Robert Cusack (judge)
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Robert Cusack (c.1516–1570) was an Irish judge of the sixteenth century, who held office as a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland).[1] He was strongly recommended for the position of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, but was passed over for the office, though with a promise of future preferment. His career was cut short by his premature death.[1]
He came from a prominent Anglo-Irish landowning family of the Pale. Although his legitimacy was questionable, as his father denied that he had been lawfully married to his mother, this did not harm his career.[1]
He was born at Cussington (now Cushinstown), County Meath, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Cusack, later Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and his first wife and cousin Joan Hussey.[1] His parents' marriage was unhappy and in 1537 it was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity; Robert's father always denied that there had been a valid marriage between himself and Joan, and spoke of his second wife Maud Darcy as his first "lawful" wife. On the other hand, Thomas acknowledged the paternity of Robert and his other children by Joan, and he seems to have treated them generously enough. In the 1550s Robert was living at Lismullen Abbey, which his father had acquired on the Dissolution of the Monasteries (ironically his sister was the last Abbess of Lismullen), and later he lived at the older family home at Cussington.[1] The John Cusack who died in 1629 and was described as the owner of Cussington was probably Robert's son.
