850 years of Prendergasts changing history

Enniscorthy Castle, County Wexford, Ireland.
Built circa 1205 by Philip de Prendergast.

In 1169, Knight Maurice de Prendergast joined Strongbow, formally Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, in the Norman invasion of Ireland from Prendergast, Havorfordwest, Wales. It took only one year for the invaders to oust the Danish lords from Irish control.

For Prendergast's service to the invasion, he was awarded land in southeast Ireland, across the Irish Sea from Wales. His son Lord Philip de Prendergast began construction on Enniscorthy Castle in 1201. It passed to Philip's son Gerald de Prendergast who died in 1251, and then passed to his son-in-law Maurice Rochford whose descendants lived in the castle until 1418. The castle remained a private residence until the 1950s. It is now a museum, which I visited with my sister Bette in 2014.

Founder of Enniscorthy Castle.

From the 1400s to the 1600s, the Prendergasts remained as landowners and Jacobites. My family's branch of the Prendergasts was originally established at Newcastle, county Tipperary, but they were dispossessed of much of their land in the mid-17th century as England was beset by Civil War. English Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell destroyed many Irish towns and castles whose residents supported the Royalists. 

Thomas Prendergast (died 1725) of Croane, County Limerick had five children: of Juliana Brabazon, Countess of Meath; Elizabeth Smyth; Jeffrey Prendergast and Thomas Prendergast, 1st Baronet of Gort and Brigadier General, plus a fifth unidentified child. I am descended from Jeffrey.

Thomas Prendergast 1st Baronet raised the ire of the Catholic church in Ireland and many others on the Emerald Isle when he converted to Protestantism, then withdrew from and revealed a Jacobite assassination plot against King William III. Thomas was rewarded by the king with his baronetcy and lands in Gort and Clonmel.

King William III of England awarded a baronetcy
to my 7x great uncle Thomas Prendergast in 1696
after Prendergast revealed an assassination plot
against the king.

Many of Thomas' former allies and Jacobites held great contempt for him. Most well known among his adversaries was author and poet Rev. Jonathon Swift. He gained lasting fame for his novel "Gulliver's Travels." But Prendergast and his son, Thomas 2nd Baronet, knew Swift best for his scathing poems against them, like "On Noisy Tom" and "The Legion Club."

Jeffrey, brother of Thomas 1st Baronet, also had a son named Thomas Prendergast who married Mary. Her family name is unknown. They lived in Counties Tiperary, Waterford and possibly Wexford and had three children -- Thomas, John and William. Thomas was the oldest (1719-1802) and later relocated to Dublin. John's dates of birth and death are unknown. William, from whom I am descended, was born in 1727 in County Waterford and later lived in Wexford.

Since he wasn't the oldest son and thus would not inherit property from his father, William faced a decision of whether to stay in Ireland. Given the political and religious turmoil facing Ireland and his family as well, it is understandable why William would not stay. So at the take-on-the-world age of 21, William left Ireland (possibly alone) for America. He likely last stepped foot on Irish soil at the Crescent Quay in Wexford that I will visit tomorrow.

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