Thomas Luttrell

Sir Thomas Luttrell (born before 1490 – died 1554 ) was a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner of the sixteenth-century Irish Pale. He was also a distinguished lawyer and judge who held the offices of King's Serjeant, Solicitor General for Ireland and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.

Background

He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Richard Luttrell of Luttrellstown Castle, the head of a prominent Anglo-Irish family, which came originally from Lincolnshire, and his wife Margaret FitzLyons or FitzLeones, daughter of Patrick FitzLyons of Dublin. His exact date of birth is not recorded but it was almost certainly before 1490 since his first marriage took place in 1506.

Little is known of his younger years, other than his early marriage to Anne Aylmer. He was involved in a lawsuit over a disputed inheritance in 1527. He was presumably by then a barrister of some years standing, since he became King's Serjeant and Solicitor General in 1532 (the office of Serjeant was much older and more senior). He was spoken of as a possible judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1533, and in the next year became Chief Justice of that Court, although Burke indicates it was in November 1533, holding that office until his death 20 years later.

In government He was an active member of the Privy Council of Ireland, although for no clear reason he was not appointed to the Council in 1532, immediately on becoming Serjeant, as had been the practice for many years. Some of his descendants, notably his grandson and namesake Thomas Luttrell (died 1634), who sat in the Irish House of Commons for County Dublin, were open and politically active Catholics. He was buried by his own direction "with honesty but no pomp" in Clonsilla Church, and left a bequest for the building of a mortuary chapel there. On a more worldly note, he directed that an open house be kept for guests at Luttrellstown Castle.

Character Elrington Ball sums up Luttrell as "a typical gentleman of the English Pale of his time". Although his family had been settled in Ireland for centuries; although he had constant contact with the neighbouring Old Irish families from his early youth onwards, and spoke fluent Irish, he identified wholly with the interests of England. It is fair to say that Ireland outside the Pale was to him a foreign country. His most attractive quality was the hospitality for which he was famous. By his two marriages, he had at least ten children, including- Richard, who predeceased him Anne, who married Thomas Dillon of Riverstown, County Meath, and was the mother of Sir Robert Dillon, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas Christopher, who inherited his father's estate but died two years after him, without male heirs Margaret, who married Luke Netterville, justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland): their descendants held the title Viscount Netterville Sir James Luttrell, High Sheriff of County Dublin, who inherited Luttrellstown from his brother Christopher; he was the second husband of the much-married Dame Jenet Sarsfield, but they had no surviving issue Simon, his brother James's heir, from whom later generations of Luttrells were descended, including the Earls of Carhampton Robert Luttrell, m. Elizabeth, 2nd dau. of Robert Rochfort, Esq., of Kilbride, and was father of Richard Luttrell of Tankardstown, County Meath, who m. Anne, dau. of Robert Cusack, Esq., of Cussington, County Meath, and d. in October 1633, leaving two sons and two daus., viz., 1 Oliver, of Tankardstown; 2 James; 1 Jane, m. to Rowland Plunket of Cocklestown; and 2 Mary, m. to George Bathe, of Edickston, County Meath. John Luttrell, who m. Mary, dau. of Walter Nugent, Esq., of Moyrath, County Meath. Walter at least one more daughter.