[1] Sir Christopher was Sheriff of County Dublin in 1560, and is described by Raphael Holinshed, his son-in-law, as 'the lanthorn (i.e. lantern) and light as well of his house' as of that part of Ireland where he dwelt; who being sufficiently furnished as well with the knowledge of the Latin tongue, as of the common laws of England, was zealously bent to the reformation of his country.'
[3] After the death of Mary's eldest brother Henry Bagenal at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598, Patrick was appointed guardian of his children.
Barnewall began to attend the Inns of Court in London, one 'of the evident tokens of loyalty' which led Elizabeth I in November 1582 to make him a new lease of certain lands without fine for sixty years.
Loyal to the English Crown he undoubtedly was, but he had inherited in a great degree both the principles and the disposition of his father and was thus inclined to 'demean himself frowardly' when the true interests of Ireland were threatened by the government, or where he felt the Roman Catholic faith, of which he was a strong and open champion, to be in peril.
In December 1605 he was brought before the Privy Council of Ireland at Dublin on the charge of having organised the petition of the lords and gentlemen of the Pale in favour of those persons who had refused to comply with the enactment requiring attendance at a Protestant church service on Sundays.