Robert Barnewall

Robert Barnewall, 12th Baron Trimlestown (c.1704 – 6 December 1779) was a prominent Anglo-Irish landowner, active in the Roman Catholic cause.

[2] Barnewall returned home to Trimlestown Castle in Ireland in 1746 when he inherited his title and quickly became known for his stylish living and hospitality, extending generous help to local poor people.

Barnewall saw himself as an inheritor of the Hiberno-Norman establishment but, by the mid 18th century, agitation in the Catholic cause had shifted from the gentry to the rising merchant and professional classes.

An offer that Catholics enlist in the armed forces was rebuffed in 1762, a humiliation compounded when his son Thomas converted to Protestantism.

[2] His health deteriorating, his final political act was to head the list of signatories to the Catholic address of loyalty to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire in 1777.