to which he belonged to conform to the reformed faith outwardly while remaining secretly loyal to the Roman Catholic church. Later generations of the Aylmer family, including the Barons Aylmer, were mainly Catholic.


Opposition to Lord Grey

Aylmer opposed the policy of the new
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 ...
,
Leonard Grey Leonard Grey, Lord Deputy of Ireland (1479/149228 July 1541), known as Lord Leonard Grey prior to 1536, served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1536 to 1540. Family Leonard Grey was a younger son of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset and Cecily B ...
after Silken Thomas's rebellion was quashed in 1536, and campaigned with John Alen to undermine Grey's administration. Aylmer attended
Sir Anthony St Leger Sir Anthony St Leger, KG (or Sellenger; 1496 – 16 March 1559), of Ulcombe and Leeds Castle in Kent, was an English politician and Lord Deputy of Ireland during the Tudor period. Origins Anthony St Leger was the eldest son of Ralph II St Leg ...
on his journey to London in 1538, joining the commission of inquiry to bring charges against Grey.


Four Monarchs

Aylmer was knighted in 1539 and survived the downfall of both Grey and Cromwell in 1540 to serve under Henry's successors as King and Queens of England, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, being reappointed Chief Justice on 24 March 1547 and on 16 November 1553. In 1541 he was among the Irish lawyers who petitioned for a lease of Blackfriars Monastery in Dublin to establish the predecessor of the
King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...
there.Kenny, Colum: King's Inns and the Kingdom of Ireland (1992)


Later life

Aylmer was named Lord Justice of Ireland along with Sir Thomas Cusack on 6 December 1552, and has a seat on the Council. In the mid-1550s his administrative duties were very heavy. He was eventually dropped from the
Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...
in 1556 when the new viceroy, Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, replaced the appointees of his predecessor St Leger. Aylmer, due to age and infirmity, now came infrequently to the Irish Council and Elizabeth wrote in 1559 that she wished to promote another Old English lawyer, John Plunket, to the office of Chief Justice in his place. Aylmer was dismissed from office, and died the following year.


Aylmer family

His kinsman and namesake Sir Gerald Aylmer of
County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...
was a leader of the opposition to the ''cess'' (the bitterly unpopular tax for the upkeep of military garrisons) among the Pale grandees of the 1580s. He was the first of the
Aylmer Baronets There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Aylmer, both in the Baronetage of Ireland. Both titles are extant. The Aylmer Baronetcy, of Donadea in the County Kildare, County of Kildare, was created in the Baronetage of Ir ...
of Donadea. His eldest son Bartholomew predeceased him, but left three surviving sons by his wife Elizabeth Warren of Navan, of whom James succeeded to his grandfather's estates, while Christopher founded a junior branch of the family with its seat at Balrath, County Meath, which in 1718 acquired the title
Baron Aylmer Lord Aylmer, Baron of Balrath, in the County of Meath, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1718 for the naval commander Matthew Aylmer, the second son of Sir Christopher Aylmer, 1st Baronet, of Balrath (see below). Lord Ayl ...
. Aylmer's descendants resided at
Lyons Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
, Ardclough, Co Kildare until 1796 when the property passed to Lord Cloncurry, father of Valentine Lawless (1773–1853). It later became the homestead of aviation pioneer Tony Ryan (1936–2007).


References


Bibliography

*Ball F. E., The Judges in Ireland, 1221–1921, 2 (1926) *Bradshaw, Brian: The dissolution of the religious orders in Ireland under Henry VIII (1974) *Bradshaw, Brian: The Irish constitutional revolution of the sixteenth century (1979) *Brady, Ciaran: The chief governors: the rise and fall of reform government in Tudor Ireland, 1536–1588 (1994) *Brady, Ciaran: “Court, castle and country: the framework of government in Tudor Ireland,” in Natives and newcomers: essays on the making of Irish colonial society, 1534–1641, ed. C. Brady and R. Gillespie (1986), 22–49, 217–19 * Eoghan Corry and Jim Tancred: ''Annals of Ardclough'' (2004) *Crawford, John G: Anglicizing the government of Ireland: the Irish privy council and the expansion of Tudor rule, 1556–1578 (1993) *Ellis, SG: Reform and revival: English government in Ireland, 1470–1534, Royal Historical Society Studies in History, 47 (1986) *Ellis: SG: Tudor Ireland: crown, community, and the conflict of cultures, 1470–1603 (1985) *Hughes, J. L. J. ed: Patentee officers in Ireland, 1173–1826, including high sheriffs, 1661–1684 and 1761–1816, IMC (1960) *Kenny, Colum: King's Inns and the kingdom of Ireland (1992) *Lennon, C: The lords of Dublin in the age of Reformation (1989) council book of the Irish privy council, 1556–71 *Royal Irish Acad., MS 24 F. 17 TNA: PRO, state papers, Ireland, SP 63 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aylmer, Gerald 1500 births 1559 deaths People from County Kildare 16th-century Irish judges People of the Tudor period Lords chief justice of Ireland Chief Barons of the Irish Exchequer