Robert Barnewall

Robert Barnewall, 12th Baron Trimlestown (c.1704 – 6 December 1779) was a prominent Anglo-Irish landowner, active in the Roman Catholic cause. Early life Robert was the eldest son of John Barnewall, 11th Baron Trimlestown (1672–1746). Robert's mother, John's wife and cousin, was Mary or Margaret Barnewall (died 1771), daughter of Sir John Barnewall, Recorder of Dublin and Thomasine Preston, daughter of Viscount Tara. Robert had two surviving younger brothers, including the short-lived soldier Anthony Barnewall, all three being educated privately. Robert travelled abroad extensively in his youth, studying botany and medicine. Return to Ireland Barnewall returned home to Trimlestown Castle in Ireland in 1746 when he inherited his title and quickly became known for his stylish living and hospitality, extending generous help to local poor people. By 1746, Catholics in Ireland were wholly disenfranchised by a series of acts of policy of the British government (see Ireland 1691–1801: The Penal Laws). Barnewall saw himself as an inheritor of the Hiberno-Norman establishment but, by the mid 18th century, agitation in the Catholic cause had shifted from the gentry to the rising merchant and professional classes. Thus, in 1759, Barnewall split with the mercantile Catholics and mounted his own reform campaign but with little initial success. An offer that Catholics enlist in the armed forces was rebuffed in 1762, a humiliation compounded when his son Thomas converted to Protestantism.