(415) Barry of Castle Lyons and Anngrove, Earls of Barrymore

Barry, Earls of Barrymore

The Barrys are one of the most ancient landed families in the British Isles, and can be traced back to Odo de Barri, a knight who assisted with the Norman conquest of Pembrokeshire at the end of the 11th century and was granted large estates including Manorbier Castle and Barry Island, from which the family took its name. His grandsons included the historian, Giraldus Cambrensis [Gerald of Wales] (c.1146-1223), and also Gerald's elder brothers, Robert and Philip, who accompanied their half-uncle Richard FitzStephen to Ireland on his expedition of 1169 to help Dermot, King of Leinster, recover his throne. Robert was killed in Ireland in about 1185, but Philip de Barry (d. c.1200) was granted the cantreds of Olethan, Muskerry and Killyde in County Cork, parts of which large estate remained the property of his descendants until the end of the 18th century. Although Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire remained a principal seat of the family until the 15th century, their focus was increasingly on Ireland. Philip's grandson, Sir David Barry (d. 1261) was the first to attract the soubriquet 'Barry More' [i.e., Barry the Great], and his son, David Oge Barry (d. 1278), who was Lord Justiciar of Ireland in 1267 and founded Buttevant Abbey, was probably the first of the family to be summoned to the Irish parliament as a baron, although (as the Complete Peerage expresses it), 'any date given for the origin of early prescriptive Irish titles such as this must be in the nature of guesswork'. It is not even clear whether David Oge Barry and his descendants were properly styled Lord Barry, Lord Barrymore, or Lord Buttevant, since in later centuries the titles were used interchangeably.

William Barry, the 11th Lord Barry, was one of the fifteen peers summoned to Greenwich (Kent) by King Henry VII in 1489, when he ranked as the premier baron of Ireland, and was styled 'Lord Barry of Buttevant'. He was presumably aligned with the Yorkist faction in the Wars of the Roses, since he supported Perkin Warbeck's claim to the throne in the 1490s, but although he seems to have made his peace with King Henry VII, he was murdered by his brother, the Archdeacon of Cork and Cloyne, in 1500. The archdeacon was himself killed and burned in reprisal, and another brother, Edmund, had his eyes put out by William's widow. This was evidently all part of a bitter blood-feud by which the family was riven in the late 15th and 16th centuries. William's son, John Barry, the 12th Lord Barry, was killed by the Earl of Desmond in 1530, whereupon the title and estates passed to William's surviving brother John Barry (d. 1534), who seems to have been the only one of his generation to die in his bed, unmaimed.

John's eldest son, John Barry (c.1517-53), 14th Baron Barry, sat in the Irish parliament of 1541 as a Viscount, and although there is no record of the creation of a peerage of this degree, which may simply have been assumed, the peerage was henceforward regarded as a viscountcy by the Crown (again variously called Viscount Barry, Viscount Barrymore and Viscount Buttevant). John Barry sat in the 1541 Parliament, indeed, as the premier viscount, implying a precedence of creation over the Gormanston viscountcy (of 1478). This led earlier writers to try and characterise the family's peerage as a viscountcy in earlier centuries, but there is no evidence for this, and it may simply be that Barry's peers were not willing or able to resist the claims of the belligerent Barrys when forcefully asserted. John was succeeded in turn in the viscountcy and estates by his brothers Edmond (d. 1556) and James (d. 1558), both of whom made settlements of their property in default of male heirs on their kinsman, James Barry (d. 1581) and his descendants. These settlements seem to have been made under coercion, and on the death of James Barry, the 3rd Viscount, in 1558 the viscountcy should have become extinct and the barony and estates should have passed to Edmond More Barry of Rathcoban, but this did not happen, for the estates were seized by James Barry (d. 1581), who also assumed both the barony and the viscountcy. James was clearly a man of exceptional violence (he had already murdered the four sons of his half-uncle, David Downe Barry (who had himself murdered his uncle and James' half-brother), and it would seem no one - not even the Lord Deputy or Queen Elizabeth - was willing to stand up him. In 1558 he was pardoned for the four murders; in 1560 he was summoned to parliament as a viscount; and in 1561 he secured an assignment of the family estates from the rightful heir, Edmond More Barry, no doubt by his usual unscrupulous methods, and had livery of them from the Crown. In a few short years, by sheer thuggery, James had not only secured the family estates and titles but secured recognition of his right to them from the Crown.

