The Blennerhassett family is an English and Anglo-Irish noble family which has been involved in the politics of the Britain and Ireland since the fourteenth century. The male line of the family is extinct in Britain. [2]
The family is recorded as having originally been settled in Cumberland in northern England, at the manor of Blennerhasset. [3] The landowner John de Blennerhassett sat in the House of Commons of England as the Member of Parliament for Carlisle in 1381 and 1384, and his descendants represented the seat in almost every Parliament from the reign of Richard II to the reign of James I. In 1390 Alan de Blenerhayset secured a grant of arms from the Crown. In 1547 the Blennerhassett family relocated to Frenze, Norfolk and Barsham, Suffolk on former monastery lands.
In the reign of Elizabeth I the senior branch of the family under Robert Blennerhassett (accompanied by his elderly father Thomas) settled in County Kerry, Ireland, during the Plantation of Munster,. [4] The family established themselves as part of the Anglo-Irish gentry, and under the Act of Settlement 1662 were granted 2,787 acres in County Kerry and 2,039 acres in County Cork. [5] The marriage of Robert Blennerhassett to Avice Conway, the daughter and heiress of Edward Conway, brought the Blennerhassetts into the possession of Castle Conway in Killorglin, which would subsequently become the manor of the Blennerhassetts' 7,000-acre Kerry estate. [6] Numerous Blennerhassetts sat in the Irish House of Commons for the constituencies of Tralee and County Kerry, which were controlled by the family, and several also served as High Sheriff of Kerry. Sir John Blennerhassett (1560-1624) served as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. [7] Many members of the family married into other Kerry dynasties such as the Conways, Dennys, Crosbies, Fitzmaurices, O'Connells, Sealys, Springs and Mullins. Indeed, the grandmother of Mary O'Connell from Tralee, who married Daniel O'Connell MP, was Jane Blennerhasset, a granddaughter of Robert Blennerhasset MP, of Castle Conway.
In 1809, Rowland Blennerhassett, a lawyer and politician, was created a baronet in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. [8] [9] Sir Rowland renamed the estate village Blennerville in his family's honour. His relation Harman Blennerhassett settled in the United States in 1796, where Blennerhassett Island and Blennerhassett, West Virginia are named after the family.
The Irish politician John Blennerhassett (1930–2013) is the most recent member of the family to be involved in politics.
Harman Blennerhassett was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, a member of the Society of United Irishmen who emigrated in advance of their rebellion in 1798 to become a socially and politically distinguished plantation owner in then-western Virginia. Implicated in the Burr conspiracy, an alleged military plot with Britain to separate the Louisiana Territory from the American Union, he was twice arrested and financially ruined. His last years were spent in England.
Tralee was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons.
The High Sheriff of County Galway was the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Galway. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judicial importance, he had ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs.
Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet was a Roman Catholic Anglo-Irish baronet and Liberal Party politician from County Kerry.
The Blennerhassett Baronetcy of Blennerville in the County of Kerry, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 22 September 1809 for the Anglo-Irish lawyer Rowland Blennerhassett, He was from a family originally from Cumberland, England, that settled in County Kerry during the reign of James I and represented County Kerry and Tralee in the Irish House of Commons.
The High Sheriff of Kerry was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kerry, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kerry County Sheriff. The sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. However, the sheriff retained his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in the county. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed his choice as High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Sometimes a sheriff did not fulfil his entire term through death or other event and another sheriff was then appointed for the remainder of the year. The dates given hereunder are the dates of appointment. All addresses are in County Kerry unless stated otherwise.
Castle Conway is a former castle and stately home in the town of Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland. Today only the ruins of one wall remain.
Robert Blennerhassett was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician.
Sir William Godfrey, 1st Baronet (1739–1817) was an Anglo-Irish member of the Irish House of Commons.
Thomas Mullins, 1st Baron Ventry was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
John Blennerhassett was an Anglo-Irish politician who represented various constituencies in the Irish House of Commons.
Colonel John Blennerhassett was an Anglo-Irish politician who represented two constituencies in the Irish House of Commons between 1709 and 1775.
John Blennerhassett was an Anglo-Irish member of the Irish House of Commons.
Conway Blennerhassett KC was a member of the Irish House of Commons.
Colonel Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and baronet.
Sir Joseph Hoare, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish politician.
Sir Barry Denny, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish politician. The Denny family effectively owned the town of Tralee.
Sir Barry Denny, 2nd Baronet was an Anglo-Irish politician, chiefly remembered for his death in a duel at the hands of John Gustavus Crosbie.
Sir Edward Denny, 3rd Baronet was an Anglo-Irish politician. His family effectively owned the town of Tralee and had great political influence in County Kerry.
Sir James Chatterton, 1st Baronet, was an Irish lawyer and politician, and the first of the Chatterton Baronets of Castle Mahon.