Lettice FitzGerald | |
|---|---|
| 1st Baroness Offaly | |
| Born | c.1580 |
| Died | 1 December 1658 |
| Buried | Parish Church of Coleshill, Warwickshire, England |
| Noble family | FitzGerald dynasty |
| Spouse(s) | Sir Robert Digby |
| Issue | Mabel Digby Robert Digby, 1st Baron Digby Essex Digby, Bishop of Dromore George Digby Gerald Digby John Digby Simon Digby MP Philip Digby Lettice Digby Abigail Digby |
| Father | Gerald FitzGerald, Lord Offaly |
| Mother | Catherine Knollys |
Lettice FitzGerald, 1st Baroness Offaly (c. 1580 [citation needed] – 1 December 1658) was an Irish noblewoman and a member of the FitzGerald dynasty. Although she became heiress-general to the Earls of Kildare on the death of her father,[1] the title instead went to the next FitzGerald male heir when her grandfather, the 11th Earl of Kildare, died in 1585. In 1620, she was created suo jure Baroness Offaly by King James I of England.
She was the wife of Sir Robert Digby, a landed English aristocrat by whom she had ten children. They were a notoriously litigious couple, who spent many years asserting their rights before numerous courts, and were quite prepared to accuse even their closest relatives of wrongdoing.[citation needed]
In early 1642, around the age of about sixty-two, her castle of Geashill was besieged by a force of insurgents from the O'Dempsey clan; she managed to hold out against them until October 1642.[2] Her defence has been described as having been the "most spirited episode in the history of the Irish Rebellion of 1641".[3]