The Vesey Family

John Vesey

John Vesey
John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam
image from Memoirs of the Binghams p132 (Rose E. McCalmont, 1915)
Birth: 10 March 1637, in Coleraine, county Derry, Ireland

Father: Thomas Vesey

Mother: Alice (Walker) Vesey

Education: Trinity College Dublin
Alumni Dublinenses p839 (ed. G. D. Burtchaeli and T. U. Sadlier, 1935)
VESEY, JOHN. D.D. Dec. 7, 1672. [Archbishop of Tuam 1678.] Vice-Chancellor 1713. See D.N.B.  

Alumni Cantabrigienses part 1 vol 4 p300 (John Venn, 1927)
VEZEY, JOHN. M.A. 1664 (Incorp. from Trinity College, Dublin). S. of Thomas, Archdeacon of Armagh. B. Mar. 10, 1638, at Coleraine. School, Westminster. D.D. (Dublin) 1672; Vice-chancellor, 1713. Chaplain of the Irish House of Commons, 1661. Archdeacon of Armagh, 1662-3. Dean of Cork, 1667-72. Treasurer of Cloyne, 1667-73. Preb. of Lisclery (Cork), 1667-9; of Ballyhea (Cloyne), c. 1669; of Kilpeacon (Limerick), 1667-73. Bishop of Limerick, 1673-9. Archbishop of Tuam, 1679-1716. Warden of Galway, 1684. Fled from Ireland during the Revolution, 1688-9; lecturer for some time in a London church. Author, sermons, etc. Died Mar. 28, 1716, aged 79. Buried at Holly Mount, Co. Mayo. Ancestor of Viscount de Vesci. Father of Dennis (1693). (H. B. Swanzy; Al. Dublin; Leslie, Armagh Clergy, 151; D.N.B.)  

Married (1st): Rebecca Wilson in June 1662
Rebecca was the daughter of _____ Wilson of Cork House, county Dublin.

Children: Married (2nd): Anne Muschamp
Anne was the daughter of Colonel Agmondesham Muschamp and his wife Anne Denny.

Children: Occupation: Clergyman
John was Archbishop of Tuam

Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae vol 1 p196 (Henry Cotton, 1847)
CORK DEANS.
1666/7. JOHN VESEY, M.A. a native of Coleraine, (lineal ancestor of Viscount de Vesci), was educated at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1661 he became Chaplain to the House of Commons; and in 1662 was made Archdeacon of Armagh, and soon afterwards a Prebendary of Cloyne. He was presented to this deanery on February 3rd, and was instituted on the 4th of the following November; on which day he was also collated to the Treasurership of Cloyne. In 1672 he was advanced to the See of Limerick; and in 1678 was translated to that of Tuam.
p329
LIMERICK BISHOPS.
37. 1672/3. JOHN VESEY, D.D. (ancestor of the Viscounts de Vesci, and of Lord Vesey Fitzgerald) was a native of Coleraine, and was educated at Westminster School, and at Dublin University. He became Chaplain to the House of Commons, and was made Archdeacon of Armagh, and afterwards Dean of Cork, and Treasurer of Cloyne. He was promoted to this bishopric by patent dated January 11th, and was consecrated on the following day. In 1678 he was translated to the archbishopric of Tuam.
vol 3 p46
ARMAGH ARCHDEACONS.
1662. JOHN VESEY (son of his predecessor, a lineal ancestor of the Viscount de Vesci) was educated at Westminster School. He became Chaplain to the House of Commons. He was admitted on October 16th. (F.F.) In 1667 he became Dean of Cork and Treasurer of Cloyne; and in 1672/3 was raised to the bishopric of Limerick.
vol 4 pp15-6
TUAM ARCHBISHOPS.
1678-9. JOHN VESEY, D.D. Bishop of Limerick, succeeded by patent dated March 18th; and was enthroned on May 16th. [D. Reg.] In September, 1684, he was appointed Warden of Galway. During the tyranny of Lord Tyrconnell under King James II. he was forced to fly from Tuam; and with his wife and twelve children retired to England, and for some years employed himself as a lecturer in one of the city churches of London. At the Revolution he returned to his diocese. He presented to the cathedral the greatest portion of its communion-plate; and by his will he left valuable benefactions, both to his diocese and to the poor. He died on March 28th, 1716, in the seventy-ninth year of his age; and was buried at Holymount, his place of residence.
  He left behind him the following works:
  1. The Life of John Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh (prefixed to an edition of his works). folio. Dublin, 1678.
  2. An Assize Sermon, on Psalm cxxii. 6. 4to. London, 1683.
  3. A Sermon preached at Windsor before the King. 4to. London, 1684.
  4. A Sermon addressed to the Protestants of Ireland in London. 4to. London, 1689.
  5. A Sermon before the Houses of Parliament. 4to. Dublin, 1692.

