Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/267

Pelham  which date they contain little that is of value, except some letters from W. Coxe, to whom Chichester afforded much assistance in getting together material for his lives of Sir R. Walpole and H. Pelham. Other authorities besides those cited are: Lodge's Genealogy of the Peerage; G. E. C.'s Peerage; Doyle's Baronage; Luard's Grad. Cant.; Ret. Memb. Parl.; Ann. Reg. 1826; Append. Chron. p. 265; Parl. Hist. xxv.–xxxvi. passim; Irish Parl. Debates; Lecky's Hist. of England, vols. vii. viii. passim; Auckland Corresp. iv. 198, 234, 342; Windham's Diary, pp. 302, 341, 390; Life and Letters of first Lord Minto, i. 132, 135, 146, 262–3, ii. 56, 389, iii. 205, 217, 337; Lord Colchester's Diary, i. 220, 224, 233, 263, 277–8, 303–6, 420; Barrington's Personal Sketches, i. 180; Public Characters, 1800; Jesse's Memoirs of George III, iii. 269, 303, 318, 376, 379; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, Nos. 8171–2, 14204–5.] 

PELHAM, WILLIAM (d. 1587), lord justice of Ireland, was third son of Sir William Pelham of Laughton, Sussex, by his second wife, Mary, daughter of William, lord Sandys of the Vine, near Basingstoke in Hampshire. His father died in 1538, and Pelham was probably thirty when he was appointed captain of the pioneers at the siege of Leith in 1560. He was specially commended for his ‘stout and valiant endeavour’ on that occasion; but, according to Humfrey Barwick (Brief Discourse), his bad engineering was responsible for the wound inflicted during the assault on Arthur Grey, fourteenth lord Grey de Wilton [q. v.] He commanded the pioneers at Havre in November 1562 under the Earl of Warwick; and, being despatched to the assistance of Admiral Coligny in February 1563, was present at the capture of Caen. Returning to Havre in March, he was wounded during a skirmish with the forces of the Rhinegrave in June. He assisted at the negotiations for the surrender of Havre, and was a hostage for the fulfilment of the conditions of surrender. Subsequently, on his return to England, he was employed with Portinari and Concio in inspecting and improving the fortifications of Berwick. Much confidence was reposed in his judgment, and, being appointed lieutenant-general of the ordnance, he was chiefly occupied for several years in strengthening the defences of the kingdom. He accompanied Henry, lord Cobham, and Secretary Walsingham on a diplomatic mission to the Netherlands in the summer of 1578, and in the following summer he was sent to Ireland to organise the defence of the Pale against possible inroads by the O'Neills. He was knighted by Sir William Drury [q. v.], and, on the latter's death shortly afterwards, was chosen by the council lord justice ad interim.

The situation of affairs in Munster, recently convulsed by the rebellion of James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald (d 1579) [q. v.], and the menacing attitude of the Earl of Desmond [see, fifteenth ] and his brother Sir John of Desmond, obliged him instantly to repair thither. His efforts at conciliation proving ineffectual, he caused the earl to be proclaimed a traitor; but, finding himself not sufficiently strong to attack Askeaton, he returned to Dublin by way of Galway, leaving the management of the war in Munster to the Earl of Ormonde [see, tenth Earl]. His proceeding gave considerable offence to Elizabeth, who was loth to involve herself in a new and costly campaign; and Pelham, though pleading in justification Drury's intentions and the absolute necessity of the proclamation, found no little difficulty in mitigating her displeasure, and earnestly begged to be relieved of his thankless office. It was soon apparent that Ormonde's individual resources were unequal to the task of reducing Desmond, and, yielding to pressure from England, Pelham in January 1580 prepared to go to Munster himself. At Waterford, where he was detained till about the middle of February for want of victuals, he determined, in consequence of rumours of a Spanish invasion, to entrust the government of the counties of Cork and Waterford to Sir William Morgan (d. 1584) [q. v.], and in conjunction with the Earl of Ormonde to direct his march through Connello and Kerry to Dingle, and ‘to make as bare a country as ever Spaniard put his foot in, if he intend to make that his landing place.’ He carried out his intention ruthlessly to the letter, killing, according to the ‘Four Masters,’ ‘blind and feeble men, women, boys and girls, sick persons, idiots and old people.’ Returning along the sea-coast, he sat down before Carrigafoyle Castle on 25 March. Two days later he carried the place by assault, and put the garrison to the sword, sparing neither man, woman, nor child. Terrified by the fate of Carrigafoyle, the garrison at Askeaton surrendered without a blow, and Desmond's last stronghold of Ballyloughan fell at the same time into Pelham's hands.

Fixing his headquarters at Limerick, the lord justice proceeded to carry out his scheme of bridling the Desmond district with garrisons, his object being to confine the struggle to Kerry, and, with the assistance of the fleet, under Admiral Winter, to starve the rebels into submission. Thinking, too, as he said, to strike while the iron was still hot, he 