John Bramhall came to Ireland in 1633 as Wentworth's chaplain, when the latter took up the position of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Wentworth mistrusted the office-holders and planters whom he found in power when he arrived. His arrival marked a change in the approach of the Dublin Castle administration, from direct confrontation with Catholics to a new concentration on restoring and guarding the temporalities of the established church. Bramhall became the prime agent of that policy, which was unpopular with landowners, who felt that the church was being re-endowed at their expense. During this first posting to Ireland he was involved in almost every transaction concerning church lands or revenues across Ireland's twenty-six dioceses. The campaign for the re-endowment of the church, which Wentworth and Bramhall pursued, primarily affected protestant landowners. But Wentworth's plans to confiscate vast tracts of land in areas which had not yet been planted threatened Catholic proprietors, Gaelic and Old English alike. Wentworth's successes and ruthlessness gained him many enemies in Ireland and England, which perhaps contribued to his impeachment at a time of great tension in England between the King and parliament. He was executed on Tower Hill in May 1641.

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