Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia

Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia, (1 February – 22 November 1660) was an English statesman during the colonisation of Ireland in the seventeenth century. He was a Member of Parliament for both the English and Irish houses, was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Mountnorris, and later gain the additional title Viscount Valentia. He is best remembered for his clash with the Lord Lieutenant, Thomas Wentworth, who in order to render Annesley powerless had him sentenced to death on a spurious charge of mutiny, although it was clearly understood that the sentence would not be carried out.

Biography

Rise to power Annesley, descended from the ancient Nottinghamshire family of Annesley, was the son of Robert Annesley,

As early as 1606 he had left England to reside at Dublin, and he took advantage of the frequent distributions of Irish land made to English colonists in the early part of the seventeenth century to acquire estates in various parts of Ireland. With Sir Arthur Chichester, who became Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1604, he lived on terms of intimacy, and several small offices of state, with a pension granted 5 November 1607, were bestowed on him in his youthful days.

In the colonisation of Ulster, which began in 1608, Annesley played a leading part, and secured some of the spoils. In October 1609 he was charged with the conveyance of Sir Niall Garve O'Donnell and other Ulster rebels to England for trial. On 13 March 1611–12 James I wrote to the Lord Deputy confirming his grant of the fort and land of Mountnorris to Annesley "in consideration of the good opinion he has conceived of the said Francis from Sir Arthur's report of him". On 26 May 1612, Annesley was granted a reversion to the clerkship of the Checque of the Armies and Garrisons, to which he succeeded on 9 December 1625.

In 1616, he was sworn of the Irish Privy Council. and 1672.