William Skeffington

He crossed over in August 1529, but his power was so circumscribed by instructions from Henry that the head of the Fitzgeralds, Gerald, 9th earl of Kildare, and not Skeffington, was the real governor of Ireland.

In 1534, Kildare being in prison in England and his son Silken Thomas, being in revolt, Skeffington was again appointed Deputy,[3] at approximately 70 years of age.

He was also on the worst possible terms with his future successor as Lord Deputy, Leonard Grey, 1st Viscount Grane, and their quarrels are said to have shortened Skeffington's life.

[1] He married secondly, Anne Digby, the daughter of Sir John Digby (died May 1533) of South Luffenham, Rutland, by Katherine (née Griffin), widow of John Bellers (died 27 January 1476), esquire, and daughter of Nicholas Griffin (died 6 June 1482), esquire, de jure Baron Latimer, by Katherine Curzon,[6][7] by whom he had several children, including a son Leonard Skeffington "who served as a Lieutenant of the Tower of London, as a soldier in Ireland, and as a messenger who regularly represented his father at court".

[1][8] Leonard Skeffington is credited with having invented the "Scavenger's Daughter", a torture device used in the Tower during the reign of Henry VIII.