Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston

Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston (1435–1503) was an

Robert had close ties to Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester, who married as his third wife Robert's cousin, Marguerite d'Artois, and he became a supporter of Portlester's son-in-law, the 8th or "Great Earl" of Kildare. With Lord Portlester, he was one of the original Companions of the Brotherhood of Saint George, a short-lived military guild designed for the defence of the Pale (the four counties which were under secure English rule). Another useful marriage connection was through his sister Elizabeth, who married as his second wife Christopher Plunkett, 1st Baron of Dunsany.

Career

In 1460, during the brief period when

In 1493 Henry VII reappointed him Lord Deputy: he held a Parliament at Drogheda, and a council at Trim, attended by Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare ("the Great Earl") and most other leading Anglo-Irish magnates, where Gormanston bound them all over to keep the peace.^[7] The council does not seem to have produced any useful results: soon afterwards Gormanston, Kildare and other nobles were summoned to England to account for their governance of Ireland. Gormanston died in May 1503.

Family

Robert Preston married Janet Molyneaux, daughter of Sir Richard Molyneaux of Sefton and his first wife Jane Haydock, daughter of Sir Gilbert Haydock of Bradley. They had at least four children:

• William Preston, 2nd Viscount Gormanston (died 1532)^[8]
• Elizabeth, who married Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
• Anne, who married Christopher Nugent, 3rd
  Baron Delvin
• Katherine, who married Patrick Bermingham, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

References