James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon

James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon (c. 1605 – 1649) was a leader of the royalist forces in Ireland. He appears as the fifth on the list of people that were excluded from pardon in Cromwell's Act of Settlement. This reflects his rank and shows that he was regarded an exceptionally staunch royalist.

James Dillon
Earl of Roscommon
Reign	1642–1649
Predecessor	Robert, 2nd Earl of Roscommon
Successor	Wentworth, 4th Earl of Roscommon
Born	c. 1605
Died	October 1649 Limerick, Ireland
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Wentworth
Detail Issue Wentworth
Father	Robert, 2nd Earl of Roscommon
Mother	Margaret Barry
Religion	Protestant Church of Ireland

Birth and origin

James was born about 1605[1] in Ireland, the eldest son of Robert Dillon and his first wife Margaret Barry. His father was the 2nd Earl of Roscommon. His family was Old English and descended from Sir Henry Dillon who came to Ireland with Prince John in 1185.[2] His family held substantial lands in Meath, Westmeath, Longford and Roscommon. James's mother was a daughter of David de Barry, 5th Viscount Buttevant. Her family, the de Barry family is another Old English family.

Family tree

James Dillon with wife, parents, and other selected relatives. James 1st Earl d. 1641 Eleanor Barnewall d. 1628 Margaret Barry Robert 2nd Earl d. 1642 Ann Strode; James 3rd Earl c. 1605 – 1649 Elizabeth Wentworth Carey 5th Earl 1627–1689 Katherine Werden Frances Boyle Wentworth 4th Earl 1637–1685 Isabella Boynton; Robert 6th Earl d. 1715 Robert 7th Earl d. 1721 Angel Ingoldsby; Robert 8th Earl d. 1746 unmarried Legend XXX James Dillon XXX Earls of Roscommon This family tree is partly derived from the Roscommon pedigree in Cokayne.[3] Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

James was one of five brothers including two half-brothers, one from each of the two other marriages of his father.

Robert among his brothers and half-brothers
#	Wife	Name	Remark
1	1st wife	James	(c. 1605 – 1649)
2	1st wife	Lucas	-died childless;[4]
3	1st wife	David	-died an infant.
4	2nd wife	Henry	(died 1640), died unmarried.[5]
5	3rd wife	#Carey	(1627–1689), became the 5th Earl Roscommon[6] and was the "Colonel Dillon" of the Diary of Samuel Pepys.[7]

Nothing seems to be known about his sisters.

Early life

His father's family were traditionally Roman Catholic, which is why his father, despite his record of loyalty to the Crown, was never fully trusted by King Charles I of England, but James was converted to the Church of Ireland by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh.

On 24 January 1620 his grandfather was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Dillon of Kilkenny-West, in the Peerage of Ireland.[8] in a ceremony performed by the Lord Deputy Oliver St. John in the Presence Chamber of Dublin Castle on 25 January.[9]

On 5 August 1622 James's grandfather was further honoured by being created Earl of Roscommon.[10] In consequence of this advancement, Robert, the heir apparent, James's father, was styled Lord Kilkenny-West, as a courtesy title (1622–1641).

Marriage and children

James Dillon married Elizabeth Wentworth, daughter of Sir William Wentworth and Anne Atkins at some unknown time probably in the late 1620s. She was a sister of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, the formidable and (for a time), all-powerful Lord Deputy of Ireland. James's father was a staunch supporter and a personal friend of Strafford, and the marriage was clearly intended to strengthen English rule in Ireland through family alliances between leading English and Anglo-Irish families.[11]

They had a son:

• Wentworth (1637–1685), 4th Earl and a poet of renown.[12][13]

Later life, death and timeline

In 1639 James Dillon was elected Member of Parliament for County Longford in the Parliament of Ireland.[14]

In March 1641 James's grandfather died[15] and his father succeeded as the 2nd Earl. His tenure was, however, a short one as he died on 27 August 1642 in Oxmantown, a quarter in Dublin's Northside[16] James succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Roscommon.[17] He had to abandon his seat in the lower house and gained a seat in the House of Lords.

He died at Limerick in October 1649, at the house of Bishop Bramhall, of an accidental fall down a flight of stairs.[18] According to legend his son, then in exile at Caen, knew of his death at the moment it happened, although the official news of the death did not reach him until two weeks later.[19]

Timeline
Age	Date	Event
0	1605, about	Born.[1]
15	1620, 24 Jan	Grandfather created Baron of Kilkenny-West.[8]
17	1622, 5 Aug	Grandfather created Earl of Roscommon.[10]
20	1625, 27 Mar	Accession of King Charles I, replacing King James I.[20]
34	1639, 28 Feb	Returned as MP for Longford County.[14]
35	1640, Dec	Father appointed as one of the Lord Justices of Ireland.
36	1641, 12 May	Strafford beheaded.[21]
36	1641, Mar	Grandfather died and his father succeeds as 2nd Earl.[15]
36	1642, 27 Aug	Father died in Oxmantown, Dublin and he succeeds as the 3rd Earl.[16]
44	1649, 30 Jan	King Charles I beheaded.[22]
44	1649, Oct	Died in Limerick.[18]

