FENTON, Sir Maurice, 1st bt. (1622-64), of Mitchelstown, co. Cork.

Maurice Fenton’s grandfather, Sir Geoffrey Fenton, had served as secretary of state in Ireland until his death in 1608.13CSP Ire. 1608-10, p. 114. A dominant figure in the Munster plantation, Sir Geoffrey became the principal patron of his son-in-law, Sir Richard Boyle, who later became the 1st earl of Cork. The earl held the memory of his father-in-law in great respect, and this prompted him to include the old man’s remains in his ornate family tomb erected in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, in 1630.14CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 43. Sir Geoffrey’s son, Sir William Fenton, continued this close connection with the Boyles, and during the wars that followed the Irish rebellion of 1641 became closely identified with the interest of Cork’s younger son, Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill. When Broghill visited England in November 1644 he commissioned Sir William to govern the town of Youghal in his absence.15Add. 25287, f. 23. In 1647 Sir William sided with Broghill in his feud against Lord Inchiquin, and in the summer of 1648 he was held hostage by Inchiquin, who had by then defected to the royalist cause.16HMC Egmont, i. 442; HMC Portland, xiii. 466. During the 1650s, Sir William protected Boyle interests on various local commissions in co. Cork, and in May 1660 he was appointed to the Munster council when Broghill became lord president.17Chatsworth, CM/28, nos. 13, 14, 22; An Assessment for Ire.; HMC Egmont, i. 611.

Maurice Fenton’s career was overshadowed by the prominence of his father (who was to outlive him), and by the importance of the family connection with the Boyles. Fenton served with Lord Broghill as a reformado officer in July 1646, was imprisoned with his father in 1648, and in late 1649 he was appointed as a captain of horse in Broghill’s newly formed regiment, a rank which he held until the regiment was disbanded in August 1653.18SP16/539/3, f. 226v; SP28/64, f. 275; SP28/96, f. 239; Bodl. Nalson XXI, f. 182. His marriage in the following October to a daughter of Sir Hardress Waller* was advantageous in various respects. Waller, a long-term associate of the Boyles, was a major landowner in co. Limerick, and as a former New Model colonel he had important political connections with the army-dominated administration in Ireland during the early 1650s. Indeed, Waller’s other daughter, Anne, married Henry Ingoldsby*, another New Model soldier and a relative of Oliver Cromwell*. The connection Fenton acquired by marriage made him all the more welcome in the Boyle circle. In December 1653, the 2nd earl of Cork, while ‘a-hunting’ with his nephew, the 2nd earl of Barrymore, made a jocular bargain with the newly-wedded Fenton: ‘I gave my cousin Maurice Fenton my grey nag called Cumberland, for which he is to give me £30 at the birth of his first child’.19Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 17 Dec. 1653. Throughout the 1650s Fenton was a welcome guest at Lismore, Ballymaloe, and other Boyle residences, while Cork, Broghill and their relatives visited Mitchelstown in return.20Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 14 Aug. 1654, 13 June 1655, 18 July 1656, 23 Aug. 1655, 5 Nov. 1656, 11 Dec. 1658, 14 Dec. 1658.

The appointment of Henry Cromwell* as lord deputy of Ireland in 1657 brought a resurgence of Old Protestant influence in the island, and Maurice Fenton, with his various family connections, was well placed to benefit from this situation. Henry Cromwell, eager to cement new alliances, told Secretary John Thurloe* of his plans in April 1658:

Harry Ingoldsby, being made a baronet, has begot an inconvenient alteration in Sir Hardress Waller’s family, which to rectify I design that by a letter from his highness [Oliver Cromwell] I may have order to confer the same title upon Maurice Fenton, Sir William Fenton’s son, one whom my Lord Broghill very well knows, who married Harry Ingoldsby’s wife’s sister, and that it be done with speed.21TSP vii. 56.

On the same day, Henry Cromwell also wrote to Broghill, to secure his support in the matter, and to enlist his influence with the protector to secure the grant.22TSP vii. 57. This combination of Cromwellian patronage and alliances with Waller and Broghill brought Fenton a knighthood on 7 June 1658, and it may be significant that of the 14 knightings by Henry Cromwell, his was the only one performed at Cork House, the Boyle mansion in Dublin leased by Cromwell as his private residence.23Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 224. Fenton’s baronetcy, the only Irish one created by Oliver Cromwell, was created by letters patent on 14 July 1658.24CB.