Armagh Clergy and Parishes p51 (James B. Leslie, 1911)
    ARCHDEACONS.
1662—John Vesey, M.A., coll. Oct. 16, Archdeacon and R. Aghalow and Carnteel (F.F.T.). [These Rectories were the corps of the Archdeaconry from 1637 to 1870].
  He was the son of his predecessor the last above-named Archdeacon Thomas Vesey. Born at Coleraine. Educated at Westminster School and TC.D. Married Rebeca Nelson (? Wilson). M.L. dated June 4, 1662; was ord. D. and P. before the canonical age. Became Chaplain to the Irish House of Commons; R. Ighturmurrow and Shandrum (Dio. Cloyne) and V. Rathgonil (Charleville) 29 June, 1661; Dean of Cork, 1667-'72; Preb. Lisclery (Cork), 1667-'9; Treas. of Cloyne, 1667-'73; Preb. Ballyhay (Cloyne) circa 1666; Preb. Kilpeacon (Limerick), 1667-'73; became Bishop of Limerick in 1673, and in 1679 was promoted to the Archbishopric of Tuam. In Sep., 1684 he was appointed Warden of Galway. He fled from Ireland during the Revolution of 1688-'9, and for some years acted as Lecturer in one of the London churches. He returned in 1689. He died March 28, 1716, in his 79th year, and was buried at Hollymount, Co. Mayo. He bequeathed valuable benefactions to the Diocese of Tuam. Most of the Communion Plate in Tuam Cathedral is his gift. He wrote a Life of Abp. Bramhall, and also published several sermons (See also Cotton's Fasti III, 246, and IV, 16, and Peerages under De Vesci). Mr. Garstin, V.P.R.I.A., has a large collection of genealogical notes, &c., relating to the Vesey family.
p165
    CARNTEEL.—(Co. Tyrone.)
  Rectors.
1662—John Vesey, Archdeacon and R. of Aghalow, coll. Oct. 16 (F.F.T.).

Notes:
The Peerage Of Ireland vol 6 p33 (John Lodge, 1789)
John Vesey, D.D. was born at Colraine 10 March 1637; and, through various preferments in the church, was advanced to the united sees of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe 11 January 1672, whence he was translated to the archbishoprick of Tuam 18 March 1678, and was sworn of the privy council; but being obliged to fly into England, as many others did, to escape the confusions of K. James’s reign, he found a safe retreat in London, till the revolution restored him to his bishoprick. In the years 1712 and 1714 he was three times one of the lords justices of the kingdom; but deceasing at his seat of Holymount, in the county of Mayo, 28 March 1716, was there buried, and having had a numerous issue, was succeeded by his eldest son

History of the University of Dublin pp391-2 (William Benjamin Sarsfield Taylor, 1845)
JOHN VESEY was born at Coleraine, in the county of Derry, March, 1637. He was first sent to Westminster School, from whence he was admitted to this University, where he took the degree of A.M., and in 1661, he was appointed chaplain to the House of Commons; in 1672, he commenced D.D. With other preferments he held the Archdeaconry of Armagh, in which his father succeeded him! when he was made Dean of Cork. He was appointed to this see in January, 1672, and translated to the Archbishopric of Tuam, in March 1678. He was forced to fly from Ireland during Tyrconnell's government. He went to London, where he served a lectureship of forty pounds per annum. He was afterwards, three different times, appointed one of the Lords Justices of Ireland; the last of these appointments being in 1714, conjointly with Robert Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, and William King, Archbishop of Dublin. During this prelate's lifetime, his son Sir Thomas Vesey, Bart., was successively appointed Bishop of Killaloe and of Ossory. He died in March, 1716, and was interred at Holymount, his place of residence. He left a number of legacies for most laudably charitable purposes; and, long before his death, he gave twenty pounds to provide a new silver mace for this college.
  The Archbishop wrote much, but we have only met with the following printed works by him :—
  The Life of Primate Bramhall, &c. 1 vol. Dub. 1678.—A Sermon preached before the King (William III.) at Windsor, 1691.—Another Sermon, of great merit, preached to a large congregation of exiled Irish Protestants in London, 1690.—A Sermon, equally powerful and appropriate, preached before the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and both Houses of Parliament, in Christ Church, Dublin, 1692.
  The Rev JOHN VESEY, A.M., of this College, published a volume of excellent Sermons in Dublin, 1683.  

