Nicholas St Lawrence, 9th Baron Howth (1555–1606)

Nicholas St. Lawrence, 9th Baron Howth (c.1550–1607) was a leading member of the Anglo-Irish nobility in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Despite openly professing his Roman Catholic faith, he enjoyed the trust of Elizabeth I and of successive Lord Deputies of Ireland, and was even forgiven by the English Crown for signing a petition against the Penal Laws.

He was the eldest surviving son of Christopher, 8th Baron Howth and his first wife Elizabeth Plunket of Beaulieu, County Meath. His date of birth is often given as 1555, but in fact it was probably some years earlier: Elrington Ball states that he was well into middle age when his father died, and in 1605 he was described as being "too old to be likely live long".

His early life cannot have been happy, as his father was notorious for his cruelty to his wife and children. In 1577 Nicholas's teenage sister Jane died after being severely beaten by their father, and his mother was so ill-treated by her hussband that the Court of Castle Chamber eventually granted her a judicial separation. Lord Howth was fined for his cruelty to his family, and briefly imprisoned.

According to a well-known legend Granuaile, the celebrated Pirate Queen of Galway in about 1575 arrived unannounced at Howth Castle for dinner, only to find the gates barred; in retaliation for the discourtesy she took the youthful heir hostage until the family apologised. Elrington Ball argues that the story may be at least partly based on fact- but if the heir to Howth was a child at the relevant time this must surely refer to Nicholas' eldest son Christopher, not Nicholas himself.

In the 1580s he lived mostly at Platten in Meath, where his wife had inherited some property. He was knighted in 1588 and succeeded his father as baron the following year.

In Elrington Ball's view Lord Howth "was devoted to the interests of the Pale and did not always find it easy to reconcile that with the requirements of Government" especially after it became public knowledge that he practiced the Roman Catholic faith. His initial relations with the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir William FitzWilliam, were friendly, and he was appointed guardian of the Pale in the Deputy's absence. Shortly afterwards relations between the two men cooled when Nicholas became involved in the long and bitter feud between the Nugent and Dillon families family, headed by Christopher, Baron Delvin on the one hand and Sir Robert Dillon, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas on the other. The Nugent family pursued Dillon relentlessly with charges of corruption for several years until he was eventually cleared in 1593, and Lord Howth was closely associated with the attack. His motives are unclear; Lord Delvin claimed that Howth had been injured in some way by the Deputy, but Howth himself proclaimed his trust in him. More likely he was influenced by his second wife's father, Sir Nicholas White, another bitter enemy of Dillon, and this would explain his loss of favour with the Crown, since White's loyalty was deeply suspect, and he eventually died a prisoner in the Tower of London.

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