Francis Aungier, 1st Baron Aungier of Longford (1558–1632), also known as Lord Aungier, was the progenitor of the Earldom of Longford, member of the House of Lords, Privy Councillor for Ireland and Master of the Rolls in Ireland under James I and Charles I.J.E.M., 'Aungier, Francis (1558-1632), of Gray's Inn, London and East Clandon, Surr.; later of Longford and Dublin, Ireland', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament online .
Career Youth and education, 1558-1584 Francis was born in 1558 (baptized 14 May) in Coton, Cambridgeshire, the eldest son (of six) of Richard Aungier, Esq. of Cambridge and his wife Rose, daughter of William Steward.'Anger', in J.W. Clay (ed.), The Visitation of Cambridgeshire made in Ao 1575 (etc.), Harleian Society vol. XLII (1897), pp. 17-18 (Internet Archive). His father Richard matriculated from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1545, becoming an original Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in the following year:"Aungier or Anger, Richard" (1545), in J. Venn and J.A. Venn (comp.), Alumni Cantabrigienses, I Part 1 (Cambridge University Press 1922), p. 32 (Internet Archive).Another Anger was admitted to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1548. See 'A List of the Names, Counties, Times of Admission, Degrees, &c., of All that are known to have been Members of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge', (at p. 3 (HathiTrust)), appended to R. Masters, The History of the College of Corpus Christi and the b. Virgin Mary (called Benet College) (Author/J. Bentham, Cambridge 1753), see Part I, p. 209 and Plate 4.5 (HathiTrust). he was a barrister and a member of Gray's Inn (admitted 1551),J. Foster (ed.), The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889 (Hansard, London 1889), at p. 12 (Richard 1551), p. 51 (Francis 1577), p. 103 (Edward 1602), p. 127 (Garrett 1608), p. 137 (Gerald 1615), (Internet Archive). as well as a substantial landowner. Richard, one of the executors of Thomas Butts in 1592,Masters, History of Corpus Christi (1753), Part II, at p. 258 (HathiTrust). was a benefactor of Corpus Christi College, contributing to the glazing of the old chapel there: his arms (Ermine a griphon segreant azure beaked and membered or) appeared in glass later relocated to the oriel window of the college hall.J. Lamb (ed.), Masters's History of the College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Revised Edition (John Murray, London 1831), p. 269 (Internet Archive). Francis Aungier, his eldest son, attended Westminster School, where he was a Queen's Scholar in 1570; he was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1573, where he matriculated and was admitted scholar in 1574. Admitted to Gray's Inn in 1577, and allowed admittance to his father's chambers in his absence in 1579, he was called to the bar on 17 June 1583.G.F.R. Barker and A.H. Stenning, The Record of Old Westminsters: a biographical list, 2 vols (The Chiswick Press, London 1928), I, p. 35 (HathiTrust).R.J. Fletcher (ed.), The Pension Books of Gray's Inn (Records of the Honourable Society), 1569-1669 (The Chiswick Press, London 1901), p. 35 (Chambers, 1579), p. 57 (called to bar, 1583), p. 100 (graunde company, 1593), p. 158 (Reader, 1602), (Internet Archive). (His brother John Aungier followed in his footsteps to Westminster and Trinity, where he became a Senior Fellow.)
Career in England, 1584-1609 Francis, following his first marriage (at Rushbrooke, West Suffolk in 1584) to Douglas, sister of Gerald FitzGerald (future 14th Earl of Kildare), became member of parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme (1588-1589). By token of his marriage, in 1590 he received the bequest of the rectory of Woking and other property thereabouts from the Countess of Lincoln ("The Fair Geraldine"), proprietor of Hatchlands Park in Surrey, who appointed him executor of her will.Will of Elizabethe Countess of Lincoln, Dowager, widow (P.C.C. 1590, Drury quire). He settled at East Clandon, where he became a friend of Sir William More of Loseley. His signature can be seen as a commissioner, with William and George More, Laurence Stoughton and John Agmondesham, in a 1591/92 warrant for the summons of a Surrey recusant.Papers of the More Family of Loseley (Surrey History Centre, Woking): View image at Folger Shakespeare Library ref. L.b.230 fol. 1r, March, 34 Elizabeth (digital collections permalink). The children of his first marriage were baptized at East Clandon during the 1590s, and he was elected to the "graunde company" (i.e., a Bencher) of Gray's Inn in 1593.
In November 1597 his father, very soon after having been elected Treasurer of Gray's Inn for the third time (previously in 1578 and 1585),'Pension 15th Nov. 38 Eliz.', in R.J. Fletcher (ed.), The Pension Books of Gray's Inn (Records of the Honourable Society), 1569-1669 (The Chiswick Press, London 1901), p. 129, and cf. search terms "Aunger", "Anger", passim (Internet Archive). and being a governing member of that Society of long standing, was murdered in his own chambers."Anger, Francis" (1574), in J. Venn and J.A. Venn (comp.), Alumni Cantabrigienses, I Part 1 (Cambridge University Press 1922), p. 32 (Internet Archive). The body, which had been thrown into the Thames, was recovered and was buried in the chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury at East Clandon on 17 December 1597. Richard Aungier, a younger brother of Francis, was hanged for the crime at Tyburn on 25 January 1598.'Aungier, Francis', History of Parliament online. Extended account in C.H. Cooper and T. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses Vol. II, 1586-1609 (Deighton Bell, Cambridge; Macmillan & Co, London, 1861), pp. 229-30 (Internet Archive). Francis Aungier's youngest child of his first marriage was baptized at very much the same time, and Francis sat in parliament for Haslemere from September 1597 to February 1597/98.
