Faithful Fortescue

Sir Faithful Fortescue (1585–1666), of Dromiskin in County Louth, Ireland, was Governor of Carrickfergus in Ireland, long the chief seat and garrison of the English in Ulster and was a royalist commander during the English Civil War. Origins Fortescue was born in 1585, the third son of John Fortescue (d. 1604) of Buckland Filleigh in Devon, but the first by his second wife Susannah Chichester, eldest daughter of Sir John Chichester (c. 1516/22-1569) of Raleigh in the parish of Pilton and of Youlston both in North Devon, a Member of Parliament, Sheriff of Devon in 1552 and 1557, by his wife Gertrude Courtenay, a daughter of Sir William Courtenay (1477–1535) of Powderham in Devon. One of Susannah's brothers was Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester of Belfast (1563–1625), who was to play such an influential role in the life of Faithful Fortescue. Although Faithful's father's second marriage is not mentioned in the Heraldic Visitation return made in 1620 by his elder half-brother Roger Fortescue of Buckland Filleigh, this second marriage is recorded in the parish register of Heanton Punchardon in Devon, near Raleigh, on 22 September 1584, and although the first name of the groom is illegible, the will of Susanna's brother Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester confirms the marriage when he mentions "my nephew Sir Faithful Fortescue". Faithful was baptised on 22 August 1585 at Wear Gifford, North Devon, which manor was then a seat of his father's third cousin, Hugh Fortescue (1545–1600) of Wear Giffard Hall and of Filleigh, Sheriff of Devon in 1583, who was married to Elizabeth Chichester, Faithful's aunt, whose descendant later in the 18th century was created Earl Fortescue. The Fortescues of Filleigh and their cousins the Fortescues of Buckland Filleigh were both descended from Martin Fortescue (d. 1472) of Filleigh and Wear Gifford, who married Elizabeth Densel, heiress of Filleigh, Wear Gifford and Buckland Filleigh. Faithful Fortescue was a descendant in the fifth generation of Sir John Fortescue (c. 1394–1479), Chief Justice of the King's Bench, of Ebrington Manor, Gloucestershire, a younger grandson of the Fortescue family of Whympston in the parish of Modbury in Devon, the earliest Fortescue seat in the British Isles.