Henry was born in about 1600, probably at Templeogue, County Dublin, the second son of Robert Talbot and his wife Eleanor Colley.
Richard Talbot (died 1577) of Templeogue, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas,[3] MP and judge, was one of his great-grandfathers.
[4] His mother was the second daughter of Henry Colley, of Carbury Castle, County Kildare, by his second wife, Catherine Cusack.
[17] In August 1642, Talbot together with John Dongan went to see Charles I in England and then stayed there and fought for him in the English Civil War.
However, he was acquitted after being found to be an "innocent Papist", allowing him to recover his estates, which had been confiscated by the English Republic during the Cromwell era.