page_title: Nicholas Walsh (judge)
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: Nicholas Walsh (judge) / Family
caption_attribution_description: English: Tintern Abbey, Co. Wexford
context_page_description: Sir Nicholas Walsh was an Irish judge, politician and landowner of the late Tudor and early Stuart era. He was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in the Parliament of 1585–86 and a close ally of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir John Perrot. Perrot's downfall did some short term damage to Walsh's career, but he soon regained his influence, as he was noted for his loyalty to the English Crown.
  He was appointed Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1597. He also sat on the Privy Council of Ireland, on which he held an office which has been compared to that of a Minister without portfolio. His loyalty to the Crown led to his narrowly escaping death during a serious riot in 1603.
  He acquired a great fortune and was called "the richest commoner in Munster". He took some interest in traditional Gaelic culture: the well known Irish poem, Labhrann ar Iongaibh Éireann, by Tuileagna Ó Maoil Chonaire, was addressed to him.
context_section_description: His main residence was at Clonmore, County Kilkenny, but, since he was described as "the wealthiest commoner in Munster", this was presumably  only one of his estates. He married firstly Catherine  Comerford, and secondly Jacquetta Colclough, daughter of the Anthony Colclough who bought Tintern Abbey in 1575. Sir Nicholas Walsh the elder founded the dynasty of Walsh of Piltown, Co. Kilkenny. Through his successful and influential roles in the Ormonde administration, he acquired extensive property in Munster in the aftermath of the Desmond Rebellion after 1579.
  He had at least one son, his namesake Sir Nicholas Walsh the younger of Piltown (1590–1643), who is often confused with his father, sometimes being wrongly described as Judge Walsh. On the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Sir Nicholas Walsh the younger (of Piltown and Ballykeroge) became one of the leaders of Confederate Ireland and died fighting to protect his property from  the threatened English plantation. He married Mary Colclough of Tintern Abbey, a niece of his stepmother Jacquetta. His eldest son Thomas (1624–1670), remained at Clonmore until the 1640s: he married  Eleanor, daughter of John de la Poer or Power, 5th Baron Power of Curraghmore and his wife  Ruth Pyphoe, and sister of Richard Power, 1st Earl of Tyrone.
  Through their high level connections the Piltown Walshes, in the person of Thomas, avoided transplantation to Connacht,  which was the fate of most of their neighbours, and by converting to  the Protestant faith and petitioning through the courts, Thomas  succeeded in retrieving much of his father's lost property, which passed on his death to his eldest son John.  The family used the suffix 'of Piltown' into the 18th century when the senior line of descent became extinct with the death of Col. Robert Walsh at Bath in 1788. However, recent research shows that at least one lesser cadet branch, the  Walshes (or Welshes) of Canty and Woodstock, Co. Waterford, continued in occupation of Piltown lands into the late 19th century.
caption: Tintern Abbey, Wexford, home of Nicholas Walsh's second wife Jacquetta Colclough.
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