East Essex Street

ESSEX STREET EAST IN TEMPLE BAR

The street was named after the Earl Of Essex.

It is generally thought that the street known as Temple Bar got its name from the Temple family, whose progenitor Sir William Temple built a house and gardens there in the early 1600s. Temple had moved to Ireland in 1599 with the expeditionary force of the Earl of Essex, for whom he served as secretary. (He had previously been secretary of Sir Philip Sydney until the latter was killed in battle.) After Essex was beheaded for treason in 1601, Temple “retired into private life”, but he was then solicited to become provost of Trinity College, serving from 1609 until his death in 1627 at age 72. William Temple’s son John became the “Master of the Rolls in Ireland” and was the author of a famous pamphlet excoriating the native Irish population for an uprising in 1641. John’s son William Temple became a famous English statesman.