The Esmonde Baronetcy, of Ballynastragh in the County of Wexford, is a title in the Baronetage of Ireland. It was created on 28 January 1629 for Thomas Esmonde. He raised a cavalry regiment for Charles I and commanded a regiment during the Siege of La Rochelle. Esmonde was the son of Sir Laurence Esmonde, who had abandoned the Roman Catholic faith during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Esmonde in 1632. Lord Esmonde married firstly a Roman Catholic wife Margaret O'Flaherty, daughter ofMurrough O'Flaherty, Chief of Iar Connacht, and they had a son, Thomas, the first Baronet. She feared that the boy would be raised a Protestant and ran away with him, raising him as a strict Roman Catholic. As Thomas's father would not admit his legitimacy, (even