Notes and References

1. Cokayne 1895, p. 411, line 19: "[James] s. and h. by his 1st wife, b. about 1605;"
2. Webb 1878, p. 149, line 7: "... [Sir Henry Dillon] came to Ireland in 1185 as secretary to Prince John ..."
3. Cokayne 1895, p. 414.
4. Burke 1832, p. 367, left column, line 30: "His Lordship [the 2nd Earl] m. first Margaret, daughter of David Earl of Barrymore, by whom he had JAMES, Lord Dillon, and another son Lucas who d. s.p."
5. Burke 1832, p. 367, left column, line 33: "The Earl m. secondly Lady Dorothy Hastings, youngest daughter of George, fourth Earl of Huntingdon and widow of Sir James Steuart, by whom he had Henry, who d. unmarried;"
6. Burke 1832, p. 367, left column, line 37: "... and, thirdly, Anne, daughter of Sir William Stroud, and widow of Lord Folliet, by whom he had a son, CAREY, who succeeded as fifth earl."
7. Pepys 1893, p. 217: "Aug. 8, 1660. We found them very pretty, and Coll. Dillon there, a very merry and witty companion ..."
8. Cokayne 1895, p. 410, line 21: "... was cr. 24 Jan. 1619/20 LORD DILLON, BARON OF KILKENNY-WEST [I]."
9. Lodge 1789, p. 158, line 5: "... the ceremony thereof was performed by the L. D. St John in the Presence-Chamber on the 25 ..."
10. Cokayne 1895, p. 410, line 22: "... being subsequently cr. 5 Aug. 1622 EARL OF ROSCOMMON [I.]."
11. Wedgwood, C.V. Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford 1593-1641- a revaluation Phoenix Press reissue 2000
12. Gillespie 2004, p. 226: "... [Wentworth] was born in Dublin, probably in St George's Lane in October 1637."
13. King 1982, p. 200: "The influence of imitations and translations on the increasing elegance of Restoration verse can be seen from such versified criticism as the Earl of Roscommon's ... translation of Horace's Art of Poetry (1680) and his often-praised An Essay of Translated Verse (1684) ..."
14. House of Commons 1878, p. 625: "1639 28 Feb. Sir James Dillon, knt. Moymet Westmeath Longford County"
15. Cokayne 1895, p. 411, line 3b: "He [James, 1st Earl] d. March 1641."
16. Cokayne 1895, p. 411, line 17: "He d. at Oxmantown, 27 Aug. 1642, and was bur. 7 Sep. in St Patricks, Dublin."
17. Burke 1832, p. 367, left column, line 40: "His lordship d. 7th September 1642 and was succeeded by his eldest son, JAMES, third earl."
18. Cokayne 1895, p. 411, line 29: "He d. at the house of Bishop Bramhall, Limerick, of a fall down a great pair of stairs."
19. Aubrey 1696, p. 89: "The Lord Roscomon, being a Boy of Ten Years of age at Caen in Normandy ... he cries out My Father is Dead."
20. Smyth 1839, p. xiii, line 18: "Charles I. . [Accession]] 27 March, 1625"
21. Burke 1866, p. 577, left column, line 3: "He [Strafford] suffered death with characteristic firmness on Tower Hill, 12 May 1641."
22. Burke 1949, p. [cclxvii, line9]: "after the decapitation of CHARLES I at Whitehall, 30 Jan. 1649 ..."

• Aubrey, John (1696), Miscellanies, London: Edward Castle
• Burke, John (1832), A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, 2 (4th ed.), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley – Ibbetson to Zouche (for Roscommon)
• Burke, Bernard (1866), A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire (New ed.), London: Harrison (for Strafford)
• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd. (for Charles I)
• Cokayne, George Edward (1895), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 6 (1st ed.), London: George Bell and Sons – N to R (for Roscommon)
• Gillespie, Stuart (2004), "Dillon, Wentworth, fourth Earl of Roscommon", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 16, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 226–228, ISBN 0-19-8613660
• House of Commons (1878), "Members of Parliament", Parliamentary Papers, London: H. M. Stationery Office, 62 (for the subject MP)
• King, Bruce (1982), Seventeenth Century English Literature, New York: Schocken books
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 4, Dublin: James Moore – Viscounts (for Dillon)
• Pepys, Samuel (1893), Wheatley, Henry Benjamin (ed.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1, London: George Bell and Sons – 1 January 1659/60 to 30 March 1660/1
• Smyth, Constantine (1839), Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, London: Henry Butterworth (for Table of reigns)
• Webb, Alfred (1878), "Dillon, Theobald, Viscount", Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, p. 149

External links

• Genealogy of James Dillon 3rd Earl of Roscommon on The Peerage website

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Robert Dillon	Earl of Roscommon 1642–1649	Succeeded by Wentworth Dillon