a royal charter from Edward VI in 1552-3, allowing it a corporation in perpetuity, composed of one Sovereign, one Provost, Burgesses and inhabitants. The next royal charter was issued in 1608. A figure in the attainment of this second charter was Sir John Everard. John Everard, a lawyer and member of a local landed family, served the Butler clan and Earl of Ormond. His performances as a justice in the Earl's liberty of Tipperary saw him appointed by Elizabeth I as Second Justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) in 1602. Although the Everards were Catholic, John Everard (by this time "Sir" John Everard) pledged allegiance to the Crown, and when he surrendered all his property to the Crown in 1607, it was immediately granted back to him. His good favour with the Crown was a factor in Fethard attaining a new charter in 1608. In the new charter, the town was described as "a place of strength surrounded with a fair strong wall", and under its terms, the town's corporation was renewed and enlarged. The Fethard corporation was directed to build "a Tholsel (common Hall) for assemblies", the foundations of which now lie under the main street. During the 17th century, the town was subject to two significant threats. The first was by the army of Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, and followed his Sacking of Cashel in 1647. When news of the massacre at Cashel reached Fethard, its citizens submitted to Inchiquin. Three years later, in 1650, Oliver Cromwell marched on Fethard on his way to besiege and take Kilkenny. In a letter, Cromwell described Fethard as "having a very good wall with round and square bulwarks, after the old manner of fortification". Referring to the nearby Augustinian Friary, he wrote that he had stationed troops "in an old abbey in the suburbs". As with Inchiquin, the citizens of Fethard also agreed to terms of surrender with Cromwell. By the 18th century, some parts of the town were in a state of decay, with the corporation's books for 1718 noting that 56 people had houses with dangerous chimneys. In the same period, the Everard family's involvement with Fethard came to an end when the last Baronet, Sir Redmond Everard, 4th Baronet, who lived in France, sold his family's properties in Fethard in 1725. The new landowner, Mr Barton (a wine merchant from Bordeaux), replaced the old