Esmonde thereupon repudiated her, denied that their union had been legal, and married the twice-widowed Ellice, or Elizabeth Butler, daughter of the Hon.
[1] In December 1606, he succeeded Sir Josias Bodley as governor of the important fort of Duncannon, a post which he held until his death in 1646.
In 1619, having purchased a grant of certain lands in Wicklow from Sir Patrick Maule, Esmonde became involved in a transaction known as the case of Phelim MacPheagh O'Byrne, which was generally thought to reflect discredit on him.
[4] Stafford, who was a formidable, even at times a terrifying personality, and was then at the height of his power, had the charge dismissed and brought a counter-suit for libel.
Esmonde was one of many of the Anglo-Irish nobility who helped to bring Strafford down, by supporting the impeachment, which led to his attainder for treason and execution, only to see their own prosperity and security destroyed in the ensuing Irish Rebellion of 1641.
[5] After the outbreak of the English Civil War, he seems to have tried to maintain a neutral position between King Charles I and the English Parliament; but by 1646 the suspicions of the Irish Confederacy as to his loyalty had been aroused by the fact that many of his officers and soldiers were Roundheads and had broken the "Cessation" (the truce which had been signed between the King and the Irish Confederates).
The place was "extremely decayed with age;" but though "the governor (Esmonde) was old and unable to act anything in this exigence," "the defendants behaved themselves exceeding well".
The next day, a relief force from the English Parliament appeared in the river, but finding the place in enemy hands, immediately sailed away.
Esmonde, surviving the surrender of Duncannon by only two months, died at Adamstown, and was buried at Limbrick (present-day Killinierin) in a church he had built himself.