Edward Waterhouse

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Sir Edward Waterhouse (1535–1591) was an English-born Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland from 1586 to 1589[1] and Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1566 to 1567 and again from 1568 to 1569.

He was born in Helmstedbury, Hertfordshire, the youngest son of John Waterhouse of Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, auditor to Henry VIII, and his wife Margaret Turner, daughter of Henry Turner of Blunt's Hall, Suffolk. According to family tradition the King saw Edward as a boy and predicted that he would grow up to be a man "fit to serve Princes". Edward was educated at Oxford, which he entered at the age of just twelve, and then joined the King's Court.

Career

He started his career as private secretary to

knighted by Sir John Perrot inside Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
, officially because Woodhouse, "dispended yearly more than a thousand marks."

Meanwhile, Archbishop O'Hurley was Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

Waterhouse as a reward for his services received numerous

patents and perquisites, of which it seems the most lucrative was bailiff of the River Shannon
. The favours showered on him aroused the suspicion of the Queen, who summoned him to London in 1582 to give an account of himself. Fortunately, he had influential friends at Court, and his personal charm quickly won Elizabeth over. He suffered no penalty except the loss of the office of bailiff of the Shannon.

Waterhouse was in 1586 appointed

Anglo-Irish gentry. During the Desmond Rebellions he served with the army in Munster
.

Last years and family

Having long complained of his "weak body", he retired to his estate of Woodchurch in Kent, and died there in 1591. He had married three times, firstly, Elizabeth, daughter of George Villiers of Brooksby Hall, Leicestershire[2] and Joan Harrington, whom he divorced in 1578; secondly, Margaret Spilman, daughter of Thomas Spilman of Great Chart, Kent,[3] who died in 1587, and thirdly, Deborah, widow of a Mr. Harlackenden of Woodchurch, who survived him. He had no children and was succeeded by his grand-nephew Edward.

He is buried with his third wife Deborah at Woodchurch. In the family chapel in Hertfordshire, he erected a memorial to his second wife Margaret, as a token of his "dear love" for that "worthy lady".[4]

References

  1. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Waterhouse, Edward (1535-1591)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ Burke, John "Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland" 2nd Edition London 1844
  3. ^ "The Correspondence of Sir Phillip Sidney" Volume1 edited by Roger Kuin Oxford University Press 2012
  4. ^ Sir Henry Chauncy "Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire". Published by Benjamin Griffin London 1700
Political offices
First
None recognised before
Chief Secretary for Ireland
1566 – 1568/9
Succeeded by