The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Plukenet : or De Plugenet, from Plouquenet, near Rennes, in Brittany. Alan de Plugenoi occurs in Oxfordshire 1158 (Rot. Pip.) and Hugh de Plugenet, of the same county, in 1201 (Rot. Cancellarii). He married Sibill, daughter of Jose de Dinant, and acquired Lamborne in Berkshire: his son Alan in 1219 paid one hundred marks for livery of Lamborne. Another Sir Alan, his descendant, fought on the King's side at Evesham, and received as his reward one of the manors forfeited by the rebels, with the custody of Dunster Castle in Somersetshire. Of another promised recompense he was, however, disappointed. "Eustachia, the widow of Nicholas de Cantilupe, having married William de Ros, although the King had promised her to Alan Plunkenett, William de Ros was decreed to pay reasonable amends (rationabiles emendas) and two hundred marks was accordingly paid as the value of the lady."—Blaauw's Barons' War. In 1272 he succeeded his mother's brother, Robert de Waleraund, in the Herefordshire barony of Kilpeck, and had summons to parliament from 1295 to 1297. "He distinguished himself in the Welsh wars; nor was he less eminent in other ways. By his skill a large portion of the Haywood, hitherto uncultivated, was redeemed and bears to this day the name of Alansmore, and the Abbey of Dore (where he was afterwards buried) was enriched by a grant of the advowsons of Lugwardyne, with the chapels of Hentland, St. Weonards, Llangarren, and Little Dewchurch, appertaining to it. He died in 1299, and was succeeded by his son of the same name, a combatant in the Scottish wars, and in 1311 a Baron of Parliament. He obtained a charter for a weekly market and yearly fair at Kilpeck. On his death without issue in 1325 his sister Joan, wife of Edward de Bohun, became his heir; but she also died childless."—The Castles of Herefordshire and their Lords, by C. Robinson.

It was probably the nephew of this last Lord Plugenet that founded the family still existing in Ireland, though their pedigree declares that they are of Danish origin, and were seated at Bewley (Beaulieu) in co. Louth as early as the eleventh century. It must, however, be owned that there is a suspicious minuteness in the first dates given:—John Plunket, obt. August 3rd, 1082: Walter, or William, his son, obt. October 17th, 1085. They at all events bear the bend of the Lords Plugenet; and about 1332, John Plunket, presumed to be the nephew of the second Lord, was living at Bewley, and there founded a church with his wife Alicia. From his eldest son, John, descend the Barons of Louth; from the second, Richard, the Earls of Fingall and Lords Dunsany.

John's successors, seated at Bewley, and afterwards as Kilsaran, were frequently Sheriffs of the county; and in 1541 Sir Oliver Plunket received from Henry VIII. the title of Baron of Louth. His grandson Patrick was killed by Mac Mahon during a cattle foray in 1575; and the next heir, Oliver, "was appointed to have the leading of the shire of Louth," in 1593, when there was a great gathering of Plunkets at "the general hosting of the hill of Tara;" Lord Louth bringing, with the Plunkets of the barony of Ardee, six archers on horseback, and Lords Killeen and Dunsany twenty-four horsemen, for the barony of Skrine. In the ensuing century, Oliver sixth Lord, joined the rebellion in 1639 and was outlawed in 1642; whereas his son Matthew followed Charles II. in his exile, and received at the Restoration, in addition to his sequestrated Irish estates, "sundry other lands under the act of grace," and a pension from the Crown. Yet he, too, suffered outlawry in 1689, when loyalty to the House of Stuart had become treason to the new dynasty; and his successor Oliver could obtain no reversal of the sentence, and was incapacitated from taking his seat among the Irish peers. The next two heirs remained titular Barons of Louth; but the title has been since restored, and is now borne by the fourteenth Lord.

The younger branch was the more distinguished of the two. "These Plunkets in Ireland," says Camden, "have been very eminent ever since Christopher Plunket (a person of great valour and wisdom who was deputy to Richard Duke of York, Viceroy in Henry VI. time) was raised to the dignity of Baron of Killin, which came to him by his wife, as heir to the family of the Cusacks." Sir Christopher was Sheriff of Meath prior to 1442, and had married the only child of Sir Lucas de Cusack, Lord of Killeen, Dunsany, and Gerardstown in that county. All his three sons founded families. The eldest was the ancestor of the Earls of Fingall; the second, Sir Christopher, was the first Lord Dunsany; and the third, Sir Thomas, had to wife the heiress of Rathmore, which remained the home of his descendants. His son Sir Alexander "a person of great account," was appointed Chancellor of Ireland in 1492.

Of the Lords Killeen there were ten in regular succession; the last of these, Lucas, styled Lucas More, received the Earldom of Fingall from James I., in 1628. Yet, only thirteen years after that, all his three sons were in arms against their Sovereign; and Christopher, second Earl, having changed sides more than once during the Civil War, was seven times indicted and outlawed, and died a prisoner in Dublin Castle. His successor, pleading that he himself was only two years old when the rebellion broke out, recovered his rights; but Peter, the fourth Earl, was again outlawed for his loyalty to James II. This fresh outlawry was taken off in 1697, having lasted only six years; and since then the title has been transmitted in undisturbed sequence to the present time.

The barony of Dunsany certainly dates from 1438, in which year we find Sir Christopher styled Dominum de Dunsany; and, according to Camden, was conferred upon him for his "great worth and valour" by Henry VI. Dunsany, fifteen miles from Dublin, where he had his castle, is still the seat of his posterity, and had come to him from his mother. His descendant, Randall, eleventh Lord, was, like the rest of the Plunkets, outlawed for his adherence to James II.; and though restored to his estates by the treaty of Limerick, his seat in Parliament remained forfeit till the time of his grandson, who in 1791 claimed and was allowed it. He is now represented by the sixteenth Lord.

Another peerage was granted in 1827 to William Conyngham Plunket, a very eminent lawyer, who rose through every step in his profession to be Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1830. He took the title of Baron Plunket of Newton, co. Cork, now borne by the fourth Lord. His coat of arms is differenced by a portcullis from that borne by the Lords Louth, Fingall, and Dunsany, which is—strangely enough—in all three instances precisely the same, without mark of cadency or distinction of any kind.

The old baronial name is retained by the village of Wearn-Plugenet, and Preston-Plucknett, in Somersetshire.