My ancestors - Blennerhassett - Contents

Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet

Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet (see here and here),
Catholic, born 5 Sept 1839.
Political writer, historian.
He succ as Baronet 1849.
He was educ Downside School (Catholic school), Somerset, 1849-56.
He was educ Stonyhurst College (Catholic school).
He was educ Christ Church, Oxford. Entered 1859. Left without a degree.
He was educ Christ's College, Cambridge. Matric 1859.
He formed a friendship with the Catholic historian Lord Acton 1862.
He was educ Louvain University.

Liberal MP for Galway city 1865-74.
He is listed as of Churchtown House in his Member's Certificate for the [RIA] in 1866.
High Sheriff of Co.Kerry 1866-67.
Helped to start Chronicle, a literary organ of liberal Catholicism, 1867.

He mar 1870 to Countess Charlotte de Leyden [born 1843, Catholic]. See Wikitree.
She was dau of Count Karl Joseph August von Leyden and his wife Franciska von Weling.
She was a historian and author, a student of Lord Acton.

He sold Churchtown House c.1870. NOT 1860.
Liberal MP for Co.Kerry 1880-85. Kerry had 2 seats. The other MP in 1880-85 was his 2nd cousin Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett.
He at first supported but later opposed home rule (opposed Parnell).
He spoke and wrote on Irish education and land question. He advocated peasant proprietorship 1884.
President of Queens College, Cork 1897-1904.
He died 22 Mar 1909, London, age 69 yrs.
He was bur in churchyard of St. Benedict's RC church, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset. This is beside his old school, Downside School. See map and street view.
Charlotte died 1917.
4th Baronet and Charlotte had issue:

1. Sir Arthur Blennerhassett, 5th Baronet,
   born 1871.

   
   

2. Marie Carola Franciska Roselyne Blennerhassett, born 1876.
   She mar 1stly, 1894, to Raphael d'Erlanger [son of Frederic Emile, Baron d'Erlanger] and had issue.
   He died 1897.
   She mar 2ndly, 1913, to Lt-Col Sir Henry Lionel Galway.
   He died 1949.
   She died 1963.
   She had issue by 1st mar:
   1. Baron Henry Roland Kasimir d'Erlanger, born 1895,
      mar 1921 to Margarita Covarubias, apparently no issue.

   2. Charlotte d'Erlanger, born 1897,
      mar 1922 to Roderick Peter George Denman [born 1894].
      He was grandson of George Denman, son of Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman.
      See DENMAN in [Burkes Peerage].
      He was KIA in WW2 1941.
      They had issue.

   
   

3. William Blennerhassett, born 1882,
   mar 1910 to Olivia Frances Grove [dau of Sir Thomas Grove, 1st Baronet],
   she died 1953,
   he died 1958,
   had issue:
   1. Rowland Blennerhassett, born 1911,
      mar 1945 to Lisa Stapleton [Elizabeth Charlotte Josephine Stapleton] and had issue,
      he died 1993,
      she died 1995.

My ancestor Blennerhassett Cashel attends a lecture on 28 Mar 1899 in Cork by Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet.
From Cork Examiner, March 29, 1899.
Blennerhassett Cashel was GSWR goods head at Cork, apparently 1893 to 1911.
The 4th Baronet was Catholic, succ 1849, President of Queens College Cork 1897-1904.
According to my theory they are 2nd cousins.

4th Baronet listed in [Thom's, 1901, p.228].
Shows him living at Queens College Cork at this time.

Grave of 4th Baronet, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset.
See full size.
See closer. and closest.
Photos 2006 from Bill Jehan.

Blennerhassett arms on grave of 4th Baronet.
See full size.
Photo 2006 from Bill Jehan.

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Sources yet to be consulted

• Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet, in [DNB]
• Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 4th Baronet in [DNB, 1912 edn]
• BLENNERHASSETT, SIR ROWLAND in [DIB]

• Laura Pachtner
  • Lady Charlotte Blennerhassett (1843-1917) (German language), 2020.
  • "Mediating European Culture in the Age of Nationalism – the liberal Catholic historian Lady Charlotte Blennerhassett (1843-1917)." (English language, forthcoming in 2020).

President of Queens College, Cork 1897-1904

• UCC University Archives. Correspondence of the President's Office, College Council, and of College Officers.

• History of Queen's College, Cork:
  • "The Origins and Growth of University College, Cork" by Denis Gwynn, University Review, Vol. 2, No. 3/4, Jubilee Issue (Autumn - Winter, 1960), pp. 33-47.
  • The Queen's College, Cork: its origins and early history, 1803-1858 by Sean F. Pettit, 1973.
  • The College: A History of Queen's University College Cork by John A. Murphy, 1995.
  • University College Cork: A portrait in Words and Images by John A. Murphy, 2005.
  • Where Finbarr Taught: A concise History of Queen's/University College Cork 1845 - 2006 by John A. Murphy, 2007.

Papers to be consulted

• Cambridge: Blennerhassett papers in [CUL]
  • Blennerhassett Papers. Add. MS 7486. This is the literary estate of Lady Charlotte Blennerhassett.
    • Notes on these in Sir Herbert Butterfield Papers. MS Butterfield 468.
  • Acton Papers. GBR/0012/MS Add. 8119-8123.
    • MS Add. 8119/7. Correspondence between Acton and Sir Rowland and Charlotte, Lady Blennerhassett.
    • Transcripts and abstracts of these in Sir Herbert Butterfield Papers. MS Butterfield 445.

• Oxford: Archive of John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley at [OU]. This has correspondence with 4th Baronet in:
  • General correspondence, Nov 1865. MS. Eng. c. 4036 fols. 191-192.
  • General correspondence, Dec 1865. MS. Eng. c. 4037 fol. 2.

• Oxford: Balliol College Archives.
  • Papers of Robert Burnett David Morier. 4th Baronet and Lady Charlotte in: Boxes 11, 14A, 41, 42, 75.
  • Papers of Benjamin Jowett. Lady Charlotte and 5th Baronet in: II D3/3; III M127, MA28, 35-36.

• London: Gladstone papers. [BL] Ms.
  • William Ewart Gladstone papers. Add MS 44086-44835.
  • Mary Gladstone papers. Add MS 46219-46271.
  • 4th Baronet appears in Add MS 44416 to 44479 and Add MS 46252.

• London: 4th Baronet letters in Ernest Bruce Iwan-Muller papers in [BL] Add MS 51316.

• St Andrews: Papers of Wilfrid Ward. St Andrews University Library. Ms 38347-38348, 38469, 38508.
  • Letter from Wilfrid Ward to Mary Drew, 1902. Ms 38347 /VII/85/2/4.
  • Letter from Charlotte Blennerhasset to Wilfrid Ward, 1911. Ms 38347 /VII/38/12.