Sir William Talbot, 1st Baronet

Sir William Talbot, 1st Baronet (died 16 March 1633), was an Irish lawyer and politician.

He was the son of Robert Talbot of Carton, County Kildare, who was the third son of Sir Thomas Talbot of Malahide, County Dublin; his mother was Jenet FitzGerald, daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald. He was educated for the law, and attained a leading position as a lawyer in Dublin. About 1603 he was appointed Recorder of Dublin, but, being a staunch Roman Catholic, he was soon afterwards removed for recusancy.

On 13 April 1613 he was returned to the Irish Parliament as MP for County Kildare, and became the unofficial legal adviser to the Roman Catholic party in the Irish House of Commons. Thomas Ryves complained to the Westminster government that Talbot had abetted the return to Parliament of two schismatics. During the stormy scenes which marked the election of a Speaker in the Irish House of Commons, culminating with one of the rival Speakers (who was an extremely fat man) sitting on the other, Talbot urged that the House should first purge itself of members elected by illegal means. On 30 May he was appointed by the House one of the deputies to represent to James I the corrupt practices employed in the elections to secure a Protestant majority, and the arbitrary treatment of the Anglo-Irish Catholics. He crossed to England in July, and was examined by the Privy Council on his conduct in the Irish House of Commons. During the discussion of this question Archbishop George Abbot demanded Talbot's opinion on a book (probably the Defensio fidei Catholicae adversus Anglicanae sectae errores) in which (he said) Francisco Suárez openly maintained the right of Catholics to kill an heretical king. Talbot hesitated, but acknowledged James as lawful king. The Council was not satisfied, and on 17 July Talbot was committed to the Tower of London.

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