Patrick Plunket

Baron of Dunsanie in Ireland, Son of Rob. Plunket Baron of the same place (who died 1. Elizab.) was educated in Grammar learning at Ratough (e)(e) Ric. Stanyhurst in Descript. Hibern. cap. 7. under one Staghens, and from thence was sent to Oxon to obtain Logicals and Philosophicals, but to what house there, unless to Gloucester hall, (where many of his Countrymen, and some of his Sirname studied in the time of Qu. Elizab. as I shall anon inform you) I cannot justly tell, or whether to Univ. Coll. when Richard Stanyhurst (who calls him his Brother) studied there, I am as yet ignorant. Howsoever it was, sure I am, that by the care of his Father-in-law Sir Christoph. Barnwell Kt. he was maintained according to his condition for some years in this University, where profiting much in several sorts of learning, tho honored not, or was honored with, any Degree, did afterwards compose several things fit for the press, which (f)(f) Ibidem. by reason of his bashfull modesty, or modest bashfulness were wrongfully imprisoned, and in a manner stifled in shadowed couches—I doubt not, (as my Author (g)(g) Ibid. adds) but what by his fame and renown in Learning, he shall be answerable to his desert and value in writing, &c. This worthy Baron who was of ancient extract in Ireland, and of the R. Cath. Religion, was a Person noted in his Country for his great possessions there, for his good natural parts,Clar. 1584. and renowned therefore among the learned in Fifteen hundred eighty and four: In which year, and after, he had books dedicated to him, as being not only a learned Person himself, but also a Patron of learning and learned Men. While he studied in this University, were eight of his Countrymen of Glouc. hall matriculated in 1574, having been Students there some years before, as Walter, Henry, and Joh. Talbot of gentile extraction, the first of which was then 21 years of age, and the other two 20. Edw. Plunket a Gentlemans Son, of 20 years of age; Christoph. Galway and John Martill, Sons of Plebeians, the former 19, the other 20, years of age; and one Pendergast and Whitty the Sons of Gent. the former 22, the other 21, years of age. Besides these were several other Irish Men matriculated as members of that Hall during the Reign of Qu. Elizab. as (1) Rich. Whyte a Gentlemans Son, aged 21. an. 1578. (2) Giles Hovenden of Leis in Kings County, the Son of a Gent. an. 1582. aged 26. (3) Gerard Salwey of (Dromore) an Esq; Son, the same year, aged 14. with others, to the beginning of K. James his Reign, which for brevity sake I now omit. Of the said Baron Plunkets Family was descended that most ven. and religious Dr. Oliver Plunket titular Primate of Ireland, who being found by some Persons to have been deeply engaged in the Popish Plot in Ireland, an. 1678. 79, was brought over into England, where receiving sentence to die in Westminster hall, was accordingly hang’d, drawn, and quarter’d at Tyburn on the first day of July 1681; whereupon his quarters only (not his head) were buried in the yard of St. Giles Church in the Fields near to London, by the bodies of the five Jesuits, that were a little before executed, and buried under the North wall of the said Yard. In the said place Plunkets quarters continuing till the fanatical plot broke out in 1683, they were taken up and conveyed beyond the Sea to the Monastery of the Benedictines (of which order he was a Brother) at Lambspring in Germany, where they were with great ceremony and devotion re-buried. Before I speak of the next writer, the reader may be pleased to know farther of this Plunket, that when the Lady D. D. had borrowed 200 Crowns of an Irish Priest at Bologna; she, rather than repay that summ procured the Archbishoprick of Armagh (to which the Primacy of Ireland is annex’d) for the said Plunket by the means of Cardinal Rospigloisi; who, tho he would not be at the congregation that day, wherein that matter was to be done, yet he made Card. Chigi do it; and when Card. Barbarini opposed the nomination, Chigi told the said Cardinal that it must be so: This was about 1669.