Sir Henry Tichborne

Sir Henry Tichborne (c.1581–1667) was a leading soldier and statesman in seventeenth-century Ireland who held a number of important civil offices and military commands. During the English Civil War he was a Royalist and was praised for his successful defence of Drogheda. Although he made his peace with Parliament after the defeat of the Royalist cause,  he returned to public life at the Restoration with his reputation undamaged.

He was English born: his family were  a junior branch of the Tichborne Baronets of Tichborne, and Henry founded his own dynasty, which acquired the short lived title Baron Ferrard. He began the building of the impressive Tichborne mansion, Beaulieu House, which still exists.

Early life
He was the fourth son of Sir Benjamin Tichborne, 1st Baronet of Tichborne, Hampshire, and his second wife Amphilis Weston, daughter of Richard Weston of Essex and his wife Wilburga Catesby. Like many younger sons of English landowning families, he chose a military career and served as a soldier in Ireland. He became Governor of Lifford about 1620 and was knighted in 1623, receiving large grants of land in Leitrim and Donegal. He was a Commissioner for the Plantation of County Londonderry.

Siege of Drogheda
When the Irish Rebellion of 1641 broke out he was living at Finglas near Dublin. He brought his family to Dublin for their safety, and the Crown quickly enlisted his services for the defence of Drogheda. Despite the hostility of the townspeople of Drogheda, who favoured the rebels, he showed great courage and determination in the task of defending the town, and refused to contemplate surrender even when the situation was desperate. When the garrison were reduced to eating their own horses he said that "he would stay till the last bit of horseflesh was eaten, then fight his way out". Despite repeated onslaughts from the rebels, and some suspicion of treachery on his own side, he managed to hold out from November 1641 until March 1642 when he received reinforcements from James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. This was "for the English, the first good news out of Ireland in five appalling months". He then joined forces with Charles, 2nd Lord Moore to prevent the rebels from regaining control of Leinster. They marched on Dundalk, which they took on 26 March: Tichborne became  Governor of the town.

After Drogheda
His heroic defence of Drogheda greatly enhanced his  political standing,  and in April 1642 King Charles I appointed him Lord Justice of Ireland jointly with Sir John Borlase; he held office until January 1644. Clarendon said that he was by then a man of "so excellent a fame" that even the King's bitterest enemies in Parliament had nothing to say against the appointment. In 1644 he went to England with the aim of negotiating a definite peace between the King and the Irish Confederacy, but was captured by Parliamentary forces and spent some months in the Tower of London, until Parliament consented to his exchange.

Parliamentarian
Returning to Ireland in the autumn of 1645, he resumed his old office of Governor of Drogheda. He soon concluded, as did many others, that the Royalists could not retain control of Ireland: the real struggle was between the Irish Confederacy and Parliament, and Tichborne, having  already fought against the Confederates, decided to throw in his lot with Parliament. Though he was initially regarded with some suspicion by his new masters, he relieved their doubts about his loyalty by fighting with distinction at the Battle of Dungan's Hill in April 1647 where Parliament crushed the Confederate army of Leinster; and he was highly rewarded as a result.

Restoration
From then on he lived in retirement until the Restoration of Charles II, when his submission to Parliament (such conduct having been common enough among Royalists) was not held against him. He became Marshal of the Army of Ireland and in 1666 was granted the forfeited Plunket estates in County Louth, where he began the building of an impressive mansion, Beaulieu House, which still exists, although it was substantially rebuilt by his grandson, Lord Ferrard. He fell ill towards the end of the year; he planned to travel to Spa for his health but was too weak to leave home. He died at Beaulieu early in 1667 and was buried in St Mary's Church, Drogheda.



Family
He married Jane, daughter of Sir Robert Newcomen of Kenagh, County Longford, first of the Newcomen baronets, and his wife Catherine Molyneux, daughter of Sir Thomas Molyneux. They are said to have quarrelled over his desertion of the Royalist cause, and for a time she lived apart from him in the Isle of Man. They seem to have become reconciled in their later years, since they are buried together at Beaulieu; Jane died in 1664. They had five sons and three daughters: Sir William Tichborne, the second but eldest surviving son, married Judith Bysse, daughter of John Bysse, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, by whom he was the father of Henry, first and last Baron Ferrard.