Lady Louisa Conolly | |
|---|---|
 Lady Louisa Conolly, by George Romney, 1776. | |
| Born | Lady Louisa Augusta Lennox (1743-12-05)5 December 1743 |
| Died | August 1821 (aged 77–78) |
| Resting place | Tea Lane Graveyard, Celbridge |
| Known for | Lennox sisters |
| Spouse | |
| Parent(s) | Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond Sarah Cadogan |
Lady Louisa Conolly (5 December 1743 – August 1821) was an English noblewoman. She was the third of the famousLennox Sisters, and was notable among them for leading a wholly uncontroversial life filled with good works.
Born Lady Louisa Augusta Lennox, she was the third of the fourLennox sisters portrayed inStella Tillyard's bookAristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox and in the BBC television series based on it. The Lennox sisters were the daughters ofCharles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, andLady Sarah Cadogan. The 2nd duke's father,the first duke, was an illegitimate son of KingCharles II of England.
Louisa was still a child when her parents died within a year of each other in 1750 and 1751. After this, Lady Louisa was brought up by her much older sisterEmily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster, inKildare. In 1758, aged 15, she marriedThomas Conolly (1738–1803), grand-nephew ofWilliam Conolly, Speaker of theIrish House of Commons. Her husband, a wealthy land-owner and keen horseman, was also a successful politician who was elected to Parliament as early as 1759. The couple lived in thePalladian mansionCastletown House inCounty Kildare, the decoration of which she directed throughout the 1760s and 1770s. The Conolly summer residence 'Cliff House' on the banks of theRiver Erne betweenBelleek, County Fermanagh andBallyshannon,County Donegal was demolished as part of the Erne Hydroelectric scheme, which constructed the Cliff andCathaleen's Fall hydroelectric power stations. Cliff hydroelectric power station was constructed on the site of 'Cliff House' and was commissioned in 1950.
Themselves unhappily childless, at that point they took up the welfare of young children from disadvantaged backgrounds as a lifelong project, contributing both money and effort towards initiatives which would enable foundlings and vagabonds to acquire productive skills and support themselves. They developed one of the first Industrial Schools where boys learnt trades, and Lady Louisa took active personal interest in mentoring the students.[1] In middle age, Lady Louisa also virtually adopted her niece Emily Napier (1783–1863), the daughter of her sisterLady Sarah Lennox. Emily, who would spend long months with her aunt in Kildare, marriedSir Henry Bunbury, 7th Baronet, and moved toSuffolk, although she remained close to her aunt until her death.
Thomas Conolly died in 1803. Upon his death, the major part of his estates, which includedWentworth Castle, passed to a distant relative, Frederick Vernon. Lady Louisa received the Castletown House and estate, as also certain liquid investments and valuable urban properties, which enabled her to live in comfort and continue her activities until her own death in 1821. She willed these substantial properties to a great-nephew,Edward Michael Pakenham (grandson of Thomas' sister Harriet), later the MP forDonegal,[2]
The 1769 travelogue"Hibernia Curiosa: A Letter from a Gentleman in Dublin to his Friend at Dover in Kent..." by John Bush was dedicated to Conolly. The dedication reads:
She was portrayed byAnne-Marie Duff inAristocrats, a 1999 6-part miniseries based on the lives of Louisa Lennox andher sisters, aired in the U.K. on BBC and on thePBS anthology seriesMasterpiece Theater in the USA.[1] It was based onStella Tillyard's 1994 biography,Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740-1832.[4]
