Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barnewall, John
BARNEWALL, JOHN, third Baron Trimleston (1470–1538), was high chancellor of Ireland. The Barons Trimleston, like the Viscounts Kingsland, descend from the De Bernevals of Brittany. Sir Christopher Barnewall of Crickstown, in the county of Meath, was chief justice of the king's bench in Ireland in 1445–46. His eldest son, Nicholas, became chief justice of the common pleas in 1461. His second son Robert was knighted by King Edward IV; and in consideration of the good and faithful services done by him in Ireland to that king's father, he was created by letters patent, dated at Westminster 4 March 1461, baron of Trimleston in Ireland. His son Christopher, the second lord, received a pardon in 1488 for being concerned in the conspiracy of Lambert Simnel against King Henry VII. John, the third lord, succeeded his father Christopher early in the reign of Henry VIII. He rose to high office under that monarch, and received large grants of land from him in Dunleer. In 1509 he was made second justice of the king's bench; in 1522 vice-treasurer of Ireland; in 1524 high treasurer; and in 1534 high chancellor of Ireland, an office which he held till his death. In 1536 he was associated with the lord treasurer Brabazon in an expedition into Offaly, where they expelled from that county the O'Connor, who was then ravaging the Anglo-Irish settlements. The next year the chancellor, commissioned by the lord deputy Grey and his privy council, treated successfully with the O'Neill in the borders of Ulster, securing his submission and the disbandment of his forces. He died 25 July 1538, having been four times married. The ancient barony of Trimleston became extinct in August 1879 by the death of Thomas Barnewall, the sixteenth lord, who left an only daughter, married to Mr. Robert H. Elliot.
[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, v. 36.]