Gerald Comerford

Gerald Comerford (c.1558–1604; also called Gerard, or Garrett Comerford; ) was an Irish barrister, judge and statesman of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He sat in the House of Commons in the Irish Parliament of 1585–6, and briefly held office as Chief Justice of Munster and as Baron of the Court of Exchequer. Profiting from a close family association with the Earl of Ormond, he rose rapidly to become a trusted servant of the English Crown, and would probably have become a dominant political figure in the south-east of Ireland had it not been for his early death.^[1]

Background

He was born at Callan, County Kilkenny, the second son of Fouke (also called Fulco or Fulke) Comerford and his wife Rosina Rothe.^[2] His father was in the service of the Earl of Ormonde, acting as both his lawyer and his land agent.^[3] The Comerford family from the 1530s onwards became substantial landowners in County Kilkenny, although they suffered serious damage to their property during the Desmond Rebellions. In 1569 it was reported that "old Fulco Comerford of Callan" had been robbed of £2000 (a considerable forrtune at the time), together with silver, household goods, corn and cattle.^[4]

Early career

Gerald went to school at Kilkenny College. LIke many younger sons in that era, he decided on a legal career and entered the Middle Temple in 1578.^[5] In the closing stages of the Second Desmond Rebellion, he was asked by the Crown to negotiate with the rebels, but in attempting to arrange a parley he was attacked and severely wounded. On his return to England he petitioned Elizabeth I successfully for a pension for his services to the Crown and was given leave to retire to Ireland to regain his health.^[6] He entered the King's Inns and rose quickly at the Irish Bar through the patronage of Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde, to whom he was always close. In 1584 he was appointed Attorney General for the province of Connacht.^[7]

Politics

His political career advanced rapidly, and in the Irish Parliament of 1585–6 he was returned as one of the two members for the newly created borough of Callan.^[8] His career suffered a brief setback in 1587, owing to his hostility to Sir John Perrot, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. Comerford was one of the Irish politicians who worked for the downfall of the Lord Deputy and was briefly imprisoned on this account.^[9] In 1588, after Perrot's recall to England, he won the goodwill of Sir Richard Bingham, the Lord President of Connaught, and was appointed a member of his Council.

In 1588, following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Comerford was given the task of tracking and reporting on the movement of the surviving ships as they made their way down the west coast of Ireland. He was a highly conscientious official: Bingham later paid tribute to his fifteen years unpaid work as Attorney General. In 1591 he visited the English Court, where he was praised for his fidelity to the Queen and appointed Attorney General of Connacht for life.^[10] In the same year his old enemy Perrot was convicted of high treason and died in the Tower of London while under sentence of death.

During the Nine Years War the Crown lost control of Connacht, but Comerford showed his devotion to duty by remaining in the provincial capital, Galway. He relied for his safety on the protection of loyalist peers, such as Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde, and in 1597 he reported on the disturbed state of the locality. He was given an armed guard, but complained that he was obliged to pay the guards out of his own pocket. In 1599 he went to Ennis and reported on the unsettled conditions he found there.^[11]

Career in Munster

In 1600, perhaps as a result of his frequent complaints that he had been poorly rewarded for his fifteen years of loyal service to the Crown, he was appointed to the Council of the Lord President of Munster, and was also appointed second justice of the President's court.^[12] During the final stages of the Nine Years War, the ordinary courts of common law ceased to operate in Munster, and the President's court took over all judicial business. Comerford was present at the Battle of Kinsale, and though he did not have much of a reputation as a soldier, he is said to have taken up arms against Hugh O'Neill. He sat on the court which tried William Meade, the former Recorder of Cork, for treason in 1603; despite strong pressure from the judges, the jury found Meade not guilty, and were severely punished for contempt as a result.^[13]

Last honours and death

In 1604 he was appointed Chief Justice of Munster, and contrary to the normal practice by which the Chief Justice refused any other judicial office, he was also made a Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer;^[14] but he died, at Coolnamuck in County Waterford, in November of that year, when still under 50 years of age. He had inherited the family estates from his elder brother and added substantially to them. His principal residence was Castleinch ( or Inchiologhan) in County Kilkenny, which had previously belonged to the de Valle family: the Comerfords remained there till the 1650s. He was buried at St. Mary's Church, Callan, where the impressive tomb erected in his memory can still be seen.^[15]

St. Mary's Church, Callan, where Gerard Comerford is buried.

Family

He married Johanna Walsh, daughter of James Walsh, Mayor of Waterford, and sister of his judicial colleague Sir Nicholas Walsh; she outlived him. According to his will they had six children, Fouke, Nicholas, Edward, James, Patrick and Mary. Fouke inherited the family estates and died in 1623, leaving issue.^[16] James became a Jesuit, which no doubt fuelled the rumours that his father was a secret Catholic. Mary reached a considerable age, and was still living in 1644, but is not known to have married.^[17]

Religion

In religion he was to all appearances a zealous Protestant, who was willing to enforce strictly the laws against recusancy, even where friends and relatives were concerned. He issued a proclamation denouncing several priests, including the prominent Jesuit James Archer (a Kilkenny man whom he must have known personally) as "seditious traitors". It was of course expected of any office-holder in Elizabethan Ireland that he would conform publicly to the Church of Ireland, but as the career of Comerford's judicial colleague Sir John Everard shows, those men who were genuinely attached to the Roman Catholic faith generally found it impossible in the long term to retain office in defiance of their beliefs.

Rumours that Comerford (like his brother-in-law Sir Nicholas Walsh) converted to Catholicism on his deathbed seem to have no solid basis in fact, although at least one of his sons was a priest.^[18] The rumour in both cases seems to have originated with David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, who was, admittedly, a cousin of Comerford, and would have known him personally.^[19]

References