His first wife (Douglas FitzGerald) died in 1600, a year after her brother Gerald had succeeded as Earl of Kildare and member of the Council of Sir George Carew, Lord President of Munster. She was buried in the chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury at East Clandon (according to the register), where, however, John Aubrey found no memorials to the Aungiers. After various negotiations, in August 1600 Aungier sold his freehold lands and properties around Coton, Whitwell, Cambridge, Barton and Madingley to King's College in Cambridge.'Bargain and sale (enrolled 1601)', in Cambridge University: King's College Archive Centre, ref. COT/38 (Discovery Catalogue). In his own profession, Francis became a member of several jurisdictions, justice of the peace for Surrey from 1592/93, and, after becoming Reader of Gray's Inn in 1602, j.p. for Guildford in 1604-1609 .F.E. Ball, The Judges in Ireland, 1221-1921 (John Murray, London 1926), Vol. I, Book III - 1603 to 1690, pp. 244-46, pp. 322-23 (Google). He was a sufficiently gifted lawyer to earn the praise of Francis Bacon. His second marriage, to Anne Barne, a daughter of Sir George Barne the younger and granddaughter of Sir William Garrard, wove into his kinship the most prominent maritime-mercantile and civic families of Elizabethan London, and produced further offspring who were baptized at East Clandon between 1605 and 1609.
Career in Ireland, 1609-1632 In May 1609 he was knighted at Greenwich by King James I, and towards the end of that year the King appointed him to the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland.C.H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, Vol. 3 (Warwick & Co (Printers), Cambridge 1845), pp. 255-56 (Google). He was a commissioner for the Plantation of escheated lands in Ulster proclaimed in August 1610,'38. Proclamation by the Lord Deputy and Commissioners (etc), 20 August 1610', in J.S. Buller and W. Bullen (eds), Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archi-episcopal Library at Lambeth, 6 vols (Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London 1867-1873), V, pp. 61-63 (HathiTrust). and in 1611, with Sir John Denham and others, he compiled the Judges' Report of existing statutes against the extolling, advancement or maintaining of the See of Rome within the Kingdom of Ireland.'113. The Judges' Report (etc), 1611', in Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, V, pp. 197-98 (HathiTrust). By 1611, he was sworn to the Privy Council for Ireland. Early in 1612 the Earl of Kildare died: the King appointed that when Gerald, his newborn heir, should reach the age of five, then Sir Francis Aungier and Donogh O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond should have care of his education.C.W. FitzGerald, The Earls of Kildare, and their Ancestors: from 1057 to 1773, 2nd edition (Hodges, Smith, & Co., Dublin 1858), pp. 228-33 (Internet Archive).'Pat. 5-11 Jas. I: XXVIII.-18 (15 Jul., 10th)', in Calendar of the Patent Rolls of the Chancery of Ireland, of the Reign of James I (Dublin 1800, unfinished), p. 249, col. 1 (Google).
Aungier became very assiduous and indefatigable in the circuits of the Assizes, being noted for his attention to detail and, where necessary, for his severity, by which he helped to implement and enforce the Plantations of Ireland. In March 1613/14, for example, he appears as Justice of Assize and Gaol Delivery for the trial of prisoners in County Cavan, province of Ulster, including one case of treason resulting in execution, but also with many acquittals.'No. 3 - County Cavan, March 1613/14', in J.F. Ferguson, 'Ulster Roll of Gaol Delivery, 1613-1618', Ulster Journal of Archaeology, First Series, Vol. 1 (1853), pp. 260-70, at pp. 266-67 (Jstor reader). He attended the House of Lords in 1614; he served as commissioner for the Plantation of Munster in 1616 and for County Longford in 1620. In March 1615, with Sir John Davies, Attorney-General for Ireland, he conducted that important inquisition by which the spoliation of the liberties and endowments of the city of Limerick (which had been leased among themselves at low rents by members of the Corporation, at the cost of the citizenry), was identified and exposed.M. Lenihan, Limerick: Its History and Antiquities (Hodges, Smith, & Co., Dublin 1866), pp. 138-41 and note 5 (Google). He advised in the inquiry begun under Arthur Chichester into the Earl of Ormonde's title in the liberties of Tipperary in 1615-1616, finding that title to be very weak: under Lord Deputy Oliver St John, as a Council signatory in February 1617 he approved commissioners for the seizure of the liberties of Waterford in readiness for its new royal charter.'170. A Warrant from the Lords Justices (etc): Judges' Opinions, 25 April 1616', and '176. Instructions for the Earl of Thomond (etc.), (21 February 1617)', in Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, V, pp. 328-29 and p. 335 (HathiTrust).