My ancestors - Blennerhassett - Contents

Harman Blennerhassett

Harman Blennerhassett. Silhouette.
Courtesy of Leslie family. See larger and full size. See other shot.

Harman Blennerhassett,
born 8 Oct 1764 (think NOT 1765).
See wikipedia.
He was educ TCD (BA 1790, LLB 1790). He was a lawyer.
He travelled on European continent. Adopted republican principles.
He inherited Castle Conway 1792.
He became a United Irishman in 1793. He was a friend of Thomas Addis Emmet.
But he was to leave Ireland before the 1798 Rising broke out.
He sold the family seat Castle Conway, Killorglin to 1st Baron Ventry 1795.

He mar c.1796 to his niece Margaret Agnew [born 1779].
He left Ireland to avoid the scandal this caused. They went to America 1796.

Blennerhassett Island:
He purchased, Mar 1797, the upper half of Belpre Island on the Ohio River, near Parkersburg, West Virginia (see map).
This is on state border of Wood County, West Virginia, and Washington County, Ohio.
He built a mansion on the island in 1798 (completed 1801). The island came to be called Blennerhassett Island.
He kept slaves there. Slavery was abolished in Ohio (just N of Blennerhassett Island) in 1802. Slavery was not abolished in West Virginia (where Blennerhassett Island was) until 1865.

The Burr conspiracy:
Harman was involved in a plot by Jefferson's Vice-President Aaron Burr in 1805 to establish an independent nation in the western territories. Harman was charged with treason, but was released 1807 after Burr's acquittal.
He sold Blennerhassett Island c.1807.
The mansion was accidentally destroyed by fire 1811.

He stayed at one point with Thomas Addis Emmet in New York.
He died in Guernsey, Channel Islands, 2 Feb 1831 (NOT 1 Feb), age 66 yrs, bur Guernsey.
Margaret died New York, 1842, age 63 yrs.
She was bur in the Thomas Addis Emmet vault, Marble Cemetery, 2nd St, New York.
In 1996 her remains were re-buried on Blennerhassett Island.

Harman Blennerhassett, 1796.
This is a later copy (c.1850) of a miniature painted in London in 1796.
From Wikimedia Commons.
Think source is Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park.
Wikimedia Commons notes other versions at New York Public Library. Search for Blennerhassett and Blennerhasset.

Unidentified portrait inherited by the Blennerhassett Baronets.
It was said to be Harman Blennerhassett.
However an art evaluation only says it is "Mr. Harmon", but more importantly thinks it is a painting of c.1850.
If that date is correct, it is not Harman Blennerhassett.
See full size. See other shot.

Blennerhassett Island

The reconstructed mansion on NE end of Blennerhassett Island.
Click to toggle map/satellite view. Click to zoom in/out. Drag to move.
From Google Maps.

The original mansion on Blennerhassett Island, c.1800.
See full size. From [Gibbens, 1914]. From here.

The reconstructed mansion on Blennerhassett Island.
See full size.
Photo 2007 by Mike McBride. See terms of use.

The reconstructed mansion on Blennerhassett Island.
Photo 2007 by Angie Bernath.
See other shot from here.
See terms of use.

The reconstructed mansion.
Photo 2007. From here. Used with permission.

The reconstructed mansion. Interior. Entrance hall.
See larger and full size.
Photo 2007. From Rick Childers. Used with permission.
See other interior shots from his photo stream: guest bedroom and Library and Master Bedroom and Study. Used with permission.

The reconstructed mansion. Interior. Entrance hall.
Photo 2004 from Lacie Parsons. Used with permission.
See other interior shot from Lacie Parsons. Used with permission.

References

"Blennerhassett's Temptation", pp.412-415 of The National Fifth Reader (school book), New York, 1867. This is an extract from William Wirt's defence of Harman Blennerhassett at his trial in 1807.

Sources yet to be consulted

Harman Blennerhassett in [DNB].
The Life of Harman Blennerhassett, William H. Safford, 1850.
Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, S.P. Hildreth, 1854.
The Blennerhassett Papers, William H. Safford, 1864 (correspondence of Harman Blennerhassett).
- Some of the original letters are in Notre Dame Archives.
The True Story of Harman Blennerhassett, by Therese Blennerhassett, The Century Magazine, July 1901.
A Dream of Empire or The House of Blennerhassett, William Henry Venable, historical novel, 1901.
Historic Blennerhassett Island Home, by Alvaro F. Gibbens, Globe Printing and Binding Co., 1914.
"The Career of Harman Blennerhassett", by James Franklin Fuller, in Kerry Archaeological Magazine (1916-17).
- First part. Vol 4, No 17 (1916), pp.16-41.
- Second part. Vol 4, No 18 (1917), pp.75-93.
Blennerhassett Island in Romance and Tragedy, Minnie Kendall Lowther, Tuttle Publishing Co, 1936.
"Harman Blennerhassett: An Irish Aristocrat on the American Frontier", Ray Swick, Essays in History, vol.14, 1968-69.
Burr - A Novel, by Gore Vidal, 1973.
"History of Blennerhassett Island", dissertation by Ray Swick, 1975.
Harman Blennerhassett's Journal, 1807, edited by Raymond E. Fitch, Ohio University Press, 1988.
Blennerhassett Island (2005) by Ray Swick and Christina Little.

The mansion on Blennerhassett Island was reconstructed on its original foundation in 1984.
Blennerhassett Island
Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park
Blennerhassett Island Bridge
"Blennerhassett" is now the name of an archaeological period in the area.
S of the island is: Blennerhassett, and Blennerhassett Heights, Parkersburg, West Virginia (see map).
N of the island is: Blennerhassett Ave, Belpre, Ohio (see map).
There is a Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
There is a 1974 musical Eden on the River about the Blennerhassett story.
Apparently named after Blennerhassett Island:
- Blannahassett Island, Marshall, North Carolina (see map).