Life
Francis Lavalin Nugent (1569-1635), Irish friar; Sir Charles Edmund (?1759-1844), admiral of the fleet, 1833; Christopher Nugent (d.1731); soldier in France after capitulation at Limerick, 1691; served in Flanders, Germany, Italy; succeeded to command of Sheldon’s brigade and changed its name to Nugent’s; commanded at Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Maplaquet; marechal de camp, 1718; Christopher Nugent, ed. France, physician (fl.1775); Sir George Nugent (1757-1849), field-marshal; served in America, lieut.-col., 1873; accompanied guards to Holland, 1793; raised corp from Buckinghamshire, and MP Bucks., 1790-1800; Lieut.-Gov., Jamaica, 1801-06; baronet, 1806; comm.-in-chf. India, 1811-13; general, 1813; GCB, 1815; John Nugent, fifth Earl of Westmeath (1672-1754, br. of Thomas Nugent, 4th Earl; present at Batttle of Boyne and Limerick, went to France 1691; served with army of Flanders to 1705; served with French; major in German army, 1720; brigadier, 1740; marechal de camp, 1744; succeeded to earldom, 1752; d. Nivelles; Lavall Nugent, Count Nugent (1777-1862) [also in DIB], prince of Holy Roman Empire; Austrian engineer corps, 1793; came to England, 1812; visited Wellington in Spain, 1813; fought in north of Itlay, 1813, lieut. gen. 1814; hon. KCB, 1815; south of Italy, 1815-16; comm. Neapolitan army, 1817-20; magnate of Hungary, 1826; organised reserve corps during revolts of 1848-49; captured Essig, secured the Danube, and unsucccessfully beseiged Comorn; field-marsal 1849; d. Bosljeco, nr. Karlstadt; Nicholas Nugent (d. 1582), chief justice of pleas, common bench of Ireland; uncle of Sir Christopher Nicholas (1544-1602), crown solicitor, 1566; arrested on treason charges, 1582, hanged, his death attributed to private malice of Sir Robert Dillon (d.1597); Sir Richard Nugent, 10th baron Delvin, lord deputy of Ireland, 1444 (d.?1460); Richard Nugent, 12th Baron Delvin, active against Irish chiefs, d. leading expedition against O’Conor, with whom he was one time captive (d.?1538); Richard Nugent, poet (fl.1604); Sir Richard Nugent, 15th Baron (1583-1642), arrested, escaped, recovered favour, Earl of Westmeath, 1621; refused to join rebels, 1641; Sir Richard Nugent, 1st [var. 2nd] earl of Westmeath, led troop of horse for Charles I, submitted to parliamentary commissioners, 1652; raised regt. for Spanish service, 1653; arrested on suspicion, recovered estates and liberty, 1660 (d.1684); Robert, Earl Nugent [as infra]; Thomas Nugent (1656-1715), titular Baron of Riverston, chf. just. of Ireland; James II councillor, 1685; commissioner of the empty Irish treasury, 1689; fought at Boyne and Limerick with James II at the Boyne; also at Limerick; succeeded as 4th Earl, 1714; Thomas Nugent, misc. writer and trans. of Montesquieu (?1700-1772); William Nugent (d.1625), rebel, br. of Sir Christopher; driven to rebellion by severity of Lord Grey; escaped to Rome, 1582; returned, and formally submitted; accused Sir Robt. Dillon of mal-adminstration.
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References
Hyland Cat. No. 214 lists F. X. Martin, Friar Nugent, A Study of Francis Lavalin Nugent, 1569-1635 (Rome 1962).
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Notes
A John Nugent of Castle Nugent Culambre was br. of Grave Nugent, the object of Carolan’s poem, cited as such in a letter of Charles O’Conor to J. C. Walker (see Letters, ed. Ward & Ward, 1988, p.455.)
Irish Poetry, Nugent MS of Irish Bardic Poetry, an Elizabethan “duanaire”, containing nearly fifty poems in Gaelic dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries; manuscript written on vellum throughout by one or possible two accomplished professional scribes, with use of ornamental capitals, the manuscript now comprising 48 leaves, some having been removed, an early set of foliation extending to 55; two distinct physical sections [Pt. I: ff. 1r-21v; Pt. II: ff.22r-48v]; containing some 49 poems (some incomplete), entitled An Duanaire Nuinseannach’, with some later notes in an eighteenth-century hand on f.21v. recording births of various members of the Nugent family, 96pp., vellum throughout, some membranes defective, orig. so, where holes of imperfection were deliberately excised, or rough hewn, corners or margins trimmed on ff.1-4, 8-9, 11, 22, 37, and lacking a portion of f.27, one leaf f.39 detached, the pages browned and stained throughout, with some patches of illegibility espec. on ff.1-2; some later annotations, now bound with a quantity of vellum and paper leaves incl. 13 pp. of family notes of the 18th and 19th centuries, modern vellum gilt boards, oilskin wrappers, 4to (c.9x7 inches) [c.1577]. One of the rarest MS to appear in modern times, the last having been the Book of Armagh, offered for sale in London in 1831; there are no early Irish MSS in America; probably the last example of Irish book production in any medieval form ever likely to be offered for public sale; this codex represents the last link in chain of book production that stretches to at least the 7th century, and of graphic design possibly the oldest in the world; the Nugent MS is written on thick primitive vellum in square format in long lines of insular quarter uncials (known also as Irish majuscule); opening of each line set apart from text with majuscule letter infilled with ochre; approx. 40 large calligraphic initials, formed of great sweeping clubbed strokes bursting into spirals and infilled with yellow, a style of ancient design older than the Romans and prob. older than Greek art, which survived the Roman occupation of northern Europe only on the very rim of the world, in Ireland and the outer islands of Scotland and Scandinavia; direct parallels with ancient metalwork and stone carving; gloriously and spectacularly resurrected when Christianity reached Ireland before the rest of northern Europe; e.g., Cathach of St. Columba of 650 a.d. and Book of Durrow a century later, and on into the Book of Kells, c.800; MSS in Ireland became vested with magic and superstition in their strange haunting spiralling forms; Irish style became rapidly diluted and cross-fertilised with Roman art and Carolingian script when Christianity crossed into England and on to Germany; died out in Franco-Saxon courts of 10th century; back in Ireland, like some living fossil [Sotheby’s sic] or ancient dialect in a remote valley, Irish book production escaped the reforms of Charlemagne and Alfred and managed to survive against all odds; Irish MSS are rare in absolute terms throughout all the Middle Ages but script and decoration never changed; majuscule longest-lasting scrip in Europe other than Hebrew; contents of Book of Nugent look back nostalgically [sic] to an Ireland of the remote Dark Ages, and its scribes still preserve (only just and it its last form) the ancient Irish techniques and styles of book illumination uncontaminated by Enland and continental Europe. [Sotheby’s Catalogue, Dec. 1997.]
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