Henry Gosnold

Henry Gosnold, or Gosnell (c. 1560 – c. 1655) was an English-born lawyer who spent most ofhis very long life in Ireland.He sat in the Irish House of Commons and held office as Chief Justice of Munster and Deputy Admiralty judge. He is now mainly remembered for his friendship with Francis Bacon. He was also famous in his own lifetime for his wit: a few of his jokes still survive.

He was the son of John Gosnold, a member of the well-knownGosnold family of Otley, Suffolk and his wife Katherine Kinellmarsh; the explorer Bartholomew Gosnold was his cousin.The family name is also spelt Gosnell, Goslingor Gosnard.The year of his birth is uncertain, but was probablyshortly after 1560,as we know from his own testimony that he was over 80 in 1646. Henry went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1577, and Staple Inn; he entered Gray's Inn in 1581. As a student he had a reputation for wit, and it may have been this which earned him the friendship of Francis Bacon, who is saidhave been a distant relative. Theclosenessbetween the two men continued after their student days;in July 1592 they visitedTwickenham together,andthe friendship survivedHenry's departure to Ireland in 1594.

At least one of his jokes(arather laboured one for moderntastes)survives, concerning Bacon's determinedbutultimatelyunsuccessful battle to persuade Elizabeth I to appoint him, rather than Sir Edward Coke, asAttorney General. Gosnold quipped: "if it please her Majesty, the Bacon may be too hard for the Cook (Coke)"."

Gosnellfirst went toIrelandas secretary toLord Russell, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, a post for which Bacon (whose aunt Elizabeth Cookewas married to Russell's brother John)may haverecommended him. He wrote to Bacon about theexpeditionin 1594 torelieve Enniskillen Castle, which was under siege (this was one of the first militaryactionsof the Nine Years War), and gave his first impressions of the country. Unlike someEnglish settlersof the time he found the Irish climate agreeable, praising "the clemency of the air and the healthiness of the soil",but he disliked the Irish people: "for cruelty and beggary I would never wish (to be in) a worse place".

In 1596 he became Attorney General for the Province of Munster. Promotion in the Provincial Court of Munster usually involved a progressionfrom the office of Attorney General to that of Second Justice and thento Chief Justice of Munster. Henry duly followed this path, becoming Second Justice in 1608 and Chief Justice in 1624. He was alsothe Admiralty judge for the province for much of his judicial career; but alternatedin that office with his West Cork neighbour Sir Robert Travers, despitefrequent complaints, even from the Crown itself, about Travers's corruption, which led to repeateddemands for his removal from office Until 1635 Munster was the only regional Admiralty court: its judge acted as Deputy for the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in his capacity asthe senior Admiralty judge.

Gosnold, like Francis Bacon, was a protégé of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, to whom he was distantly related, and during Essex's time in Ireland was in regular attendance on him. Essex's return to England, and subsequent downfall, were deeply troubling for Gosnold: he wrote anxiously to Essex in November 1599 about the rumours of his disgrace, which he trusted (wrongly) would proveto be unfounded.

After the downfalland execution for treasonof Essex in 1601, Gosnold, like most of the prominent men of Munster, became a client of the "Great Earl", Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Lord Cork built upa political empire in County Corkby the foundation of new towns, which became Parliamentary boroughsreturning his ownnominees tothe Irish Parliament. Gosnold,together with theChief Justiceof Munster Sir Edward Harris, sat in the Parliament of 1613-5 as MPfor Clonakilty. He servedfor a time as Recorderof Youghal,stepping down in 1617. His closest Irishlinkswere with Bandon, another of the new towns of Cork, of which he was a burgessin 1612.

As Admiralty judge in the 1620s he clashed repeatedly with Henry De Laune, theFrench-born Vice-Admiral forMunster. De Laune objected to Gosnold's insistence that allgoods seized from pirate vessels be subjected tothe proper judicial process, and complained of the paltry size of his awards; Gosnold in return accused De Laune ofkeeping the prize goods for himself. By the lax standards of the age Gosnold, in contrast to his notoriously corrupt rivalSir Robert Travers,wasan honest official. He did inquire in the 1630s if he could keep the fines he imposed, but dutifully complied with an instruction from the Crownthat this would be improper.

He continued in office as Admiralty judgeinto the early 1640s, but during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 hewas unable to exercise his judicial functions. Like many landowners in Munster, notably Lord Cork's sons, hesuffered heavy losses as a result of the Rebellion, though he was more fortunate than his rival Travers, who was killed at the Battle of Knocknanuss.In 1646 hepetitioned the English Parliament for compensation, pleading that he was more than 80 years old and in acute financial distress. The Provincial Court of Munster was abolished in 1655. Gosnold,who is known to have reached "a great age",may still have been alive at the time, buthe was probably dead by 1658.

Hewas married twice: his first wife was Wilgeford George and his second wife wascalled Fenton (she may have been a relative of Lord Cork's second wife Catherine Fenton). He had several children, of whom at least two, John and Rachel, survived to adulthood. His descendantswere mostly associated with Skibereen. They usually spelt their family name Gosnell or Gosling.