Sir Richard Cox

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Sir Richard Cox (or Baronet Richard Cox III) (1650–1733) was Lord Chancellor of Ireland [1] from 1703 to 1707. He was born in Bandon, Ireland and died in Dunmanway, Ireland. He wrote a history of Ireland called Hibernia Anglicana.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life

His family arrived from Wiltshire in c.1600, and was dispossessed in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His father was Captain Richard Cox II (1610–c1651) and mother was Katherine (Bird) Batten. She was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland and died c.1651/52 probably in Bandon.

He was orphaned at the age of three and raised by a maternal grandparents and uncle in Cork County.

[edit] Career

Qualified at Grays Inn, London, in 1673; apprenticed in manorial courts of Boyle family, of Cork County; ed. Gray’s inn; Recorder of Kinsale with estate at Clonakilty, 1687; lost recordership after accession of James II. Moved to Bristol, where he practiced as a lawyer; became acquainted with Sir Robert Southwell, who introduced him to Duke of Ormond, thereafter his patron. Returned to Ireland, fought at the Boyne, in 1690. He was knighted on November 5, 1692 William III of England by and then became a Baronet on November 21, 1706.

Became Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1703 and then Chief Justice on the Queen’s Bench from 1711-14. He escaped impeachment when Ormond defected to Jacobite cause in 1715.

Was the author of an early history of Ireland as regarded from the standpoint of the New English; Hibernia Anglicana, or, The History of Ireland (1689-90), written from New English standpoint (called ‘trite’ by DNB); purporting to be first chronological history of Ireland, and incidentally attacking the ridiculous stories which they have publish of the Firbolgs and Tuah-de-danans'.

Lived 20 years in retirement before his death, from apoplexy, in the Great Hall of the Royal Hospital in, Kilmainham.

[edit] Personal life

He was married to Mary Bourne on February 26, 1674. Mary Bourne was born in 1658 in County Cork, Ireland. She died on June 1, 1715. Sir Richard and Mary had fifteen children.