Dictionary of National Biography vol 58 pp290-1 (Sidney Lee, 1899)
  VESEY, JOHN (1638-1716), archbishop of Tuam, born at Coleraine on 10 March 1638, was the only son of Thomas Vesey sometime presbyterian minister, afterwards rector of Coleraine. His grandfather, William, a scion of the house of De Vescy in Cumberland, was the first of his family to settle in Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth. John was educated at Westminster school and Trinity College, Dublin, where he proceeded M.A. in 1667 and D.D. in 1672. He had already, it is said, (WARE, i. 516), before attaining canonical years, been ordained deacon and priest by John Lesly, bishop of Raphoe in the time of the Commonwealth. In 1661 he was appointed chaplain to the House of Commons in Ireland, and on 29 June presented to the rectories of Ighturmurrow and Shandrum in the diocese of Cloyne. Being also vicar of Rathgonil, alias Charleville, in the same diocese, he was instituted archdeacon of Armagh on 16 Oct. 1662; but he held the appointment only for a short time, being succeeded by his father on 9 May 1663 (COTTON Fasti, iii. 46). On 3 Feb 1667 he was created dean of Cork and treasurer of Cloyne, and from thence advanced to the joint bishoprics of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe on 11 Jan 1673; he was consecrated the following day in Christ Church, Dublin, by Michael Boyle, archbishop of Dublin, assisted by the archbishop of Armagh and the bishops of Killaloe and Ossory. On 18 March 1678 he was translated to the archbishopric of Tuam; but his retention of the ‘quarta pars episcopalis,’ or fourth part of the tithes of most of the parishes in his diocese, in defiance of an arrangement begun by the Earl of Strafford but interrupted by the outbreak of the rebellion and confirmed by the act of settlement (WARE, Works, i. 619), drew forth a petition against it on the part of his clergy; he induced them, however, to withdraw it by promising to surrender the ‘quarta pars’ in exchange for the wardenship of Galway whenever it became vacant. This it shortly afterwards did, but though Vesey obtained a commendatory grant of the same, he avoided the fulfilment of his promise, and it was indeed not until Edward Synge [q.v.] became archbishop of Tuam in 1716 that the clergy reaped any benefit from Strafford's arrangement.
  During the troublesome times that ensued in consequence of the innovations in church and state by Richard Talbot, duke of Tyrconnel [q.v.], Vesey suffered great hardships at the hands of the native Irish, who plundered his cattle, regarding certain improvements he continued to make to his palace, and especially a steeple he erected on his cathedral, ‘wherein he intended to place six bells at his own charge,’ as sure signs of his affection to the cause of William of Orange (Short Sketch of the Methods, &c., p. 17). He was deprived of the wardenship of Galway; but it was only when deeming his life to be in peril that he abandoned his charge, being, with Bishop Richard Tenison [q.v.], the last to quit the province. He sought a retreat with his wife and twelve children in London, where he obtained a small lectureship worth 40l. a year. His name was included in the list of those proscribed by the parliament of James II; but, returning after the revolution to his diocese, he preached before the lord lieutenant and both houses of parliament in Christ Church, Dublin, on 16 Oct 1692; and six days later moved to present a vote of thanks to King William for the great care he had taken of Ireland in venturing his person for its reduction. He was included in the commission for the government of Ireland during the absence of the lord lieutenant in 1712 and 1714, but in the latter year was incapacitated from acting through sickness. He died on 28 March 1716 at his residence of Holymount, about nine miles from Tuam, a commodious and comfortable house built by himself, at that time, ‘one of the pleasantest places in Ireland,’ surrounded by a park and garden in the laying out of which he had taken great delight. He was buried there, and John Wesley, visiting the place in 1755 (Journal, ii. 324-5), copied from a stone pillar in the garden the following touching inscription"
  Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens
  Uxor, cum numerosa et speciosa prole,
  Chara charæ matris sobole;
  Neque harum quas colis arborum
  Te præter invisam cupressum
  Ulla brevem dominum sequetur.
  Besides three single sermons, Vesey published ‘The Life of John Bramhall, Archbishop and Primate of all Ireland;’ prefixed to an edition of Bramhall's works, Dublin, 1678.  