James, 4th Viscount Buttevant, is the blackest character in this family, although others were far from estimable. His eldest son, Richard Barry (d. 1622), was born deaf and dumb, and was on that account (though not mentally impaired) passed over in the succession to the peerages and a major part of the estates, which descended to David Barry (1550-1617), 5th Viscount Buttevant. He joined the Earl of Desmond's revolt against the Crown in 1593 but abandoned the rebel cause in 1599 and secured a pardon in 1602 on payment of a fine of £500. He thereafter remained loyal to the Crown and was indeed trusted and encouraged by King James I. His eldest son died in 1604/5, and it was therefore a posthumous grandson, David Barry (1605-42), who inherited the title and estates in 1617. The Crown granted his wardship to Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and he was brought up a Protestant in a civilised household. The relationship with Lord Cork went well beyond guardianship, however, for Cork took mortgages on the Barry estates in order to pay off the inherited debts, and in 1621, arranged David's marriage to his eldest but barely teenage daughter, Alice (1607-66). Finally, in 1628, he paid £3,000 for the young man, who had recently come of age, to be raised to the next rank of the peerage, as Earl of Barrymore, and a few years later built him a comfortable if still fortified new house, Castle Lyons, on the Barry estate. 

The new-minted Earl had all the loyalty to the Crown which his grandfather had exhibited in his later years, and as the country moved towards Civil War he was strongly royalist. He raised men at his own expense to fight in the First Bishops' War in Scotland in 1639-40 and then worked in harness with Lord Inchiquin to fight the Confederacy in Ireland in 1641-42, but he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Liscarroll in July 1642 and died a few weeks later. Once again, the heir was a minor: his son, Richard Barry (1630-94), 2nd Earl of Barrymore, who was sent to London (where he studied under John Milton for at least a year) and then to France, where he married a Catholic, against his mother's wishes. He stayed in France until his first wife's death but then returned to London, where he married the daughter of the president of Cromwell's council. These connections made him acceptable to both the Royalist and Parliamentarian factions, and at the Restoration he was able to become a colonel in the army and join the Irish privy council.

The 2nd Earl had fifteen children by his three wives and was succeeded first by his eldest son, Laurence Barry (c.1657-99), 3rd Earl of Barrymore, who died without issue, and then by Laurence's half-brother, Lt-Gen. James Barry (1667-1748), 4th Earl of Barrymore, who was a career soldier until relieved of his command at the time of the Jacobite uprising in 1715 on the grounds that his loyalty to the Hanoverians was doubtful. 

Rocksavage Hall: the Tudor house inherited by the 4th Earl passed to his
daughter and thence to the Cholmondeley family, under whom it fell into ruins.

By his second marriage, the 4th Earl acquired estates in Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire centered on Rocksavage Hall (Ches.) that brought with them political control of the parliamentary borough of Wigan. As an Irish peer he was eligible to sit in the British House of Commons, and he did so, first as MP for Stockbridge, 1710-13 and 1714-15, and then for Wigan, which he represented 1715-27 and 1734-47. As an old man, his sympathy for the Jacobite cause strengthened, and from 1740 onwards he was actively involved in planning for a second Jacobite rebellion, with the assistance of one of his younger sons, who was a naval officer. He was arrested on suspicion of treason in 1744, and had his papers seized, but after the rebellion failed the Government decided not to prosecute him, perhaps partly because of his age; he died at the beginning of 1748. His Cheshire estate had been settled on his daughter by his second wife at the time of her marriage to Maj-Gen. James Cholmondeley in 1730, and when he divorced her for adultery in 1736 passed permanently into the hands of that family. His other English property was bequeathed to the same daughter, who later sold it in 1760. His extensive property in Ireland, augmented by his purchase of Anngrove, passed to his eldest son, James Barry (1717-51), 5th Earl of Barrymore, who probably had substantial debts since he was living in Boulogne from 1748 until his death three years later. The 5th Earl's son, Richard Barrymore (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore, was just six years old when he inherited and was brought up by his mother. On reaching maturity, he joined the army, but he is chiefly remembered for his fondness for gambling and practical jokes. The jokes were sometimes very practical: for example, on one occasion he invited two friends to dine in a private room at an inn and, apparently on a whim, suggested a wager on how many playing cards it would take to entirely cover the floor of the room; what they did not know was that he had dined in the same room a few days previously and that after eating he had piled up all the furniture in the corridor outside and had conducted an experiment to determine the answer.

