Barry, Richard

Barry, Richard (d. 1648), merchant, was second but eldest surviving son of James Barry (d. 1600), merchant, alderman, and sometime sheriff of Dublin (formerly from Arklow, Co. Wicklow), and his first wife Katherine, daughter of Alderman Edmund Barran (Burn). Richard was admitted (1594) to the franchise of Dublin as son of a freeman. He was twice elected sheriff of Dublin (1602, 1604); as he was absent in England on the first occasion, the post went to another. He became an alderman in 1606 – one of what was then a protestant minority of the corporation – and was mayor of Dublin 1610–11, receiving a special grant of £100 for the expenses of office. In April 1613, after three disputed parliamentary elections were held for Dublin, Barry and Richard Bolton (qv) were elected in place of the catholics Taylor (qv) and Allen. Barry was elected again in 1634 and 1640; he appears to have had the support of the lord deputy, Thomas Wentworth (qv). He served as treasurer of Dublin 1616–19 and again from 1635 to his death; was a member of the commission of the peace for Co. Dublin (1624–5); and was recorder of the city five years later. He received a grant of rectories in Kilkenny in 1612, and in 1627 the commission for remedying defective titles granted him in fee the tithes of Little Kilcarne, Co. Meath, and some property in Dublin. Barry made his will on 14 September 1648; his recent death was noted at the corporation meeting on 20 October 1648. He married Anne (d. 1667), daughter of Alderman James Cusack; they had six sons (including James (qv) (1603–73) and three daughters, one of whom, Margaret, married Alderman Robert Ball. Richard and Anne Barry are buried in St Mary's chapel, Christ Church, Dublin.