Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 4: Delvin (PROPOSED CORRECTIONS)

DELVIN

Volume 4, page 173 (as modified by volume 14):
He [Christopher Nugent, Baron of Delvin (d. 1478)] is said to have m. Elizabeth (or Anne), da. of Robert (PRESTON), 1st VISCOUNT GORMANSTON [I.].
...
He [Richard (Nugent), Baron Delvin [I.], son and heir of Christopher] m. Isabel, da. of Thomas FITZGERALD (2nd s. Of Gerald, EARL OF KILDARE [I.]).

There are severe chronological difficulties with this version:

• It is difficult to see Richard as a grandson of Robert Preston. Richard was summoned to the Irish Parliament in 1486, whereas Robert Preston's grandson and eventual successor Jenico was 30 in 1532, and left a son and heir born around 1537 [Complete Peerage, vol. 6, p. 22].
   
• It seems impossible for Richard's father-in-law to have been the second son of Gerald, [8th] Earl of Kildare. Gerald's eldest son was born about 1487 [Complete Peerage, vol. 7, p. 232], whereas Richard's grandson was born about 1523 [Complete Peerage, vol. 4, p. 173]. On this basis, the supposed Thomas FitzGerald would have been born less than 36 years before his great grandson.

Brice Clagett, in September 2004, suggested an alternative reconstruction, in which Richard's wife Isabel was the daughter of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald (d. 1487), younger brother (not younger son) of Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, by his wife, Elizabeth Preston, daughter of Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston. (In this case Christopher Nugent could clearly not have married Elizabeth Preston.)

[The version above was questioned by John Higgins in September 2004.
Item last updated: 8 November 2004.]