Sir Nicholas Barnewall (died after 1465) was an Irish judge and landowner of the fifteenth century who held office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was the ancestor of the Barnewall Baronets of Crickstown. He was born at Crickstown,

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the ...

, the eldest son of Sir Christopher Bernevall (died 1446) and his wife Matilda (or Maud) Drake (died before 1424), an heiress of the wealthy Drake family of Drakerath. She was a close relative, possibly a sister, of John Drake, who was three times

Lord Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Th ...

in the early 1400s, and led the citizens of Dublin to a decisive victory over the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow at the Battle of Bloody Bank on the

River Dargle The River Dargle () is a river that flows from the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland to the Irish Sea. It forms Powerscourt Waterfall, receives the Glencree and Glencullen Rivers, and later the Glenmunder Stream / County Brook, and the Swan River ...

in 1402. Nicholas's father was

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

for more than a decade. Nicholas was "bred up to the law", and was appointed to the same office as his father in 1457, with a

knighthood 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 church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

. In 1461 he was superseded in favour of Sir Thomas Fitz-Christopher Plunket, but regained office later the same year. He retired about 1463, and was still alive in 1465. He married Ismay, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Robert Serjeant of Castleknock,

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

: they had at least two sons, Christopher and Edmund. Ismay's sister Joan married Sir Jenico d'Artois the younger, eldest son of the soldier and statesman Sir Jenico d'Artois and his first wife Joan Taaffe of Liscarton Castle,

. There was a bitter dispute over the family inheritance between the two sisters and their respective husbands, from which the Barnewalls emerged the winners, acquiring far more than the half share of the estate to which Ismay was entitled by law. Christopher, Nicholas's eldest son, inherited Crickstown, where the Barnewall family remained for several generations. He married Ellen Butler, daughter of Edmund Butler, 8th

Baron Dunboyne Baron Dunboyne was a title first held by the Petit family some time after the Norman invasion of Ireland. History Dunboyne was part of the Lordship of Meath. The Petit family also had land holdings in Mullingar. In 1227, Ralph Petit became Bishop ...

. In 1623 his descendant Sir Patrick Barnewall was conferred with a

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1623, which still exists. Ismay outlived her husband, and remarried the prominent

Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

nobleman Sir Robert Bold, 1st and last Baron Ratoath, who died in 1479. Catherine Bold, Lord Ratoath's daughter and heiress by his previous marriage, married Nicholas and Ismay's younger son Edmund Barnewall: they settled at Dunbrow in County Dublin, where their descendants remained for several generations. Nicholas's younger brother Robert was created the first Baron Trimleston in 1461.

References

*Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926 *''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

'' 3rd Edition London 1846 *Lodge, Edmund ''British Peerage'' London 1838 {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnewall, Nicholas People from County Meath Lords chief justice of Ireland