Richard Netterville

Richard Netterville (c. 1540-1607) was an Irish barrister and politician. He was noted for his willingness to oppose the Crown, especially on its taxation policies, and as a result was imprisoned several times.

Background

He was from Dowth in Meath, second son of Luke Netterville, judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) and Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Luttrell, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.^[1] His father died in 1560. As he was the son and grandson of judges and a younger son, it was an obvious career choice for Richard to go to the Irish Bar. He was at the Inns of Court in London in 1561-62, and was one of several Irish law students who compiled a book on the misgovernment of the Pale.^[2] He had returned to Ireland by 1564 to practice law.

Cess controversy

The cess, a tax levied for the military upkeep of the Pale, was always unpopular with the Anglo-Irish gentry, and the book to which Richard as a student had contributed in the early 1560s was partly an attack on it. Matters came to a head in 1576 over the plans of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney to reform and extend the cess. Richard was one of three barristers chosen to go to London to protest against the ruinous cost of the plans, the others being Henry Burnell and the former Attorney General for Ireland, Barnaby Skurloke.^[3] The mission turned out badly: Elizabeth was angered by the attack on the royal prerogative, and imprisoned them in the Fleet Prison. In Netterville's case her attitude was probably influenced by Sidney's deep dislike of him. The Deputy wrote to the Queen-

Netterville is the younger son of a mean family and (his father) second justice of one of the benches, born to nothing and yet only by your Majesty's bounty liveth in better countenance than his father ever did or his elder brother doth; and notwithstanding that all he hath, he holdeth of your Highness in effect, he is (your sacred Majesty not offended with so bad a term as his lewdness deserveth) as seditious a varlet and as great an impugner of English Government as any this land beareth and calls for severe dealing with.^[4]

The Queen in the end did not deal severely with the three lawyers: as opposition mounted to Sidney's plans his position weakened, and the lawyers made an abject apology. They were released from the Fleet and soon pardoned.^[5]

Parliament of 1585

Nettterville's imprisonment does not seem to have lessened his willingness to oppose the Lord Deputy, and in time he clashed with Sidney's successor Sir John Perrot. Perrot had an ambitious program of law reform for the 1585 parliament; Netterville, elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Dublin County, was one of the leaders of the opposition, who thwarted the Deputy at every opportunity. To Perrot's fury they even demanded to see his accounts; he complained-

It angers me to make this bibble-babble account, fitter to be told to boys than any that have wit or judgment, and I think foul scorn they should put me to it."^[6]

He retaliated by imprisoning Nettterville and some of his colleagues, but failed to get his reforms through Parliament.

Last controversies

In 1606 Netterville, despite his age, was imprisoned yet again. Led by Patrick Barnewall, the Roman Catholic gentry of the Pale protested against the imposition of fines on those who did not attend a Church of Ireland service on Sunday and the use of the Court of Castle Chamber (the Irish equivalent of Star Chamber) to enforce religious conformity,^[7] and were committed to prison as a result. Netterville's imprisonment seems to have been brief; he died on 5 September 1607 and was buried at Donabate.

He had married Alison (or Alice) Plunket, daughter of the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir John Plunket, but had no children; his estate passed to his nephew Nicholas Netterville, 1st Viscount Netterville^[8]

References