James Stanihurst (died 1573), also spelt James Stanyhurst) was for three terms Speaker of the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

.Centre for Neo-Latin Studies, University College Cork
/ref>
/ref> He was also the first judge to hold the position of Recorder of Dublin.

Life

He was the son of Nicholas Stanihurst,

Lord Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin () is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent, since December 2024, is Fine Gael councillor Emma ...

in 1542. He was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in the Parliaments of 1557, 1560, and 1568. At the opening of each session, he delivered an oration. He proved himself a supporter of

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

under

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

, and contrived the passing through the Commons of the '' Act of Uniformity'' passed in England the year before, in 1560, putting the question when its chief opponents were absent from the chamber. On the other hand, his friendship with Edmund Campion suggests that like many 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 State rel ...

gentry he retained a certain sympathy with the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

faith. In 1570 he recommended to Parliament, in a speech which he delivered at the prorogation, a system of national education for Ireland, proposing the establishment of

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

s throughout the country. At the same time, he suggested the formation of a university in Dublin such as was inaugurated by the foundation of

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

a few years later. The speech is said to have been printed. Stanyhurst's educational policy was not accepted by the government, although

Sir Henry Sidney Sir Henry Sidney (20 July 1529 – 5 May 1586) was an English soldier, politician and Lord Deputy of Ireland. Background He was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst (1482 – 11 February 1553) and Anne Pakenham (1511 – 22 Oc ...

, to whom he was close, strongly supported it.

Edmund Campion Edmund Campion, SJ (25 January 15401 December 1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was ...

, who acted as tutor to his son Richard, was also a good friend, and acknowledged assistance from Stanihurst in writing his history of Ireland. On one occasion Stanihurst, despite outwardly professing the Protestant faith, saved Campion from arrest on the charge of being a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

by sending him to the home of the Barnewall family of Turvey House, who were staunch Catholics. He died in Dublin on 27 December 1573, aged 51. A Latin elegy by his son Richard was printed in the latter's description of Ireland, as well as in the appendix to his translation of Virgil.

Family

He married Anne Fitzsimon, daughter of Thomas Fitzsimon, Recorder of Dublin, and had five children. Richard Stanihurst was their eldest son, and they left another son, Walter, who translated into English ''Innocent, de Contemptu Mundi''. His daughter Margaret married Arnold Ussher, one of the six clerks of the

Court of Chancery (Ireland) The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting plac ...

, and was mother of

James Ussher James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific Irish scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his ...

Archbishop of Armagh The Archbishop of Armagh is an Episcopal polity, archiepiscopal title which takes its name from the Episcopal see, see city of Armagh in Northern Ireland. Since the Reformation in Ireland, Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic success ...

, and

Ambrose Ussher Ambrose Ussher (1582?–1629) was an Irish Protestant clergyman and scholar, a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin and rector in the Church of Ireland, known as a biblical translator. Life Born in Dublin about 1582, he was third but second survivin ...

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanihurst, James History of County Dublin 16th-century Irish judges 1573 deaths People of Elizabethan Ireland Year of birth unknown Speakers of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) Irish MPs 1557–1558 Irish MPs 1560 Irish MPs 1569–1571 Recorders of Dublin Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Dublin constituencies