Edward Brabazon, 1st Baron Ardee


Edward Brabazon, 1st Baron Ardee was an Anglo-Irish peer.
Brabazon was the eldest son of Sir William Brabazon, the Lord Justice of the Kingdom of Ireland, and Elizabeth Clifford. His mother was the daughter and co-heiress of Nicholas Clifford of Holme in Kent and Mary Harper. She was a much married lady, and Edward as a result had numerous half-siblings, including the distinguished soldier Sir William Warren, and Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore.
He grew up at Thomas Court, near present-day Thomas Street in Dublin city, where his father had built a house out of the lands of the former Abbey of St Thomas, which were granted to him after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Abbey's lands included Killruddery, near Bray, County Wicklow. The building of the original Kilruddery House seems to have begun in Edward's later years: Kilruddery is still the family home, although no trace of the original house survives. He built and occupied Ballinasloe castle in the 1570s or 80s, on land previously held by Seán na Maighe Ó Cellaigh.
, present day
He was made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1584. In 1585, he held of the office of Member of Parliament for Wicklow County in the Irish House of Commons. He was knighted on 24 August 1595. Brabazon was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1606 and served as MP for Bangor between 1613 and 1615. He was a member of the Council of Munster in 1615. On 19 July 1616, he was created Baron Ardee in the Peerage of Ireland and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords.

Family

Brabazon married Mary Smythe, the daughter of Thomas Smythe Esq. of Surrey, Clerk of the Green Cloth to Elizabeth I and his wife Eleanor Hazelrigg, and together they had at least six children. His eldest son predeceased him and his second son, William, was made Earl of Meath in 1627.
A younger son Anthony settled in County Louth and founded a junior branch of the family.
, the third husband of Brabazon's daughter Elizabeth
He had at least three daughters :