Irish landowner and judge
Robert Fitzrery (died after 1472 ) was an Irish Law Officer, landowner and judge of the fifteenth century. He was a gifted lawyer, and also suggests a shrewd and acquisitive man of business.
Family.
He was born at Swords, County Dublin. The FitzRerys were a long-established family of Welsh origin who came to Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland and settled at Cloghran in Swords, where they remained substantial landowners until the seventeenth century. Their claim to be descended from the twelfth-century Welsh ruler Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd (1055-1137), is not implausible since Gruffudd was born in Swords to an Irish mother, had numerous non-marital children, and retained close links with Dublin in later life.
John FitzRery was Clerk of the Wages for Munster before 1374, and Chief Escheator of Ireland c.1375-1382. He was reappointed Escheator, Clerk of the Markets and Keeper of Weights and Measures in 1388.
One branch of the family settled at Kinsallagh, near the borders of County Dublin and County Meath, where Peter FitzRery in 1475 had a substantial land holding, which later passed by marriage into the Fleming family.
Marriage and property dealings.
Robert married c.1444 Joan White (or Whyte), widow of Peter Dowdall of Drogheda. The couple seem to have lived mainly in Drogheda. They jointly owned several properties, including one in Drogheda which they leased to John Field and his wife Margaret Woodman in 1451, and another in Dundalk which they leased to William Allyr in the same year. Robert was the sole lessor of a property, probably in County Louth, which he leased to Sir Robert Dowdall, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas (possibly a relative of Joan' first husband), in 1446. Simon FitzRery, Mayor of Dublin 1465–6, joined with Robert and the wealthy merchant Patrick FitzLeones in a lease from the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin of the profits of the prebend of Lusk in 1472. Simon was probably a close relative of Robert. In 1468 John Plunket entered a bond to repay FitzRery £50. However a lease to which he was a party dated 1472 describes him as a "narrator". This term usually meant a barrister, though it might also mean King's Serjeant-at-law, suggesting that his tenure on the Bench had been a short one. His date of death is not recorded.
Notes.
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