Laurence Esmonde, 1st Baron Esmonde

Sir Laurence Esmonde, 1st Baron Esmonde (1570?–1646), was an Irish peer who held office as governor of the crucial fort of Duncannon. He was a leading Irish Royalist commander in the English Civil War, but was later suspected of disloyalty and forced to surrender Duncannon. He was the ancestor of the Esmonde Baronets.

Esmonde was the second son of Walter Esmonde of Johnstown, Wexford, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Michael Furlong of Horetown. He became a convert to Protestantism and served with credit against Spain in the Low Countries. In 1599, he was appointed to the command of 150 foot soldiers and was actively engaged during the rebellion of Hugh O'Neill; it appears from a letter of his to Lord Shrewsbury that he even endeavoured to procure the assassination or banishment of O'Neill, but in this he was unsuccessful. His services were, however, rewarded with a knighthood.

During one of his expeditions into Connaught, he fell in love with the sister of Morrough O'Flaherty, whom he married. They had a son Thomas, but the lady was as remarkable for her Roman Catholic faith as for her personal charms, and fearing lest her infant son might be brought up a Protestant, she fled with him to her family in Connaught. Esmonde thereupon repudiated her and married the twice-widowed Ellice, or Elizabeth Butler, daughter of the Hon. Walter Butler, fourth son of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond. In December 1606, he succeeded Sir Josias Bodley as governor of the important fort of Duncannon, a post which he held until his death in 1646. In 1611, on the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester planning a plantation in Wexford, he and Sir Edward Fisher were appointed to survey the confiscated territory, and for his services, he was rewarded with a grant of fifteen hundred acres.

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