My ancestors - Blennerhassett - Contents

The claim that the 1st Baronet had a daughter Catherine

See the proof of our descent from the Blennerhassett Baronets family.

This suggests our family may descend from Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 1st Baronet.

Our family story was that we descend from a runaway Blennerhassett daughter.
So I am keen to establish if the 1st Baronet had a daughter.
In the past, there were claims that he had a daughter Catherine.

The printed histories

The printed family histories such as Debrett's and Burke's at one point showed a Catherine. But this seems to be an error.

The 1st Baronet has no daughter in the entry for Blennerhassett in [Debrett's Baronetage, 1815].
This is on p.1247 of vol.2.
The genealogy has errors ("Harley" for Hurly).

The 1st Baronet has no daughter on p.1178 of vol.2 of [Debrett's Baronetage, 1819].

The daughter Catherine appears

In [Debrett's Baronetage, 1824], the 1st Baronet is now listed with a daughter Catherine.
From p.1115 of vol.2.

This edition is a bit out of date. The 1st Baronet died in 1821.
In the entry, the 1st Baronet's daughter Catherine marries Rev. Edward Conyers, of "Knockmare".
Knockmare however is not a CoI parish.
This is clearly confusion with Catherine, dau of the 2nd Baronet, who had just married in 1822 to Rev. Edward Fitzgerald Conyers, of Castletown Conyers, now Rector of Knockane, Co.Kerry.
This edition does not yet list the children of the 2nd Baronet.

The 1st Baronet is still listed with a daughter Catherine on p.628 of vol.2 of [Debrett's Baronetage, 1828].

In this edition, Debrett's now also lists Catherine, dau of the 2nd Baronet. That is, it lists both the 1st Baronet and the 2nd Baronet with a dau Catherine who marries a Rev. Edward Conyers.
The 2nd Baronet's daughter is listed correctly, with the correct middle name and origin. It does not list his parish.
In the entry, the 1st Baronet's daughter Catherine marries Rev. Edward Conyers, of "Knockman".
Knockman however is not a CoI parish.
[Ardfert and Aghadoe Clergy] also says there is only one Rev. Conyers in Co.Kerry, the one of Knockane who married the daughter of the 2nd Baronet.
So it seems the duplicate Catherine is just an error.

19th century printed sources duplicate this

Identical entry on p.347 of [Debrett's Baronetage, 1835]. See extract and extract. This is a bit out of date. The 2nd Baronet died 1831 but is still listed.
Identical entry on p.51 of [Debrett's Baronetage, 1840].
[Blennerhassett Pedigrees] (maybe late 19th century) shows the 1st Baronet with this daughter Catherine.
The entry in [Burkes Peerage, 1862] lists both the 1st Baronet and the 2nd Baronet with a dau Catherine who marries a Rev. Edward Conyers.
The entry in [Burkes Peerage, 1881] lists both the 1st Baronet and the 2nd Baronet with a dau Catherine who marries a Rev. Edward Conyers.
The entry for BLENNERHASSETT on p.51 of [Foster's Peerage, 1882] says that apart from his 5 sons the 1st Baronet had "other issue".

Late 19th century on: The printed sources correct this

Starting in the late 19th century, the printed histories seem to have decided this "Catherine" was an error and removed her.

Foster removes this "Catherine". The 1st Baronet is on p.574 of [Foster's Royal Descents, vol.4, 1886] and it shows no daughter.
[Burkes Peerage, 1894, p.144] still lists both the 1st Baronet and the 2nd Baronet with a dau Catherine who marries a Rev. Edward Conyers.
[Lodge's Peerage, 1903] and [Lodge's Peerage, 1912] are still listing the 1st Baronet with 5 sons and "other issue".
[Burkes Peerage, 1912, p.244] has now removed the 1st Baronet's daughter "Catherine". Later editions show no daughter for the 1st Baronet. They show only the 2nd Baronet with dau Catherine.
See extract from [Burkes Peerage, 1959]. The 1st Baronet has no daughter.
The error appears to now be dead. Even a search on Ancestry trees does not turn up this error.

Records of Ballingarry

More confusion was caused by a misleading extract from the book Records of Ballingarry.

Catherine Blennerhassett, born 1788, daughter of "Sir R. Blennerhassett".
From Limerick City Library extracts from the book Records of Ballingarry [Hamilton, 1930].
If she really was born 1788, this would be a dau of the 1st Baronet, not the 2nd Baronet (who married 1790).

When we look at the original source in [Hamilton, 1930] though, we see the extract is misleading.
The extract makes it look like it is an original baptism entry. But it is not. It is just an extract from a set of family notes in the book. In the original notes, Catherine is discussed as the person who married Rev. Edward Conyers and was born 1788 and died 1869. This context is lost when making the extract of BMD.
So there is no new Catherine. The date 1788 is simply an error.

A daughter Catherine would make sense

A daughter Catherine would however make sense.

There is DNA evidence that my family descends from the Blennerhassett Baronets family. And there is documentary evidence that my family may descend from the Stephen Cashel family. The Stephen Cashel family descends from a Catherine Blennerhassett (or Hassett), born c.1760, from an unknown Blennerhassett branch. She married Eugene Noonan.

If Catherine was the natural daughter of the 1st Baronet, that would explain our DNA matches, and would support both the Baronets theory and the Stephen Cashel theory.

So we are wondering if the 1st Baronet did have a (natural) daughter Catherine, and that could be the origin of the above confusion. It is interesting that "Catherine" is the name of the above "error".