HALSEY, William (d. aft. 1670), of Gracedieu Castle, Waterford.

William Halsey’s early career is obscure, although he may have had a connection with the Halseys of Great Gaddesden in Hertfordshire.22Vis. Herts. 1634 (Harl. xxii), 62. In 1649 Halsey was commissioned as a captain in Solomon Richards’ regiment in the Cromwellian army in Ireland, and served with this unit until it was disbanded in the summer of 1653.23SP28/72, f. 130; SP28/73, ff. 117, 145, 171; SP28/74, ff. 137, 160; SP28/76, f. 220; Bodl. Rawl. A.208, p. 408. As a reward for his service he was granted leases of forfeited property in Waterford. The city became his permanent residence from then on, and by 1654 he had become alderman in the corporation.24Eg. 1762, ff. 206-7v. In May 1654 Halsey was appointed assistant justice for the province of Munster, working under Chief Justice John Cook, with a salary of £200 a year; but unlike Cook, he soon proved himself a generous judge of former royalists among the Munster Protestants.25NLI, MS 758, f. 35; Add. 19833, f. 3v. In July, for example, he assured the 2nd earl of Cork (Sir Richard Boyle*) that his lands would be safe if he merely produced his evidences at the appropriate time.26Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 17 July 1654. Halsey’s judicial position in Munster and his interests in the corporation at Waterford no doubt influenced his election as MP for the combined boroughs of Clonmel and Waterford on 3 August.27C219/44, unfol.; Mercurius Politicus no. 219 (17-24 Aug. 1654), 3709 (E.809.5). Halsey travelled to Westminster to take his seat, but he was only named to one committee – that for deciding Irish elections, on 5 October – and he probably returned to Ireland shortly afterwards, to join the ‘Athlone commissioners’ appointed to consider claims of the transplanted Irish in December.28CJ vii. 373b; Cunningham, Conquest and Land, 82.

In the mid-1650s, Halsey became an important figure in the administration in the southern counties of Ireland. In October 1654 he was appointed as assessment commissioner for cos. Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford, and in January 1655 he added Kilkenny to the list.29An Assessment for Ire. In March 1655 he was added to the Wexford commission of the peace; and in June 1656 he joined Cook and John Santhy as commissioners for transplanting the native Irish in the province of Munster (the so-called ‘Mallow commissioners’).30Barnard, Cromwellian Ireland, 290n; Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 604. Halsey took the latter role very seriously, and is known to have attended meetings throughout the summer of 1656.31Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 604n-7n; J.P. Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland (1865), 231-6. In the autumn, Halsey was re-elected as MP for Clonmel and Waterford for the second protectorate Parliament. During this Parliament, his sympathies for the Irish Protestant community can be seen more clearly. On 25 October he was added to the committee of Irish Affairs, and thereafter he joined Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*) and a number of other Irish Members on committees relating to bills for settling lands on one prominent Old Protestant, Sir Theophilus Jones*, and to consider the controversial grant of Irish lands to the city of Gloucester.32CJ vii. 445b, 491b, 494a. These were important test cases for the future of the land settlement in Ireland: a subject of personal as well as professional interest to Halsey. During the kingship debates of the spring of 1657, Halsey collaborated with the group of Irish MPs which supported changes to the constitution, and voted to offer the crown to Cromwell on 25 March.33Narrative of the Late Parliament (1658), 13, 23 (E.935.5). Halsey was granted leave to return to Ireland in early May 1657, but his friends at Westminster continued to protect his interests.34CJ vii. 531a. At the end of May he was confirmed in his appointment as clerk of the hanaper in Dublin by the Irish committee at Whitehall; and when in June the bill for attainting the Irish rebels was finally passed, a proviso allowed Halsey and his wife security to pursue their land claims through the exchequer for a year without prejudice.35CSP Ire. 1647-60, pp. 636-7; A. and O. ii. 1255.

In the later 1650s Halsey returned to his judicial duties in Munster. In April 1658 he attended the co. Waterford quarter sessions at Tallow, alongside the earl of Cork and a number of his clients.36Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 13 Apr. 1658. Halsey was again elected for Clonmel and Waterford in 1659, but he did not make any recorded contribution at Westminster, and it is possible that he remained in Ireland throughout the session. Later in the year he was listed as resident in Waterford City, and in the General Convention which assembled in Dublin in March 1660, he again represented the borough.37Irish Census, 1659, 349; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 211-2. After the restoration of the monarchy, Halsey retained his position of influence in the corporation. He was appointed militia captain and poll money commissioner for the city in 1660-1, elected MP for the borough for the Irish Parliament of 1661-6, and served as mayor in 1661-2.38Irish Census, 1659, 624, 643; HMC Ormonde, o.s. ii. 250; CJI i. 594; Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 624n. From 1662 until at least 1670, Halsey remained active on the corporation, attending meetings and advising the aldermen on legal disputes.39Waterford Council Bks. ed. Pender, 1-46, 70, 83. During this period he also benefited from his connection with the Boyles, and especially with Lord Broghill (soon to become earl of Orrery), who had become lord president of Munster in May 1660. In December 1660 Halsey was appointed chief justice of Munster for life (with a salary of £100 per annum), working directly under Orrery as lord president.40CSP Ire. 1660-2, p. 139; TCD, MS 808, f. 229v; HMC Ormonde, n.s. iii. 380. In April 1661, Halsey was granted a royal pardon on Orrery’s behest.41CSP Ire. 1660-2, p. 317. Although he was never implicated in the various plots against the new regime in the 1660s, Halsey was not an enthusiast for the restored monarchy. In 1665, at a feast in Waterford where two calves’ heads were laid on the table, Halsey was heard to remark that he would sooner see the king’s and the duke of York’s heads there instead.42CCSP v. 514. As he was evidently still acting as chief justice of Munster a year later, such loose talk did not cost Halsey his livelihood or his liberty.43Bodl. Carte 144, f. 85v. The date of Halsey’s death is unknown. His son, also William, was admitted to Trinity College Dublin in 1672 at the age of 17, and he may have been the William Halsey who married Sarah Harris in 1679 and died in Dublin in 1686.44Al. Dubl.; Appx. to 26th Rep. of Dep. Keeper of Public Recs. of Ire. (Dublin, 1895), 379, 1006.