Family and Education

b. 1556, 1st surv. s. of Sir Nicholas Bagnall by Eleanor, da. and coh. of Sir Edward Griffith of Penrhyn, Caern. educ. Jesus, Oxf. 1572-3. m. Eleanor, da. of Sir John Savage of Clifton and Rock Savage, Cheshire by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 3s. 4da. Kntd. 1578; suc. fa 1590.

Offices Held

Marshal of Ireland 1590; chief commr. for Ulster 1591.1

Biography

Bagnall’s career was spent in military service in Ireland, where he was knighted and, in 1583, obtained the reversion to his father’s office of marshal. His feud with the Earl of Tyrone, following the latter’s elopement with Bagnall’s sister in 1591, culminated in his death in action on the Blackwater.2

Bagnall inherited from his father property in Staffordshire, Ireland and Anglesey, where his estates included Plas Newydd, though it is not certain whether he ever lived in the house. His long absences in Ireland endangered his estates, both in Staffordshire, where he sought Privy Countil intervention to prevent encroachment, and in Anglesey, where his neighbour Owen Holland was later accused of defrauding him in a bargain over adjacent coal-bearing land.3

While on a short leave from Ireland in 1585, Bagnall conceived a desire ‘for my learning’s sake to be made a Parliament man’ He first thought of Anglesey, because of his family connexions with the Bulkeleys. However, the Privy Council was encouraging the return of as many Members as possible of the previous Parliament, so he asked his wife’s cousin, the 3rd Earl of Rutland, for a seat and was returned at Grantham. In the event he was also returned for Anglesey, which he preferred. He was appointed to a committee on the Norfolk election return (11 Nov. 1586).4

When Bagnall was killed on 14 Aug. 1598, his estate was so confused that the Privy Council looked into the matter at his widow’s request. Administration was granted her in 1604.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: H.G.O.

Notes

• 1. DNB; Griffith, Peds. 56-7; W. R. Williams, Parl. Hist. Wales, 2.
• 2. Williams, 2; CSP Ire. 1586-8, p. 53.
• 3. Griffith, 56; APC, xxi. 234-5; xxii. 76-7; UCNW, Plas Newydd and Plas Coch mss; Cal. Wynn Pprs. p. 349; Trans. Anglesey Antiq. Soc. supp. 1915, pp. 22-6; HMC 5th Rep. 416, 419.
• 4. APC, xiv. 228; HMC Rutland, i. 207; Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 80, 179; Griffith, 56; D’Ewes, 399.
• 5. APC, xxix. 144; C142/361/31.