David de Barry, 5th Viscount Buttevant

First marriage and children

Barry married firstly Ellen Roche, daughter of David Roche, 5th Viscount Roche of Fermoy by his wife Ellen Butler, daughter of James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne.

David and Ellen had a son:

David (died c. 1604), married Elizabeth Power, daughter of Richard, 4th Baron le Power and Corroghmore; He died predeceasing his father; but had a posthumous son, who became David Barry, 1st Earl of Barrymore

—and six daughters:

Honora, married (1) Gerald FitzGerald of the Decies as his m2nd wife; (2) Patrick Browne

Helen, married (1) John "Oge" Power; (2) in 1601, Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde; (3) in 1631, Thomas Somerset, 1st Viscount Somerset

a daughter whose name is not known who married James Tobin of Kumpshinagh

Ellen, married John Fitzgerald of Ballymaloe

Catherine, married Richard Burke, Esq.

Margaret, married (1) Sir Dermot O'Shaughnessy; and (2) Robert Dillon, 2nd Earl of Roscommon

First Desmond Rebellion

At the outbreak of the First Desmond Rebellion in 1569, his father, the 4th Viscount Buttevant, supported the rebels. This rebellion ended when Fitz Maurice, the rebel leader, submitted to John Perrot, Lord President of Munster, at Kilmallock in 1573.

Viscount and second marriage

Barry succeeded his father in 1581.

Buttevant, as he was now, married secondly, Julia MacCarthy (also called Sheelagh), daughter of Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, 16th Lord of Muskerry by his wife Mary Butler.

David and Julia had three sons and four daughters but nothing more seems to be known about them, not even their names.

Irish wars

In the subsequent confiscations of his estates, the friary in Buttevant, together with its glebe, passed into the hands of the poet, Edmund Spenser.

Buttevant was noted for his long and bitter feud with Sir Florence MacCarthy, the MacCarthy Mór, whose loyalty to the Crown was always suspect. Buttevant did great damage to his reputation by spreading rumours about MacCarthy's alleged acts of treason, in particular his links with Patrick O'Collun, whom Florence MacCarthy had once employed as a fencing master. In 1594 O'Collun was executed for conspiracy to kill Queen Elizabeth I. As a result, MacCarthy spent much of his later life in custody.

In 1601, during the Nine Years War Buttevant sided with the new President of Munster, Sir George Carew. In the wake of the Battle of Kinsale, he was granted large estates in Munster which had been forfeited by the MacCarthy Reagh.

Death

Buttevant died at Barryscourt Castle 10 April 1617. His title and estate passed to his grandson, who became 1st Earl of Barrymore in 1628.

Notes and references