Blennerhassett family

The Blennerhassett family is an English and Anglo-Irish noble family which has been involved in the politics of the Britain and Ireland since the fourteenth century.

The family is recorded as having originally been settled in Cumberland in northern England, at the manor of Blennerhasset. The landowner John de Blennerhassett sat in the House of Commons of England as the Member of Parliament for Carlisle in 1381 and 1384, and his descendants represented the seat in almost every Parliament from the reign of Richard II to the reign of James I. In 1390 Alan de Blenerhayset secured a grant of arms from the Crown. In 1547 the Blennerhassett family relocated to Frenze, Norfolk and Barsham, Suffolk on former monastery lands.

In the reign of Elizabeth I the senior branch of the family under Thomas Blennerhassett settled in County Kerry, Ireland, during the Plantation of Munster. The family established themselves as part of the Anglo-Irish gentry, and under the Act of Settlement 1662 were granted 2,787 acres in County Kerry and 2,039 acres in County Cork. The marriage of Robert Blannerhassett to Avice Conway, the daughter and heiress of Edward Conway, brought the Blennerhassett's into the possession of Castle Conway in Killorglin, which would subsequently become the manor of the Blennerhassetts' 7,000 acre Kerry estate. Numerous Blennerhassett's sat in the Irish House of Commons for the constituencies of Tralee and Kerry, which were controlled by the family, and several also served as High Sheriff of Kerry. Sir John Blennerhassett (1560-1624) served as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. Many members of the family married into other Kerry dynasties such as the Dennys, Crosbies, Fitzmaurices, Springs and Mullins.

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