The grant of Fenton’s baronetcy was followed by a period of instability for the protectoral regime. The death of Oliver Cromwell in September 1658 and the proclamation of his son Richard* as protector roused opposition in the ranks of the army and undermined Henry Cromwell’s position as lord deputy in Ireland. Much depended on the Parliament that was due to meet in January 1659; and Fenton was able to secure election as knight of the shire for co. Cork. There were two influences at work in this election. On 21 January 1659, the day of the election, Fenton asked Henry Cromwell’s leave to accept the seat, ‘which I shall not presume to undertake until I receive your excellency’s permission for my going’.25Lansd. 823, f. 202; calendared in Henry Cromwell Corresp. 443. On the following day, Broghill told Thurloe of the election results: as well as the earl of Cork’s tenant Francis Foulke*, who was elected for Cork city and Youghal, ‘our knight is my cousin german, Sir Maurice Fenton, a gentleman of £2,000 a year ... and for both these I engage’.26TSP vii. 597. Fenton’s election would thus seem to have been on Broghill’s interest, but with the consent of Henry Cromwell as lord deputy.

Although some effort had been expended to gain Fenton his seat, he seems to have been in no rush to leave for Westminster. One reason was the need to resolve a long-running dispute between Sir William Fenton and the earl of Cork’s new son-in-law, Colonel Francis Courtenay. On 2 February 1659 Cork and Broghill met at Ballymaloe, where agreement was first reached, with Sir Maurice Fenton providing his bond for payment of the money owed to Courtenay.27Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 2 Feb. 1659. Five days later, and apparently as a result of the Fenton-Courtenay agreement, Cork was told that Sir William Fenton was preparing to settle his estates.28Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 7 Feb. 1659. On 15 February the Fenton inheritance was enfeoffed to trustees, including Sir Maurice Fenton, Robert Southwell, Randal Clayton, Sir Henry Ingoldsby – all of whom had strong Boyle connections – and the earl of Cork himself. These would administer an entail which allowed Sir Maurice to inherit, but in the event of the failure of his heirs male, the estate would pass to the earl of Cork, as his mother had been Sir William Fenton’s co-heir.29Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 15 Feb. 1659. The settling of the estate once again emphasized the close relationship between the Boyles and the Fentons.

Maurice Fenton had arrived in England by 5 March 1659, but took no part in the formal proceedings at Westminster as recorded in the Journal.30Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 5 Mar. 1659. This lacuna did not indicate a lack of interest in parliamentary affairs, however. As Fenton told the earl of Cork on 12 April, he was very disappointed that ‘the Parliament did nothing concerning Ireland until three or four days since’, and suggested that the inhabitants of co. Cork ‘offer something to the Parliament for the encouraging the plantation of English in Ireland’, in particular ‘how our tax [may] be eased’. Fenton made it plain that he considered himself not only the earl’s man in Parliament, but also a representative of the county, adding ‘it is … my very great study and ambition really to contribute some advantage for the country that elected me’.31NLI, MS 13228. Fenton was to be disappointed: Parliament ended ten days later, and the protectorate was dissolved a few weeks later.

The revival of the Rump Parliament, and John Lambert’s* attempted military coup in December 1659 forced Broghill and his friends to wrest control of Dublin from the army in Ireland. Fenton, who had by this time become a captain in Sir Hardress Waller’s regiment, supported Broghill in this action. In January 1660 he joined Broghill, Waller and Sir Charles Coote in opposing the landing by Edmund Ludlowe II* in Dublin Bay; his company assisted Francis Foulke in the capture of the port of Youghal; and in February he signed a declaration by Broghill and the Munster officers in support of the readmission to Parliament of the Members secluded at Pride’s Purge.32Ludlow, Mems. ii. 455; TSP vii. 820; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 112-3, 117, 128; CSP Ire. 1647-60, pp. 695, 700. Fenton was not elected to the Convention that met in Dublin in March, but when Broghill chose to sit for Dublin University instead of co. Waterford shortly afterwards, it was expected that Fenton would replace him, ‘he being recommended by my Lord Broghill and Lieutenant Colonel Foulke to be elected’.33Chatsworth, CM/31, no. 87; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 211, 236n.

Broghill, created lord president of Munster by the council of state in May 1660, negotiated the difficulties of the Restoration period with consummate skill, and Fenton continued to benefit from his influence, which more than offset the disgrace of Sir Hardress Waller in the same period. Fenton and his father were officially pardoned by Charles II in April 1661; his Cromwellian titles, disallowed in 1660, were replaced by a knighthood on 6 December 1660; and a baronetcy by new letters patent was issued to him on 22 July 1662.34CSP Ire. 1660-2, p. 316; CB. Yet Fenton was not to enjoy his own restoration to favour for long. He died in the early summer of 1664, three years before his father’s demise. Fenton’s only son, William, succeeded to the baronetcy, but died before reaching his majority, in 1671. As stipulated under the 1659 entail, at that point the lands reverted to the earl of Cork.35CB.