fitz Anthony, Thomas

fitz Anthony, Thomas (d. c.1227), administrator, first appears in the historical record when he was sent with gold and silver from Ireland to King John (qv) in February 1207. He held lands within the Marshal lordship of Leinster, probably in Kilkenny, as one of his charters granted liberties to the town of Grenagh (now Thomastown). By 1215 fitz Anthony was serving as seneschal of the lordship of Leinster, a post he held till at least 1223. On 3 July 1215 he secured a hereditary grant of all the royal lands in the counties of Waterford and Desmond (Cork); custody of the castle (but not the city) of Waterford; the castle of Dungarvan; and the castle and city of Cork, in return for a yearly payment of 250 marks. In addition, he was given the shrievalty of both counties as a hereditary office, the only such creation in Ireland. The following day, he further secured his position in the south-west by paying a fine of 600 marks for the custody of the lands and heirs of Thomas fitz Maurice of Shanid. Fitz Anthony appears to have resisted the further importation of English settlers into Cork and Waterford, and on at least one occasion had to be ordered not to interfere with the rights of English barons holding lands in Ireland to settle men on those lands. He was active in the expansion of the Anglo-Irish colony, and much of its extension along the Cork coast happened under his leadership. In January 1222 fitz Anthony was granted the temporalities of the dioceses of Ardfert and Killaloe to hold during the vacancy after their bishops had been deposed. His relations with the regency council of Henry III appear to have cooled in 1223 and he was stripped of his lands in Ireland, which were given to John Marshal (d. 1235), marshal of Ireland, on 3 June 1223, as fitz Anthony had not appeared to present the charter by which he held those lands. Although he recovered his lands in Munster by May 1225, he no longer served as seneschal of Leinster. Fitz Anthony died between 19 August 1226 and 27 April 1227, leaving his lands to be divided between his five daughters and their husbands, although the vast majority of his lands eventually came into the possession of his son-in-law, John fitz Thomas FitzGerald (qv) (d. 1261).