Dictionary Of Irish Biography
Vesey, John
by John Bergin
  Vesey, John (1638–1716), Church of Ireland archbishop of Tuam, was born 10 March 1638 in Coleraine, the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Vesey (see below). He was educated at Westminster School and was apparently ordained deacon and priest under the protectorate (and thus while under the canonical age) by John Leslie (qv), bishop of Raphoe. Either he or his father was the ‘Mr Vesey, clerk’ who was appointed chaplain to the Irish house of commons in May 1661. He first appears in the records of TCD when awarded the degree of DD in 1672; but must have taken his MA there before 1664, in which year he was incorporated MA at Cambridge on the basis of his Dublin degree. He became rector of Ightermurragh and Shandrum in the diocese of Cloyne in 1661, and was archdeacon of Armagh, 1662–3, and dean of Cork from 1667. He enjoyed the patronage of the earl of Orrery (qv) from at least 1663, and was his chaplain by 1668.
  He was appointed bishop of Limerick in 1673 and was translated to the see of Tuam in 1679, where he met controversy over the quarta pars archiepiscopalis, or quarter part of the tithes of the clergy of the diocese used to support the archbishop. The clergy petitioned the lord lieutenant and privy council in 1682 to have the quarta pars restored to them, but Vesey persuaded them to drop their claim. He promised that – provided the government would grant to him the wardenship of the collegiate church of St Nicholas in Galway (on the death of the aged occupant, Dr James Vaughan) – he would relinquish the quarta pars. Vaughan died in 1684 and Vesey was granted the office but managed to persuade the clergy that he should enjoy the quarta pars for the remainder of his life.
  In 1688 the corporation of the church of St Nicholas surrendered its charter; a newly constituted catholic corporation elected its own warden, and a dispute with Vesey commenced. Vesey gained a hearing at the privy council, where he had an unfriendly encounter with the lord chancellor, Sir Alexander Fitton (qv), and got no satisfaction. The lord deputy, the earl of Tyrconnell (qv), took the view that the archbishop should be left to pursue his rights at common law. Vesey also found himself in disputes with the remodelled corporations of the towns of Tuam, Galway, and Athenry.
  As the political climate in the reign of James II (qv) became more menacing for protestants, the archbishop fled with his family, probably late in 1688, to London. (He was no stranger to England, having spent the years 1683–6 there, returning to Ireland only at the summons of the lord lieutenant, the earl of Clarendon (qv).) He was in London at least from April 1689 to April 1690, being appointed ‘lecturer’ at St Mary Aldermary in Bow Lane in September 1689, and apparently supporting his family with the salary of £30 or £40 a year. He was a leading member of the community of Irish protestant exiles and was one of a committee chosen by them in October 1689 to represent their concerns to the English government. In December 1689 Vesey was said to have procured £5,000 for the exiled Irish clergy.
  On his return to Ireland he found that the cathedral church and archbishop's house at Tuam had been destroyed. In 1695 he proposed legislation to raise funds for the rebuilding of the cathedral and house. A bill to move the see to Galway resulted, but this was eventually defeated in 1697, probably in part at least because of the opposition of the corporation of Galway, now restored to protestant control but still jealous of certain rights it possessed in the corporation of the church of St Nicholas.
  In 1676 he published an edition of the works of John Bramhall (qv), which he prefaced with a biography. In contrast to his father's flirtation with presbyterianism, Vesey in the dedication – addressed to Archbishop Michael Boyle (qv) – scorned ‘the non-conformity of this present age’ as ‘the most absurd of any’. Dissent, he asserted, by promoting divisions among protestants, served the interests of Roman catholics. Vesey also published several sermons. His intellectual interests extended beyond theology, for he joined the Dublin Philosophical Society after its revival in 1693.
  Vesey was an active member of the house of lords, with tory sympathies. He was appointed to the Irish privy council in 1684, omitted in 1685, but reappointed in 1704. He was one of the lords justices of Ireland in 1712–13 and 1714–15, and was vice-chancellor of TCD in 1713–14.
  He married first (1662) Rebecca Wilson, daughter of a Mr Wilson of Cork House, Co. Dublin, with whom he had a son and a daughter. His first wife died about 1665 and he married secondly Anne Muschamp, daughter of Agmondesham Muschamp and his wife Anne Denny. There were five sons and five daughters of the second marriage. When in the diocese of Tuam, Vesey resided in the archbishop's house and, after the war, built a house on his own estate at Hollymount, Co. Mayo. He also had a residence near Maryborough in Queen's Co., where he and his brother-in-law Denny Muschamp (qv) had simultaneously acquired property. He died 28 March 1716, and was buried at Hollymount.
  Many of Vesey's descendants were clergymen of the Church of Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but none achieved the eminence of his eldest son, Sir Thomas Vesey (1673–1730), 1st baronet, bishop of Ossory, who sat with his father on the episcopal bench. Thomas, the only son of his father's first marriage, was born at Cork. He was educated at Eton, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1689, graduating BA in 1693. He was made a fellow of Oriel College (1695) and took his MA in 1697 and his DD at a date unknown. He married (1698) his cousin Mary (d. 1746), only surviving child and heir of Denny Muschamp, whose great property holdings thus passed to the Vesey family. Thomas was in 1698 created a baronet, and was ordained deacon in 1699 and priest in 1700.
  He became archdeacon of Tuam on 25 June 1700 (the day after his ordination), and was rector of Clonenagh, in the diocese of Leighlin, 1703–13. He was chaplain to the second duke of Ormond (qv), during his second viceroyalty, 1711–13, and was created LLD honoris causa of TCD in 1712. He was made bishop of Killaloe in 1713 and translated to Ossory in 1714. In addition to ecclesiastical affairs, his interests extended to the management of the parliamentary borough of St Canice in Kilkenny and an iron-mining enterprise at Glanballyvalley in Co. Kilkenny. He died 6 August 1730 in Dublin. He was succeeded in his estates and baronetcy by his only son, John Denny Vesey, who was subsequently created Baron Knapton and was father of the 1st Viscount De Vesci. Sir Thomas also had two daughters, the younger of whom was Elizabeth Vesey (qv).
  The archbishop's second son (and the eldest son of the second marriage), Agmondesham Vesey (1677–1739), politician, was returned to the Irish house of commons for Tuam in 1703, sitting for the borough in every parliament until his death (his brother William also represented the borough from 1715 to 1750). An active parliamentarian and a tory, he found himself in opposition after 1714. He was created LLD speciali gratia by TCD in 1709. He married first (1696) Charlotte Sarsfield, daughter and sole heir of William Sarsfield of Lucan, Co. Dublin (and natural granddaughter of Charles II). He claimed, on behalf of his wife, the Sarsfield estates which, on the death of William in 1675, had passed to his brother Patrick Sarsfield (qv) and, on the latter's attainder, were forfeit to the crown. He was eventually permitted to purchase them at a low valuation. He married secondly Jane, daughter of Captain Edward Pottinger, and widow of John Reynolds MP and of Sir Thomas Butler MP.
  The eldest son of this second marriage was Agmondesham Vesey (1708–85), politician and architect. He entered TCD in 1726 (he did not take a BA, but was created LLD in 1741) and the Middle Temple in London in 1729. He was a member of the house of commons for Harristown, Co. Kildare, 1740–60, and Kinsale, 1765–83, accountant and controller general from 1734 to his death, and a member of the privy council from 1776 to his death. He was a distinguished amateur architect, who designed his own residence of Lucan House, Co. Dublin. He married his cousin Elizabeth Vesey.

