Gerald Comerford

Gerald Comerford (c.1558–1604), (also called Gerard or Garrett Comerford) was an Irish barrister, judge and statesman of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He sat in the House of Commons in the Irish Parliament of 1585–6, and briefly held office as Chief Justice of Munster and as a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). He profited from his close family association with the Earl of Ormond (who was himself a favourite of Elizabeth I, being her cousin through her mother Anne Boleyn). Comerford rose rapidly in the public service to become a trusted servant of the English Crown, and would probably have become one of the dominant political figures in the southeast of Ireland had it not been for his early death.

Background

He was born at Callan, County Kilkenny, the second son of Fouke (also called Fulco or Fulke) Comerford and his wife Rosina Rothe. His father was in the service of the Earl of Ormonde, acting as both his lawyer and his land agent. The Comerford family seem to have originated in Waterford: an earlier Fouke Comerford was Mayor of Waterford in 1433, and again in 1448. From the 1530s onwards the family became substantial landowners in County Kilkenny, partly through buying up land from old-established families like the de Valles, although they suffered serious damage to their property during the Desmond Rebellions of 1569-73. Fouke's daughter Catherine married Sir John Everard of Fethard, thus allying the Comerfords with one of the leading landowning families of County Tipperary. In 1569 it was reported that "old Fulco Comerford of Callan" had been robbed of £2000 (a considerable fortune at the time), together with silver, household goods, corn and cattle.

Last honours and death

In 1604 he was appointed Chief Justice of Munster. Contrary to the normal practice by which the Chief Justice was expected to refuse any other judicial office, he was also made a Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer, on the removal of Patrick Segrave for corruption. He appointed a deputy to perform his functions as Baron. This is evidence that his health was rapidly failing, and he died, at Coolnamuck in County Waterford, in November of that year, still well under 50 years of age. He had inherited the family estates from his elder brother and added substantially to them. His principal residence was Castleinch (or Inchyolaghan) in County Kilkenny, which had previously belonged to the prominent de Valle family of County Carlow, who sold it to Gerard's father about 1560. The Comerfords remained there till the 1650s. He was buried at St. Mary's Church, Callan, where the impressive tomb erected in his memory can still be seen.