Mary Carryl | |
|---|---|
 Mrs. Mary Carryl | |
| Born | Probably Ross, County Wexford |
| Died | 22 November 1809 |
| Nationality | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Occupation(s) | servant, companion |
| Employer | Ladies of Llangollen |
Mary Carryl (d. 22 November 1809) was an Irish-born loyal servant and friend of the celebrated Ladies of Llangollen. She served them up to her death; and when the Ladies died, they shared the same grave.
Mary Carryl was brought up in a poor family in Ross in County Wexford. Little is known about her until she was employed by Lady Elizabeth "Betty" and Sir William Fownes at the Woodstock Estate near Inistioge, County Kilkenny, Ireland. [1] William Fownes's father, (also) Sir William Fownes, had been the Mayor of Dublin, and the younger William inherited over 21,000 acres from his grandfather. When Fownes married Elizabeth Ponsonby he had received £4,000 as a dowry. [2] With this money the couple built the six-bayed, three-storey Woodstock House in County Kilkenny in 1745-7. In 1769 the Fownes had a thirteen year old guest to stay for some time named Sarah Ponsonby, who was Elizabeth's cousin, and the orphaned daughter of Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby. She attended school at Kilkenny. [1]
Sarah developed a friendship with Eleanor Butler, which was not approved of by the Fownes or by Eleanor's family guardians. When the friendship began, Sarah was an unhappy thirteen year old orphan and she was captivated by the well-educated Eleanor Butler, a 30 year old spinster who was no longer considered marriageable. Sarah was also receiving unwanted attention from Sir William, her guardian. [3]
When Eleanor Butler, ran away from home, she was hidden in Sarah's room and Mary smuggled in food for her stowaway. Eventually Butler and Ponsonby agreed that they could leave Ireland together. They went to Llangollen in Wales where they set up home in a cottage called Plas Newydd. Meanwhile Mary, who was known as Mary the Bruiser had been fired after throwing a candlestick which wounded another servant. She was saved when Eleanor and Sarah sent for her to come to Llangollen. [1]
In time Eleanor and Sarah would become notorious as "The Ladies of Llangollen", meanwhile Carryl became both their servant and the head of the household. She was loyal to her employers. She was said to have "masculine qualities" and Lady Eleanor's diary records how she would give as good as she got as she bargained loudly with the fishermen, the butchers and the inebriated. [1]
The lifestyle of the Ladies of Llangollen attracted attention. They would receive notable visitors including the Duke of Wellington; the poets William Wordsworth and Anna Seward, enlightenment leaders Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgewood and writers including Sir Walter Scott. [3]
Carryl died in Plas Newydd in 1809 and was buried in the churchyard of St Collen’s Church, Llangollen. She left a shilling to her brother and sister, but she left the field she owned to Sarah. In time the Ladies of Llangollen would die and they were buried beside their faithful servant. [1]
The memorial monument to Mary Carryl, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby in the churchyard of St. Collen's Church was erected in 1810. The inscription on Mary Carryl's part of the monument reads: "In Memory of/ Mrs Mary Carryl/ Deceased 22 November 1809/ This monument is erected by Eleanor Butler,/ and Sarah Ponsonby, of Plasnewydd in this Parish./ Released from Earth and all its transient woes,/ She whose remains beneath this stone repose,/ Stedfast in Faith resigned her parting breath,/ Looked up with Christian joy, and smiled in Death!/ Patient, Industrious, Faithful, Generous, Kind,/ Her Conduct left the proudest far behind,/ Her Virtues dignified her humble birth,/ And raised her mind above this sordid earth,/ Attachment (Sacred bond of grateful breasts)/ Extinguished but with life, this Tomb attests,/ Reared by Two Friends who will her loss bemoan,/ 'Till with Her Ashes...Here shall rest, Their own."
The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1831), were two upper-class Irish women who lived together as a couple. Their relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries. The pair moved to a Gothic house in Llangollen, North Wales, in 1780 after leaving Ireland to escape the social pressures of conventional marriages. Over the years, numerous distinguished visitors called upon them. Guests included Byron, Shelley, Wellington and Wordsworth, the last of whom wrote a sonnet about them.
Llangollen is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with the easternmost point of the Dee Valley Way being within the town. It had a population of 3,658 at the 2011 census.
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John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough, PC, known as Viscount Duncannon from 1793 to 1844, was a British Whig politician. He was notably Home Secretary in 1834 and served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1846 and 1847, the first years of the Great Famine.
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Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby was an Irish Member of Parliament.
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St Collen's Church is a parish church in the town of Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales. The first church on the site was founded by Collen in the 6th century. Nothing of this building remains. A new church was built in the 13th century, in the Early English Gothic style. This was developed in the succeeding centuries, and then almost completely rebuilt in the 19th century. The architect of the Victorian reconstruction was Samuel Pountney Smith, who retained little of the earlier church, with the exception of the tower. The churchyard contains the grave of the Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Charlotte Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, and their servant Mary Carryl, who lived at the nearby Plas Newydd. In November 2021 the first blessing of a gay partnership in a Church in Wales church was held at St Collen's. The church is an active parish church in the Diocese of St Asaph. It is designated by Cadw as a Grade I listed building.
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