John Challoner
John Challoner MP PC (c. 1520-1581) was the first Secretary for Ireland, appointed by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1560. As well an being an important English administrator in Dublin Castle, he had sat at different times as a Member of Parliament in both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Ireland.
Background
John Challoner was born around 1520 to Margaret Myddleton and Roger Challoner (c. 1490-1550), who came from the Brythonic Challoner family of northern Wales.[1] Roger Challoner was a London silk merchant who lived at St Mary-at-Hill Street, Billingsgate. A courtier, Roger was also a Gentleman-Usher of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII of England, a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer, and a Freeman of the City of London through his membership of the Worshipful Company of Mercers; it is recorded that he obtained the fishing rights of Galway City in 1538.[2][3] Roger died in 1550 and was buried in the main body of the Church of St Dunstan-in-the-East. One of Roger's sons, Sir Thomas Chaloner, settled in Guisborough, northern England, while his two remaining sons, John and Francis Challoner, settled in Ireland.[4]
John Challoner was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1541 and had begun a career by 1547 in the English-ruled outpost of Calais, on mainland France, as an auditor. This was a turbulent time in the history of Calais, which was retaken by the French in 1558. It seems that Challoner held his office in Calais throughout much of this period, but was not always resident.[5]
He is is believed to have been a Member of Parliament in the Parliament of England in 1555, possibly for the constituency of Calais.[6]
Career in Ireland
The first reference to John Challoner in Irish records appears in 1551 when he was granted Lambay Island off the coast of Dublin and on which he later built a castle.[7] He seems to have spent the early 1550s moving between Dublin, London, and Calais before settling permanently in Dublin.
He first took political office as Mayor of Dublin between 1556 and 1557.[8] During his time in office, the native Gaelic Kavanagh clan of Carlow raided Dublin, the seat of English rule in Ireland. Challoner armed a civic militia in defence of Dublin with "several pieces of ordnance and a hundred and fifty fire arms" which he had imported at his own expense from Spain. He was reputedly offered a knighthood by the Lord Deputy, the Earl of Sussex in recognition, but turned it down, saying: "No my Lord, it will be more to my credit and my posterity's to have it said that John Challoner served the Queen upon occasion, than to say that Sir John Challoner did it." The Kavanaghs and their supporters were driven out of Dublin and captured at Powerscourt Castle, after which they were brought back to Dublin and 74 were executed.[9][10]
He was elected a Member of Parliament in the Ireland for Dungarvan borough for the legislative session which convened on 12th January 1560.[11]
In 1560 Challoner was appointed as the English Crown's Secretary for Ireland by Queen Elizabeth, an office which would later become the Chief Secretary for Ireland until its abolition in 1922.[12] In 1563, he wrote to his English counterpart Lord Burghley asking to be relieved of the office in favour of his own brother Francis, as he wanted to concentrate on developing silver and gold mining on Lambay; but he stayed on until his death in 1581 when he was replaced by Sir Geoffrey Fenton.[13][14]
At Halloween 1563, French pirates raided Lambay Island taking all they could of John Challoner's fortune, worth some £300.[15]
He applied to become Irish Master of the Rolls in 1564, and despite being on the final shortlist of four, was beaten to the post by Henry Draycott.[16]
Family
John Challoner was married to a woman by the name of Elizabeth and had at least two sons, Robert and Thomas, both of whom brought up families in Ireland.[17] His son Thomas Challoner married the great-granddaughter of Blessed Margaret Ball, Catholic martyr. John's brother Francis was the father of Dr. Luke Challoner, one of the three founding fellows of Trinity College, Dublin in 1592, and Pro-Chancellor of the College between 1612 and his death in 1613.[18] Luke Challoner was the father-in-law of Archbishop James Ussher, and would give his name to the small graveyard in the grounds of Trinity College where he is buried, Challoner's Corner.
Sir Thomas Chaloner of Guisborough, John's brother, was the ancestor of Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long (1854-1924), another prominent Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1905. Walter's brother Richard Long changed his surname by royal license to Chaloner and was raised to the peerage as Richard Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough in 1917.
References
- ^ Rev William Ball Wright, The Ussher memoirs (1889), p. 105
- ^ Arthur Went, The Galway fishery, in 'Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Section C', Volume 48, p. 242
- ^ George Farnham, Quordon records (1912), p. 213
- ^ Ball Wright, The Ussher memoirs, pp. 105-107
- ^ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/chaloner-john-ii-1526-81
- ^ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/chaloner-john-ii-1526-81
- ^ Ball Wright, The Ussher memoirs, p. 106
- ^ http://www.dublin1850.com/dublin/lordmayor.html
- ^ Richard Bagwell, Ireland under the tudors, Vol I (1885), p 397
- ^ Sir James Ware, The antiquities and history of Ireland (1705), p. 140
- ^ Journal of the Waterford and South-East of Ireland Archaelogical Society, Vol VII (1901), p. 156: http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ejournals/100583/100583.pdf
- ^ Herbert Wood, The Offices of Secretary of State for Ireland and Keeper of the Royal Privy Seal, in "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature" (1928), p. 51
- ^ Calender of State Papers, Ireland, 1509-1573 (1860), pp 218-219
- ^ Herbert Wood, The Offices of Secretary of State for Ireland and Keeper of the Royal Privy Seal, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature (1928), p. 62
- ^ Robert Bell Turton, The Alum farm (1938), p. 13
- ^ http://www.kildare.ie/ehistory/2007/04/leixlip_chronology_1550_1599_a.asp
- ^ Ball Wright, The Ussher memoirs, 106
- ^ http://www.tcd.ie/chancellor/prochancellor/former/