Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall

Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall (1592 – 20 August 1663), was an Irish landowner and politician.

After the subjection of Ireland in the time of Henry II, Michael de Berneval, who served under Strongbow, obtained large grants of land at Berehaven, County Cork, of which the O'Sullivans had been dispossessed. Here the Bernevals flourished in great prosperity until the reign of King John, when the Irish rose against them, and destroyed every member of the family but one, who happened to be in London learning the law. The latter, returning to Ireland, was settled at Drimnagh, near Dublin, where his posterity remained until the reign of James I. The family were traditionally Roman Catholic in religion, although after the Reformation the head of the family might find it expedient to conform to the Church of Ireland, at least outwardly.

Various members of the family distinguished themselves, chiefly in the law and in parliament. Nicholas, born in 1572, was son of Sir Patrick Barnewall. His mother was Mary Bagenal, daughter of Sir Nicholas Bagenal, knight marshal of Ireland. He was thirty years old when his father died in 1622, and he represented County Dublin in the Irish House of Commons in the Parliaments of 1634 and 1639. When the rebellion of 1641 broke out, he was appointed to command such forces as he could raise, which were to be armed by the state for the defence of Dublin county. However, according to John Lodge's Peerage of Ireland: "...dreading the designs of the Irish, he fled into Wales with his wife, several priests, and others, and stayed there till after the cessation of arms was concluded, returning in Captain Bartlett's ship 17 March 1643."

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