Thomas FitzMaurice
1520 – 1590
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Thomas FitzMaurice, fourteenth Baron of Kerry and Lixnaw, soldiered in the Imperial armies in Italy until about 1545, was confirmed in his lands by Queen Mary in 1553, knighted in 1567, and rebelled against Elizabeth the First between 1583 and 1585. His own voice survives in a letter of 1576 to the Lord Deputy complaining that the Earl of Desmond's men had killed two of his young men, robbed his four-score-year-old chaplain, and left not so much as his poor greyhounds unkilled. Six hundred cattle and eight hundred sheep and hogs went over the mountains with them.
Research notes
✓ DOCUMENTED (Burke's LANSDOWNE lineage p.2238): THOMAS FITZMAURICE, 14TH BARON OF KERRY AND LIXNAW, PC (I); b. c. 1520; "soldier in Imperial armies in Italy till c. 1545"; confirmed in possession as Baron of Lacksnaway (Lixnaw) by QUEEN MARY 23 Oct 1553; knighted 1567; REBELLED against ELIZABETH I 1583-85; m. 1st LADY MARGARET FITZGERALD (d. 1563), dau. of James Fitz John FitzGerald, EARL OF DESMOND - mother of Patrick 15th Baron (our line); m. 2nd (repudiated 1580) Finola/Penelope O'Brien; d. 16 Dec 1590. HIS OWN VOICE SURVIVES (Bourke, JCHAS 26, 1920): his 1576 letter to Lord Deputy Sidney on the Desmond raids - the Earl's men killed two young men, robbed his four-score-year-old chaplain, 'and left not so much as my poor greyhounds unkilled'; the postscript counts 600 kine and 800 sheep and hogs swept over the mountains 'to the utter undoing of myself and all my poor tenants.' CHAIN ABOVE WIRED 22 Jul 2026 (Lansdowne lineage pp.2237-38, re-photographed): son of EDMOND, 9TH BARON (d. Nov 1541 attending Parliament) x UNA MACMAHON; the full ladder to Robert FitzMaurice of Clanmaurice is entered (I99540-558), dog-legs marked collateral (3rd Baron; Thomas d.v.p.; the 10th-13th Barons - his own brothers and nephews). Direct ancestor. Added 21 Jul 2026.