Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/278

 a parliament (Clarendon Correspondence, ii. 710).

Nugent's demeanour on the bench was not dignified, and we are told that in a charge to the Dublin grand jury he expressed a hope that William's followers would soon be ‘hung up all over England’ in ‘bunches like a rope of onions’ (, Two Pages of Irish History, p. 43). He was holding the assizes at Cork when James landed at Kinsale in March 1688–9, and ordered the Bandon people who had declared for William III to be indicted for high treason (, p. 214). Nugent was all for severity, but General Justin MacCarthy [q. v.] overawed him into respecting the capitulation (ib.). Nugent was specially consulted by James at his landing, Avaux and Melfort being present (Journal in, i. 174).

In the parliament which met on 7 May 1689 Nugent, being called by writ on the opening day to the barony of Riverston, sat as a peer, and on the 13th introduced a bill for the repeal of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation [see ]. He took an active part in the House of Lords, and frequently presided. In July he was made a commissioner of the empty Irish treasury, and the commission was renewed in 1690, a few days before the battle of the Boyne. Nugent was at Limerick during or soon after William's abortive siege, and acted as secretary in Nagle's absence from September till the following January. He was accused by the Irish of holding secret, and from their point of view treasonable, communication with the Williamites, and even of a plot to surrender Limerick (Macariæ Excidium, p. 102; Jac. Narr. p. 272). But this may only have arisen from the fact that he was a personal adherent of Tyrconnel, who did not wish to defend Limerick. At the capitulation he had a pass from Ginkel to go to his lands.

Nugent was outlawed as a rebel, but his lands remained in the family; he died in 1715, having married in 1680 Marianna, daughter of Henry, viscount Kingsland, and leaving issue two sons and several daughters. The Earl of Westmeath is his lineal descendant. His title of Riverston, though void in law, was borne by his descendants until it merged in the earldom of Westmeath. There is a full-length portrait of him in his robes by Lely, in the hall at Pallas, co. Galway, along with Ginkel's autograph letter and other of his papers. 

NUGENT, THOMAS, fourth (1656–1752), born in 1656, was the second son of Christopher, lord Delvin, eldest son of Richard Nugent, second earl of Westmeath [q. v.] His mother was Mary, eldest daughter of Richard Butler, esq., of Kilcash, co. Tipperary, and niece of James, first duke of Ormonde. According to Lodge, he had a pension of 150l. in the reign of Charles II. He married in 1684, and after travelling for a few years returned to Ireland, and was given the command of one of Tyrconnel's regiments of horse. In the parliament held by James II at Dublin in 1689 Nugent was called to the House of Peers, although he was under age and his elder brother Richard was still alive. The latter, who succeeded his grandfather as third earl in 1684, had entered a religious house in France, and died there in April 1714.

Nugent served with King James's army at the Boyne and at the sieges of Limerick. His name is chiefly connected with these sieges. Story mentions him as one of those officers who left the horse camp outside Limerick on 25 Sept. 1691 during the cessation of hostilities, and dined with Ginkell while on their way into the city. On the following day he was sent into the English camp as one of the hostages for the observance of the articles of the capitulation.

He was present, though not as a member of the court-martial, at the trial of Colonel Simon Luttrell for his conduct during the siege, and not only urged his acquittal in spite of the efforts of Tyrconnel to procure a condemnation, but exculpated him from the charge of having allowed the British troops to throw a bridge over the Shannon, the real blame of which he threw upon Brigadier Clifford, who was in command at the spot in question, while Luttrell was in Limerick Castle (Macariæ Excidium, ed. O'Callaghan, p. 484; cf. ). On 2 Dec. 1697 Viscount Massareene reported from the committee appointed to inspect the journals that ‘Thomas, earl of Westmeath, was indicted and outlawed 11 May 3 William and Mary (1691), but hath since reversed his outlawry’ (Journals of the House of Lords, i. 675).

Westmeath died, aged 96, on 13 June 1752 (Lond. Mag. and Monthly Chron. 1752, p. 331). By his wife Margaret (d. 1700), only daughter of Sir John Bellew, lord Bellew, he had two sons and nine daughters. Two only of the latter survived him. The elder son, Christopher, lord Delvin, having died unmarried at Bath on 17 April 1752, and the younger being previously deceased, the title passed to John Nugent, his father's younger brother, who is noticed separately. 