Publications:
Athanasius Hibernicus or, the Life Of  the most Reverend Father in God John, Lord Archbishop of Ardmagh printed in in The works of the most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall D. D. (John Vesey, 1677)

A Sermon preach'd to to the Protestants of Ireland in and about the City of London at At Mary le Bow in Cheapside, Octob. 23, 1689.

A Sermon preached before His Excellency the Ld Lieutenant and the Two Houses of Parliament, in Christ Church, Dublin, On Sunday October 16 1692

Death: 28 March 1716, at Hollymount, Kilcommon, county Mayo, Ireland

Burial: Hollymount, Kilcommon, county Mayo, Ireland
A topographical dictionary of Ireland p839 (Samuel Lewis, 1840)
   KILCOMMON
The old church, which was in Hollymount, was a chapel of ease, built in 1688 by Archbishop Vesey, who was buried in it, and was made the parish church on the church of Kilcommon becoming ruinous.

Will: proved 1716

Sources:

Lettice (Vesey) Hart

Father: Thomas Vesey

Mother: Alice (Walker) Vesey

Married: Merrick Hart
Merrick was baptised on 7 April 1628 in St Stephen Coleman Street, London, the son of Captain Henry Hart and Frances Bosville. He died in 1680 and his will, dated 14 March 1680, was proved on 21 July 1681.
The Family History of Hart of Donegal p106 (Henry Travers Hart, 1907)
      WILL OF MERRICK HART, 1681.
  I, Merrick Hart of Crover in co. Cavan, Esq., to be buried in parish church of Bellemhugh (?) in barony of Clanmoghan. My will is that my lands of Caulin, together with the rest of my real estate in sd Barony, be managed by my dear wife Mrs Lettis Hart during her widowhood, or until she can raise the amount out of ye Rents, issues & profits of sd estates the sum of £500 to be equally divided between Lettis Hart, Jane Hart, Ann Hart, Mary Hart, Elizabeth Hart, Henry Hart, & John Hart in lieu of their portions, and in case of any of my aforementioned children shall die before they receive their portions then their share to descend to the remainder of my children. My eldest son Thomas Hart, now of Middle Temple, London, shall have £30 yearly paid him out of my estates towards ye mainteyning of him in ye sd Inns of Court, or until he begin to ... in ye practice of a Councillor at law & no longer. And when sd Thomas Hart shall be able to pay the intire som of £500 into ye hands of my dear wife, ye most Rev. ye Archbishop of Tuam & my nephew Henry Hart of Muffe in co. Donegall for ye use & ... of my above mentioned children, then my eldest son Thomas shall have my estates in ye Barony of Clanmoghan, co. Cavan. Executors: Wife, Archbishop of Tuam & nephew Mr Henry Hart of Muffe. 14 March 1680.
  Sealed with coat of arms and crest as mentioned in Chapter II., p. 9, line 34, et seq.
  Witnesses" Sam Townley, Henry Waldrom, William Brooker, William B ...
  Proved 21 July 1681.

