Thomas Phillips (Irish adventurer)

Sir Thomas Phillips (1560–1633) was an English knight and soldier of fortune. He was closely associated with the founding of Limavady and being granted the first license from the King to distill whiskey in Ireland.

Sir Thomas Phillips was described as ‘a pushing soldier of fortune and a protégé of Sir Robert Cecil’ first arrived in Ireland in 1599 and it was Phillips who took O’Neill’s fortress of Toome in 1602.

By 1608 Phillips, who was knighted in 1607, was effectively the military commander of the County of Coleraine.

He played a significant role in persuading the Livery Companies of the City of London to undertake the Plantation of Derry and the County of Coleraine (renamed County Londonderry on 29 March 1613).

In 1610, Sir Thomas Phillips was granted 13,100 acres of land at Limavady which included an O’Cahan castle. He commenced the building of the ‘Newtown of Limavady’, which was laid out in a cruciform road pattern. Newtown Limavady was incorporated, with the appointment of a Provost and 12 Burgesses, on 31 March 1613 with a charter granted by King James I. By 1622, 18 one-storey houses and an inn had been built and they were centred on the crossroads which contained a flagpole, a cross and stocks.

From 1611, Sir Thomas Phillips became involved in a bitter controversy with the City of London’s agents and the Irish Society that was destined to last for 25 years.

In August 1611, Phillips, now governor of the county of Coleraine, was warned by the Irish Society to stop interfering with their jurisdiction. The Society accepted his lead role in military matters but not in civil matters. Phillips blamed the Society for the delay in granting him title to his lands at Limavady and Castledawson (confirmed by letter patent of 30 December 1612) which he claimed deprived him of land and rent for almost a year and a half. In other words, Phillips had acquired interests that conflicted with the City’s grant. The original ‘Project of Plantation’ had contemplated the establishment in the County of Coleraine of corporate boroughs at Limavady and Dungiven. But this was before the Londoners’ undertaking had been proposed and the county of Coleraine had been expanded into the county of Londonderry with corporate boroughs of Londonderry and Coleraine.

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Wikipedia