John Bramhall - in Ireland

In Ireland

He went to Ireland in 1633 with Thomas Wentworth and was archdeacon of Meath. As a royal commissioner he worked to obtain the surrender of fee-farms on episcopal and clerical revenues, recovering church income. He was consecrated bishop of Derry in the chapel of Dublin Castle on 16 May 1634, succeeding the Puritan George Downham. In the Irish parliament which met 14 July 1634, Bramhall had passed of acts for the preservation of church property.

By the Irish convocation which met in November 1634 the thirty-nine articles were approved, in addition to, the Irish articles of 1615. What Bramhall attempted to get the English canons of 1604 adopted in Ireland; there was conflict over this matter between him and James Ussher, ending with the passing of distinct canons, in the compiling of which Bramhall had a share. The ninety-fourth canon, endorsing a policy of William Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, provided for the use of the bible and prayer-book in the vernacular in an Irish-speaking district; this was opposed by Bramhall. In August 1636 Bramhall at Belfast assisted Bishop Henry Leslie against the five ministers who would not subscribe the new canons (see Edward Brice).

He employed the proceeds of his English property in purchasing and improving an estate at Omagh, County Tyrone, in a Catholic area. In the same year he was made receiver-general for the crown of all revenues from the estates of the city of London in his diocese, forfeited through non-fulfilment of conditions of the holding. In 1639 he protected and recommended to Wentworth John Corbet, minister at Bonhill, who had been deposed by the Dumbarton presbytery for refusing to subscribe the assembly's declaration against prelacy. Wentworth used Corbet as a sarcastic writer against the Scottish covenanters, and nominated him to the vicarage of Templemore, in the diocese of Achonry. Archibald Adair, bishop of Killala and Achonry, a Puritan, was tried as a favourer of the Scottish covenant over his views on Corbet. Adair was deposed on 18 May 1640; these proceedings alienated the Scottish settlers. The Irish commons in October 1640 drew up a remonstrance, in the course of which they speak of the Derry plantation as 'almost destroyed' through the policy of which Bramhall was the administrator.

After the English House of Commons had impeached Wentworth (now earl of Strafford) of high treason on 11 November 1640, the Ulster presbyterians drew up a petition to the English parliament (presented by Sir John Clotworthy about the end of April 1641), containing thirty-one charges against the Irish Anglican prelates, and asking that their exiled pastors might be reinstated. Of the Ulster bishops, Bramhall was most in the firing line. The Irish Commons, on the motion of Audley Mervyn and others, 4 March 1641, impeached him, with the lord chancellor, the chief justice of the common pleas, and Sir George Radcliffe, as participants in the alleged treason of Strafford. Bramhall left Derry for Dublin, and took his place in the Irish House of Lords. He was imprisoned and accused of unconstitutional acts ; his defence was that he had equitably sought the good of the church, and that his hands were clean. He wrote, on 26 April, to Ussher in London, and through the king Bramhall was liberated without acquittal: he returned to Derry.