The 6th Earl married in 1767 and over the next six years had three sons and one daughter. He had leased Anngrove out, and in 1771 Castle Lyons was destroyed by fire, but he lived chiefly in London, where he had a house in Portman Square. In 1773 he died suddenly, probably of a fever (although dark tales circulated later to the effect that he had killed himself after losing heavily at cards), and once again the earldom passed to a minor, in this case Richard Barry (1769-93), 7th Earl of Barrymore. As adolescents lodged with a tutor at Wargrave (Berks), he and his brothers were known for their practical joking (on moonlit nights, they would occupy themselves with switching around the hanging innsigns of local Berkshire inns, so that puzzled landlords might go to bed in the Five Bells and wake up in the Rose & Crown). He had the misfortune to lose his mother in 1780, and the only restraining influence on his crucial formative years was his grandmother, who seems to have been indulgent to a fault.

Satirical print of the 7th Earl and his brothers by
James Gillray, 1791.

She sent him up to Eton with £1,000 in pocket money, which can only have encouraged profligacy and enabled him to explore all the vices which London had to offer at a tender age. He was intelligent, good-looking, charming, rash, and given to sudden enthusiasms on which a great deal of money might be spent before he tired of the occupation and moved on to something else, such as hunting (he bought his own pack of hounds) and boxing. His hedonistic lifetime brought him to the attention of George, Prince of Wales, to whose circle the 7th Earl and his siblings became known as the four Gates: the rash young earl was Hellgate; his next brother, who had a club foot, was Cripplegate; the youngest brother, always in scrapes, was Newgate; and the sister, known for her colourful language, was Billingsgate, which was witty, if not kind. 

Barrymore, Wargave: the house rented by the 7th Earl but much altered since his time. Image: Historic England.

Barrymore, Wargrave: the interior of the private theatre built by the 7th Earl c.1789 and demolished in 1792.

The Earl's only constant passion was for the theatre and amateur theatricals and when he rented a house at Wargrave (Berks) he built a theatre in the garden (reputedly at a cost of £60,000), in which full-scale performances were given to invited audiences by the Earl, his friends, and some professional actors. He also maintained a smaller theatre in London. Alongside unrestrained gambling and womanising, it begins to be credible that in less than five years he ran through a fortune of £300,000 (perhaps £20m today), leaving the Irish estates mortgaged to the hilt and having to be sold. As early as 1791 he had to come to an arrangement with his creditors whereby his income was reduced to an allowance of £2,500, while the remaining income from the estate was applied to reducing his debts, and it comes as something of a surprise to find that he managed to keep out of the bankruptcy courts and was even nominally solvent when he died in 1793. His death, like his life, was dramatic. He had become an officer in the militia and was being driven in a curricle as escort to a detachment of French prisoners of war being taken from Rye to Dover Castle. He was holding his musket between his knees when a particularly violent jolt caused it to be discharged and the ball went through his head: he died shortly afterwards. Although this sounds remarkably like a disguised suicide, the possibility does not seem to have been suggested at the time, and it may have been, as reported, a tragic accident.

The 7th Earl had married shortly before his death a great beauty who happened to be the daughter of a sedan chairman in London. Although the girl, who was a minor, married with her father's blessing, he had the romantic fantasy of eloping with her to Gretna Green for the marriage with all the speed he could command. She later married an army officer and survived, as plain Mrs Williams, until 1866.

"Lady Barrymore", the boxing baroness, was actually Mary Ann Pierce,
the former mistress of the 7th Earl of Barrymore.

The name 'Lady Barrymore' remained prominent in the London press throughout the early 19th century, however, because one of the 7th Earl's cast-off mistresses, Mary Ann Pierce (d. 1832) took to calling herself by that name. She became 'the lowest form of prostitute' and took to drink. When she was in liquor she became violent, and if a publican refused to serve her she thought nothing of breaking up his premises. She was a more than capable boxer (she had learned alongside the 7th Earl and the press dubbed her 'The Boxing Baroness'), and would beat up watchmen who came to arrest her. She appeared at Bow St. magistrates court more than 150 times charged with affray and similar offences, and is said to have spent seven of her last ten years in gaol, but once there, and dried out, she became a different person and was so useful in keeping order among the female prisoners that she was routinely employed by the prison authorities for that purpose.