Children: Notes:
Lettice and her son, Thomas, were named in "An Act for the Attainder of Divers Rebels, and for Preserving the Interest of Loyal Subjects" passed by the Irish Parliament in 1689, in which his lands were forfeited.
The state of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's Government p236 (William King, 1713)
   And whereas several Persons hereafter named, (viz.)
... Lettice Hart of Conlin in the County of Cavan, Widow;
... are and for some time past have been absent out of this Kingdom; and by reason of Sickness, Nonage, Infirmities, or other Disabilities, may for some time further be obliged so to stay out of this Kingdom, or be disabled to return thereunto. Nevertheless, it being much to the weakening and impoverishing of this Realm, that any of the Rents or Profits of the Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments therein, should be sent into, or spent in any other Place beyond the Seas, but that the same should be kept and employed within the Reałm for the better Support and Defence thereof.
  BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED, by the Authority aforesaid, That all the Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments, Use, Trust, Possessìon, Reversion, Remainder, and all and every other Estate, Title, and Interest whatsoever, belonging or appertaining to all and every of the Persons herein before last mìentioned, within this Kingdom, be and are hereby vested in your Majesty, your Heirs and Successors, to the Use of your Majesty, your Heirs and Successors.
  PROVIDED always That if any Person or Persons in the next foregoing Clause mentioned, have hitherto behaved themselves Loyally and Faithfully to your Majesty; that then if they, or any of them, their or any of their Heirs, do hereafter return into this Kingdom, and behave him or themselves as becometh Loyal Subjects; and do, on or before the last day of the first Term next ensuing, after such their Return, exhibit his of their Petition or Claim before the Commissìoners for execution of the said Acts, if then fitting, or in his Majesty's High Court of Chancery, or in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, for any such Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments, and make out his or their Title thereunto, and obtain the Adjudication and Decree of any of the said Courts, of and for such his or their Title, That then, and in such Case, such Adjudication and Decree shall be sufficient to all such Person and Persons, for devesting and restoring such Estate, and no other as shall be therein and thereby to him or them adjudged and decreed; and that the Order of any of the said Courts shall be a sufficient Warrant to all Sheriffs, or other proper Officers to whom the same shall be dìrected, to put such Person or Persons in the actual Seizin and Possession of the said Lands, any thing in this Act contained, or any other Statute, Law, or Custom whatsoever to the contrary in any wise nowithstanding.

Sources:

Theodore Vesey

Birth: 1640/1, in Coleraine, county Derry, Ireland

Father: Thomas Vesey

Mother: Alice (Walker) Vesey

Education: Trinity College Dublin
Alumni Dublinenses p840 (ed. G. D. Burtchaeli and T. U. Sadlier, 1935)
VESEY, THEODORE, Pen (at Coleraine Sch.), Apr. 30, 1658, aged 17; s. of Thomas, Minister; b. Coleraine. Sch. 1660. B.A. Æst. 1664.

Children: Occupation: Clergyman
Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross vol 1 p179 (William Maziere Brady, 1864)
KILNAGLORY.
1676. April 5. THEODORE VESEY, P Kilnaglory. [F.F.] He appears 1677 to 1681. [V.B. D.R.]
  “1681. The church and church-yard of Kilnaglory to be repaired, and thirty-eight pounds to be raised for that purpose, by distress, if need be.” [Cork Presentments.]
  Theodore Vesey (son of Rev. Thomas Vesey) was born at Coleraine, where he received his education; and at seventeen years of age he entered T.C.D. as a Pensioner, on 30th April 1658. He was a Scholar in 1660.
  From 1666 to 1669 he was V. Clonmeen, Roskeen, and Kilshannig; and from 1666 to 1676 P. Cooline, in Cloyne. From 1669 to 1682 he was V. Kinsale, and R.V. Rincurran. From 1670 to 1682 he was R. Taxax; from 1675 to 1682, P. Lackeen, in Cloyne, and from 1676 to 1682 P. Kilnaglory. He died, in 1682, the incumbent of four livings.
  Theodore Vesey was brother to John Vesey (Dean of Cork, q.v.), Archbishop of Tuam, and ancestor of the Lords DE VESCI.
  Theodore was married, and had a son, Theodore born at Kinsale in 1672, who entered T.C.D. in 1692.

p233
RINCURRAN.
1669. July 23. THEODORE VEASIE, V. Kinsale, and R.V. Rincurran als Ryconran, both vacant per mortem Jonæ Stawell. [V.B. 1669] He appears 1669 to 1681. [V.B. D.R.]
  In 1676 Vesey became P. Kilnaglory, q. v.

Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae vol 1 p222 (Henry Cotton, 1847)
CORK PREBENDARIES.
    8. KILNAGLORY.
 1675. THEODORE VESEY,  M.A. a Prebendary of Cloyne; admitted May 1st [or 5th April, 1676 (FF.)]
p351
LIMERICK PREBENDARIES.
    2. DONOGHMORE.
 1673. THEODORE VESEY, M.A. collated July 18th. (FF.) (Probably the same person who was a Prebendary of Cork, and afterwards of Cloyne.)

