Blennerhassett (Rockfield)

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Estate(s)

Name	Description
Blennerhassett (Rockfield)	This family was a junior branch of the Blennerhassett of Riddlestown family, parish of Doondonnell, barony of Connello Lower, county Limerick. In the mid 19th century the main part of John Brooke Blennerhassett’s estate was in the parish of Kilmoylan, barony of Shanid, but he also held land in the parish of Ballycahane, barony of Smallcounty. In the 1870s he owned 1,829 acres in county Limerick.
Blennerhassett (Riddlestown)	The Blennerhassett family acquired estates in county Kerry from the forfeitures of the Earl of Desmond in the late 16th century. In the late 17th century Edward Blennerhassett, son of Arthur of Loughgur, Bruff, county Limerick, married Elizabeth Windell, heiress to the Rice family of Riddlestown. The Riddlestown property was inherited by Edward’s nephew, Arthur Blennerhassett, who built the house circa 1730. Arthur was succeeded by his uncle Gerald and his descendants lived at Riddlestown throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In the mid 19th century the Blennerhassett Riddlestown estate was in the parishes of Doondonnell and Rathkeale, barony of Connello Lower. In the 1870s it amounted to 1,142 acres. In 1840 Gerald Blennerhassett married Geraldine Anne, daughter of the Knight of Glin. John Blennerhassett of Rockfield was Gerald’s uncle. ‘’Irish Family Records’’ states that Riddlestown Park passed to the Knights of Glin following the death in 1904 of Clara Elizabeth Blennerhassett who married George Ralph Fosbery of Kilgobbin and Clorane in 1888. Mrs Fosbery’s aunt, Clara Anna, married in 1835, her first cousin, J.F.E. Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin.