Patrick FitzLeones

Patrick FitzLeones (died after 1495) was a prominent citizen of fifteenth century Dublin, who served three times as Mayor.

The FitzLeones were a long-established Dublin family: in 1281 Geoffrey FitzLeones and his wife Johanna assigned the rent from their lands to the convent of the Holy Trinity. Clement Fitzleones, Attorney General for Ireland, and subsequently King's Serjeant, who died about 1509, may have been Patrick's cousin. Patrick was Mayor in 1477-8, 1482-3 and 1494-5. His term as Mayor was not entirely free from controversy: in 1491 Dublin Corporation ordered him to hand over the Garter, an ornament attached to the Great Sword of State, which had been presented to the citizens of Dublin in 1403 by King Henry IV of England, and which was carried by the Mayor on ceremonial occasions. He had previously been fined for buying silver without paying a tax of 40 shillings per pound, contrary to a statute of 1449. He was clearly a man of considerable wealth: he acquired a house on High Street, Dublin in 1473, and a garden nearby.

His wife was a member of the prominent Eustace or FitzEustace family, whose head was Baron Portlester. He had one daughter, Margaret, the second wife of John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimlestown, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Sources

• Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Register of Wills and Inventories of the Diocese of Dublin in the time of Archbishops Tregury and Walton 1457-1483 from the original manuscript in Trinity College Dublin edited by Henry F. Berry Dublin 1898

• Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archaeological Society Summer Meeting 13-22 July 1931