Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/354

 334 CLONTARFF CLONTARFF VISCOUNTCY [I.] John Rawson, ist s. of Richard R., Alderman, and (1476-77) Sheriff of London, and Master of the I. 1 541 Mercers' Company, by Isabella, da. and h. or coh. to of ( — ) Craford,('') was admitted free of the Mercers' 1 547? Company, 1492, but joined the Order of the Knights of St. John before Sep. 1497, being then mentioned as "a Knight of Rhodes." In 151 1 he was made Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, at Kilmainham, co. Dublin,('') and P.C. [I.], and in 1517 was Lord Treasurer [I.]. In 1522 he was one of the Knights who bravely, but without success, resisted the capture of the island of Rhodes by the Sultan. In 1527 he was Turcopolier of the order, but shortly after- wards returned to his post in Ireland, resigning the Treasurership in 1532. He surrendered into the hands of the King the Hospital of St. John of Jerusa- lem at Kilmainham, 22 Nov. 1 541, receiving a grant of 500 marks annually therefrom, and in accordance with Royal letters, dat. at Windsor, 5 Nov. 1 540, was cr. 20 June 1541, VISCOUNT CLONTARFF,(') co. Dublin [l.for life, with an annuity of ;^io annexed. He was old and impotent in 1 538, and his signature to letters of the Privy Council [I.] does not appear after 1543. He probably d. in 1547, but is usually said to have d. at a great age, in 1560. At his death his life Peerage became extinct. CLONYN See " Greville of Clonyn, co. Westmeath," Barony {Greville-Nugeni), cr. 1869. (') Viscount ClontarfF bore the Arms of Craford, Or on a chevron Vert three ravens' heads erased Argent, quartered with his own, which were Per fess undee Sable and Azure, a castle with four towers Argent, and ensigned over all with a chief Gules charged with a cross Argent, the Arms of St. John of Jerusalem. Crest. Issuing downwards out of a cloud an arm vested Gules cuffed Argent, the hand proper holding an anchor in pale Or. [ex inform. G. D. Burtchaell). V.G. (*>) This Priory was suppressed in 1 541 by Act of Pari. [I.] 33 Hen. VIII, sess. 2, cap. v. About the end of 1557 Queen Mary, although the Act was unrepealed, gave back Kilmainham to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and appointed a Prior, Oswald Massingberd, who fled to the Continent on the accession of Elizabeth. V.G. if) This appears to have been at the recommendation of the Lord Deputy St. Leger, who writes 1 2 Sep. 1 5 40 that " the Lord Kilmainham, Lord of St. John's here," is reported to have, " for the long time of his abode here, been the person which, next to your Majesty's Deputy, hath always kept the best house and English sort, and, at all times when strangers hath repaired thither, feasted and entertained them to your Highnesse's honour." He therefore suggests that his Lordship should be raised to the honour of Viscount Clontarff " which is a place where he entendeth to make his abode ; and to be a Lord of your Parliament and of your Council." See State