Death: August 1682
A letter dated 25 September 1682 mentions that Theodore had died "almost a month past" and that he was "for his health here absent in England".
Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Ormonde, K.P. part 4 pp592-3 (1906)
  1682, September 25. King's Weston.—When your Grace was the last summer at Charles Fort, you took notice of the ruined walls of the parish church of Rincorran there adjoining. And soon after I proposed in a petition to His Majesty the rebuilding thereof in a more convenient place, if the advowson might be conferred on me. Whereupon your Grace, being first consulted, was pleased to order Mr. Ellis to tell me that I should have your Grace's consent if the Bishop of Cork said nothing to oppose therein. At that time Mr. Vesey, the minister of Kinsale, who held this living also, (and that as well by presentation from the late Lord Bishop as from His Majesty, because the title was uncertain), he was for his health here absent in England; so as I could not consult him as I wished touching the King's right, in order to lay the same before the Bishop. But as soon as I got light into it I did; and his Lordship taking time to search and consider thereof, I now received his answer by the last post, and he gives me his free consent to proceed in my petition as your Grace by his letter will see. While I was in expectation of the Bishop's answer, I did at Sir Nicholas Armorer's motion, promise to Hignett, now chaplain of Charles Fort, that I would present him in case I did succeed. For Mr. Vesey, the incumbent, was thought to be a dying man. And so it happened that Mr. Vesey died almost a month past, and I am told that Mr. Meade (brother to Sir John Meade) was thereupon hastening to obtain Rincorran from my Lord Deputy, as well as another place called Taxanon held also by Mr. Vesey, Kinsale being given by the Bishop to one Mr. Lapp. But I would not move until I had the Bishop's answer and resolution in this matter, as your Grace had directed; and it coming now in favour of my suit (which I look upon as depending for a year), I hope Mr. Meade by stepping in will not disappoint Mr. Hignett, and, indeed the rebuilding of the church: for I shall be loath to meddle about a reversion after one that may be near twenty years younger than myself. If your Grace think fit to cause a stop to be put to Mr Meade's presentation, so far as concerns Rincorran, and to approve of my proceeding in the way I was for, I will then presume to present my petition to His Majesty, and to procure thereon a reference to your Grace; and I will attend till I receive direction by Mr Gascoigne herein. 

Will: proved 1682
Theodore is listed as "Vesey, Theodorus, Kinsale, clk."

Sources:

Thomas Vesey

Father: William Vesey

Mother: _____ Ker

Education: Trinity College Dublin
Alumni Dublinenses p840 (ed. G. D. Burtchaeli and T. U. Sadlier, 1935):
VESEY (VEZEY), THOMAS, English. Sch. Nov. 6, 1624. B.A. Æst. 1625. Fellow by mandate 1627. [Rector of Camus juxta Bann (Derry) Apr.16, 1634. Archdeacon of Armagh 1661-62 and 1663-69; died 1669.]   

Married: Alice Walker

Children: Occupation: Clergyman
Thomas was appointed rector of Maghera and Ballyscullion from 1629 until 1634 and rector of Camus and Moycosquin (Camus and Moycosquin in county Derry, rather than Camus juxta Morne as is identified in some sources. An 1840 lawsuit discussed the reasons for this identification - see Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Common Pleas and Exchequer Chamber in Ireland vol 1 pp494-5 (1840)) from 1634 until 1661, then Archdeacon of Armagh from 1655-1662 and 1663-1669. Thomas was also vicar of Dundalk in county Louth and rector of Heynestown, county Louth, from 1665.

Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae vol 3 p46 (Henry Cotton, 1849)
ARMAGH ARCHDEACONS.
1655. THOMAS VESEY was Archdeacon, and also Rector of Ballinascullen, and of Maghera, and afterwards of Camus juxta Morne, all in the diocese of Derry. In this year, 1655, he had a pension of £120 a year from the Government. [Lodge's Peerage.]
1662. JOHN VESEY (son of his predecessor
...
1663. THOMAS VESEY (see above), instituted May 9th. (FF.) Ware states that he succeeded his own son in this dignity. [Bishops, p.516.] 

Armagh Clergy and Parishes pp50-1 (James B. Leslie, 1911)
    ARCHDEACONS.
1655—Thomas Vesey appears. He had this year £120 salary from the Commonwealth Government (Lodge MSS.), and on 7 July, 1656, he got £20 increase of salary on his petition that he had a large family, had been expelled from his parish and robbed in the beginning of the rebellion and had preached in Coleraine ever since (Comm. Papers, A/21, Orders for Money, P.R.O.).
  He was R. Maghera and Ballyscullion 1629-34, and R. Camus 1634-61. He was probably obliged to take refuge in Coleraine during the rebellion, and as the parish was then vacant on account of Mr. Redshaw's death he seems to have remained there (Reid's Hist. Presby. Church I, 444). Adam, quoted by Reid (I 443, 244; see also II 154, 179) says “the first who [in Coleraine] publicly entered into the Covenant, was the preacher in that town, Master Vesey;” he took the oath, but “not ever joined himself to the Presbytery” ... “he was highly prelatical in his heart and not sound in his principles”! At the Restoration he was coll. R. Coleraine in 1661. He became R. Killowen (Derry) on 9 Oct., 1662, resigning this Archdeaconry; but he held Killowen only one year. He was V. Dundalk 1665-9. His son John succeeded him as Archdeacon, but res. in 1663, when Thomas Vesey was again made Archdeacon. T. Vesey was the son of William V., a scion of the house of De Vesey in Cumberland and one of the first of the family to settle in Ireland, and ancestor of Viscount de Vesci (see Peerages). The D.N.B. in its biography of his son, Abp. John V., incorrectly describes his father as “Sometime a Presbyterian Minister, afterwards Rector of Coleraine,” which suggests that he received Presbyterian Orders. He was sometime a Commonwealth Minister of Religion, but not a Presbyterian Minister. His son Theodore (Ent. T.C.D. April 30th 1658 aged 17; ob. 1682) was R. Kinsale 1669-82. See also Dundalk.
...
1663—Thomas Vesey is again coll. Archdeacon and R. Aghalow and Carnteel May 9 (F.F.T.).
  In March, 1668, “The Archdeacon, Dr. Vesey, an aged grave man, £200,” appears in the List of Churchmen in Ireland S.P.I. 1666-9, p. 674.
p280
    DUNDALK.—(Co. Louth.)
  Vicars.
1665—Thomas Vesey, inst. Mar. 16 to V. Dundalk, R. Heynestown and V. Haggardstown (F.F.T.). He got a Patent after the Restoration granting him a house and garden for residence in Dundalk (P.R.); was also Archdeacon of Armagh. See Archdeacons.
p309
    HEYNESTOWN.—(Co. Louth.)
  Rectors.
1665—Thomas Vesey, coll. Mar. 16 to Heynestown, etc.. See Dundalk.

