David Roche, 7th Viscount Fermoy

David was born about 1573,^[1][2][3] probably in Castletownroche, County Cork, Ireland. He was the only surviving son of Maurice Roche and his first wife, Eleanor FitzGerald.^[4] His father was the 6th Viscount Fermoy (also counted as the 1st). His father's family, the Roches were Old English and descended from Adam de Rupe who had come to Ireland from Wales with Robert FitzStephen.^[5]

His mother was a daughter of Sir Maurice fitz John FitzGerald of Totane, younger brother of James FitzJohn FitzGerald, 13th Earl of Desmond^[6] and third son of the de facto 12th Earl of Desmond.^[7] She also was a sister of James FitzMaurice FitzGerald, the "archtraitor", who led the first Desmond Rebellion. Her family were the FitzGeralds of Desmond, a cadet branch of the Old English Geraldines, whose senior branch were the FitzGeralds of Kildare.

Despite these family relations, his father and grandfather fought against the insurgents in the Desmond Rebellions during which two of his paternal uncles were killed.^[18][19] His father succeeded his grandfather as the 6th Viscount Fermoy in 1581 or 1582. David was about ten in 1583 when the Desmond Rebellions ended with the killing of Gerald FitzGerald, the rebel earl.^[20]

His mother was still alive in 1590, but she predeceased his father, who remarried to Catherine FitzGerald, third daughter of the rebel earl by his second wife, Eleanor Butler.^[21]

Before 1593 Roche married Joan, daughter of James de Barry, 4th Viscount Buttevant, by his wife Ellen MacCarthy Reagh.^[22] His wife's family, the de Barrys, were Old English like his own and descended from Philip de Barry, who had come to Ireland from Wales in 1183.^[23]

David and Joan had five sons:

1. Maurice (1593–1670), who succeeded as the 8th Viscount Fermoy^[24]
2. John, deaf and dumb, died unmarried^[25]
3. Theobald, married Julia, daughter of Dominick Sarsfield, 1st Viscount Sarsfield, but had no issue^[26]
4. Ulick, married Gyles (Cecilia) daughter of John O'Conor Kerry, of Carrigfoyll, County Kerry^[27]
5. Redmond, accompanied St. Leger to Waterford in 1641 to submit the insurgents.^[28]

—and four daughters:

1. Ellen, who married first Donal MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain, secondly Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount Muskerry, and thirdly Thomas Fitzmaurice, 4th son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 18th Baron Kerry.^[29]
2. Elinor
3. Joan
4. Amy, married John Everard of Fethard, County Tipperary, as his second wife.^[b]

Roche succeeded his father as the 7th Viscount Fermoy on 24 October 1600.^[33] He is also counted as 2nd Viscount.^[3]

Queen Elizabeth I died on 24 March 1603. Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, her Lord Deputy of Ireland, proclaimed James VI and I as King. Several Irish towns, dominated by Old English families delayed the proclamation still hoping for a Catholic succession. This was the case of Cork.^[34] On 11 April Mountjoy sent Captain Morgan to Cork to proclaim James.^[35] Thornton and Fermoy, as he now was, proclaimed James I as King on 13 April 1603, outside the walls in the northern suburbs^[36] when the mayor, Thomas Sarsfield, hesitated to do so.^[37][38]