Christopher Wandesford

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Christopher Wandesford.
Christopher Wandesford.

Christopher Wandesford (1592 – 1640), Lord Deputy of Ireland, was the son of Sir George Wandesford (1573-1612) of Kirklington, Yorkshire, and was born on 24 September 1592.

Educated at Clare College, Cambridge, he entered Parliament in 1621, and his rise to importance was due primarily to his friendship with Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford. Although at first hostile to Charles I, this being evidenced by the active part he took in the impeachment of Buckingham, Wandesford soon became a royalist partisan, and in 1633 he accompanied Wentworth to Ireland, where he was already master of the rolls. His services to his chief were fully recognized by the latter, whom in 1640 he succeeded as lord deputy, but he had only just begun to struggle with the difficulties of his new position when he died on 3 December 1640.

His son Christopher (1628-1687), made a baronet in 1662, was the father of Sir Christopher Wandesford (d. 1707), who was created an Irish peer as Viscount Castlecomer in 1707, Castlecomer in Kilkenny having been acquired by his grandfather when in Ireland. Christopher, the 2nd viscount (d. 1719), was Secretary-at-War in 1717-1718. In 1758 John, 5th viscount, was created Earl Wandesford, but his titles became extinct when he died in January 1784.

Defence was obviously a high priority for Christopher Wandesford when he built a castle in Castlecomer sometime between 1635 and 1640. He had just been granted Castlecomer after he argued that the O'Brennans or Brennans who had been there since 1200 AD held the area without legal right. Because of this he had to build a castle “to protect his steward and collieries from the wild Irish”.[1] Apparently he regretted this decision on his death bed and asked that half the rent for the entire area for the last 21 years be repaid to the O'Brennans. This was not done, despite the legal efforts of the clan.

[edit] References

For Wandesford's life see Thomas Comber, Memoirs of the Life and Death of the Lord Deputy Wandesford (Cambridge, 1778); T. D. Whitaker, History of Richmondshire, vol. ii (1823); and the Autobiography of his daughter, Alice Thornton, edited by Charles Jackson for the Surtees Society (Durham, 1875).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ William Carrigan, History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory, Vol. II p. 158, quoting from Comber, T., Memoirs of the Life and Death of the Lord Deputy Wandesford (Cambridge, 1778).