Ulster Journal of Archaeology p256 (1895)
Maghereragh [NOW MAGHERA].  Sti Lourochij.
1629, 9 Decr., Thomas Vesey (?) B.A. Dublin, 1625. Fellow T.C.D. 1627. He was also R. Ballyscullen. In 1634 he became R. of Macosquin, and in 1655 Archdeacon of Armagh. He was direct ancestor of Viscount de Vesci.

A History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland p256 (James Seaton Reid, 1853)
Of the ministers in Ulster, not being Presbyterians, who enjoyed salaries from Cromwell's government (see Appendix), I find no less than eleven of these pensioners receiving benefices from the prelates. Thomas Vesey, admitted rector of Coleraine or Templepatrick [sic in MS.] September 26, 1661

Notes:
The Peerage Of Ireland vol 6 p33 (John Lodge, 1789)
William Vesey, having the misfortune to kill a man in a duel, fled to Scotland, where he married a daughter of the family of Ker of Cesford, ancestor to the duke of Roxburgh; after which, in the reign of Q. Elizabeth, he settled in the North of Ireland, and was father of an only son, the Rev. Thomas Vesey; who, 29 December 1629, was collated to the rectories of Ballineskully and Magheragh, in the county of Derry, and in 1634 to the rectory of Camus super Morne in the said county; was minister of Colraine, and archdeacon of Armagh, and in 1655 had 120l. a year allowed him by the government.

Dictionary Of Irish Biography
  Thomas Vesey (d. c.1669), clergyman, was born in Coleraine, the only son of William Vesey, originally of Newland in Cumberland, who came to Ireland (after an interval in Scotland) in the reign of Elizabeth. His mother, whose first name is unknown, was of a Scottish family called Ker of Cessford. He graduated BA from TCD in 1625 and was imposed on the college as a fellow by the lord deputy, Lord Falkland (qv), in controversial circumstances in 1627. He became rector of Maghera and of Ballyscullion in the diocese of Derry in 1629, and rector of Camus-juxta-Bann or Macosquin in 1634. He took refuge in Coleraine during the rebellion of 1641, and wrote an account of this period for his bishop, John Bramhall.
  His religious affiliations during the interregnum were complex. He appears in 1644 among some members of the Church of Ireland who took the Solemn League and Covenant; he fell out with the presbytery, accusing it of introducing foreign jurisdiction, in 1645, but was reconciled in 1652. In 1654, however, he was a salaried minister under the Commonwealth. He was archdeacon of Armagh in 1655, and was one of an advisory committee of eight ministers summoned to Dublin in February 1660 to assist the convention. He was the leader of the successful, ‘prelatical’, faction within the committee against Patrick Adair (qv), who sought to have the Covenant ratified by the convention. Either he or his son John was the ‘Mr Vesey, clerk’ who was appointed chaplain to the Irish house of commons in May 1661. He became rector of Coleraine in 1661, and was rector of Killowen in Derry, 1662–3, and vicar of Dundalk, 1665–9. He resigned as archdeacon of Armagh in 1662, to be succeeded by his son but, on his son's resignation in 1663, was reappointed.
  His wife, whose first name is not known, was a daughter of the Rev. Gervase Walker and a sister of George Walker, a Yorkshire native who was a close associate of Bramhall, chancellor of the archdiocese of Armagh, and father of George Walker (qv), the defender of Derry. They had seven children, of whom the eldest surviving son was John Vesey.
  The manuscript of Thomas Vesey senior's account of the rebellion of 1641 and its aftermath is in TCD Dublin, MS 866. The De Vesci papers, a very rich family archive, are now in the NLI. The Sarsfield–Vesey papers in the NAI are another family collection, in which the legal proceedings over the Sarsfield estate feature largely and which are calendared in PRI rep. D.K. 56 (1931).

Death: 1669

Will: proved 1669

Sources:
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