Sir George Rawdon, 1st Baronet

Sir George Rawdon, 1st Baronet (1604–1684), of Moira, County Down which he founded, was an English army officer and politician.

Acting as Lord Conway's secretary or agent, Rawdon generally lived in his London house, near St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, but paid frequent visits to his employer's country seats and to his Irish property.

When in Ireland he lived in one of Conway's houses at Brookhill, five miles north-west of Lisburn, commanded a company of soldiers there in 1635, and sat in the Irish parliament of 1639 as member for Belfast.

He found the town held by Sir Arthur Tyringham, with Lord Conway's troop and some badly armed levies.

In their retreat, the Irish burned Brookhill with Conway's library in it and property belonging to Rawdon, who was wounded and had a horse shot under him.

[1] In June 1642 Rawdon served under George Monck in the neighbourhood of Armagh, and again had a horse shot under him in a skirmish with Sir Phelim O'Neill.

[1] After Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658, he was active in preparing for the Restoration, and in June 1659 he made a journey to Scotland to consult Monck.

In May 1665 Rawdon was created a baronet, and in the following year received grants of land, especially the forfeited estate of the O'Laverys in Down, and other property in Dublin, Louth, and Meath.