The 7th Earl's club-footed younger brother, Henry Barry (1770-1823), succeeded him as 8th Earl of Barrymore, and completed the process of selling the family's Irish estates. He lived in London, and was also part of the Prince of Wales' set, but although he once fought a duel (something his elder brother is not recorded to have done), he had neither the income nor the personality to be a rake on the same scale. He married a daughter of Joseph Coghlan of the magical Ardo in Co. Waterford, but had no children, and on his death the earldom of Barrymore became extinct (it was the subject of a new creation for a descendant of the 4th Earl in 1902). The 8th Earl was also the 13th Viscount Buttevant and 26th Baron Barry, and a claim was made in the 1820s to these lesser titles, but could not be proved, and they too are now regarded as extinct.

Castle Lyons, Co. Cork

An early 17th century fortified mansion, built on the foundations of the castle of the O'Lehans, from whom the place took its name. It became the principal seat of the Barry family from the 1620s, when it superseded Barryscourt Castle. The house was apparently remodelled from 1636 onwards at the cost of the Earl of Cork for his son-in-law, David Barry (1605-42), 1st Earl of Barrymore. The new house was laid out around a central courtyard, with, on one side, the great hall, hung with weapons, on another the kitchen, and on a third side a two-storey gallery ninety feet long, which was, however, called unfinished in 1750 (work probably stopped with the start of war in 1640 and never resumed). One front of the house overlooked gardens with a large canal, supplied with water from the river by an aqueduct which also supplied the kitchens, which a visitor in 1797 said was contrived by a local miller 'after the exertions of a celebrated artist from England had failed in bringing the water by another course'; one wonders who the 'celebrated artist' was? The demesne included a deer park.

Castle Lyons: the ruins of the house today.

By the 18th century, the Earls of Barrymore were probably spending as much time in London and Dublin as in County Cork, but the 4th Earl (1667-1748) acquired Anngrove as a new seat, and Castle Lyons evidently fell into disrepair. The 6th Earl (1745-73), who lived chiefly in Dublin and London, let Anngrove, but in 1771 he was carrying out repairs at Castle Lyons when the carelessness of a tinker employed to make repairs to the lead roof caused the house to be burned down. It was never rebuilt, for the 6th Earl died two years after the fire and was succeeded by the infant 7th Earl (1769-93), who grew up to be a notorious rake, one of the boon companions of George, Prince of Wales, who gambled away the family fortune. He sold Castle Lyons and his other estates in Co. Cork and the ruins of the house, with numerous tall chimneys, remain a prominent object in the landscape..

Descent: James Barry (d. 1581), 4th Viscount Buttevant; to son, David Barry (1550-1617), 5th Viscount Buttevant; to grandson, David Barry (1605-42), 6th Viscount Buttevant and 1st Earl of Barrymore; to son, Richard Barry (1630-94), 2nd Earl of Barrymore; to son, Lawrence Barry (c.1657-99), 3rd Earl of Barrymore; to half-brother, James Barry (1667-1748), 4th Earl of Barrymore; to son, James Barry (1717-51), 5th Earl of Barrymore; to son, Richard Barry (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore; to son, Richard Barry (1769-93), 7th Earl of Barrymore; to brother, Henry Barry (1770-1823), 8th Earl of Barrymore, who sold 1799 to John Anderson.

Anngrove alias Ballinsperrig, Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork

Anngrove: the entrance front

Anngrove was a remarkable and important late 17th century house, built about 1685 for Sir James Cotter MP, a staunch Royalist who in 1664 went to Switzerland with two companions and shot the fugitive regicide, John Lisle, for which he was rewarded with a large pension and the Governorship of the Leeward Islands. Anngrove was built on his return from this posting, and consisted of a two storey five bay centre with a high hipped roof, and boldly projecting corner towers, capped with pyramidal roofs that were slightly lower than the high pitched roof of the central block. A moulded cornice and a prominent string course ran around the house and towers, uniting them into a single composition. Inside, one room originally contained a 'velvet bed with hangings and gold brocade' which was said to have belonged to Charles I and to have been a gift from Queen Henrietta Maria as a thank-you present to Cotter for his despatch of John Lisle. James II is supposed to have stayed a night in the house and to have slept in this bed, during his operations in Ireland in 1689-91.

The lands on which Anngrove was built were leased by Sir James Cotter from the Earls of Barrymore, and sometime after 1720 the 4th Earl bought back the lease. After the death of the 5th Earl, Anngrove was let again. Charles I's bed was taken to Castle Lyons, where it was destroyed in the fire of 1771. The Barrys then used the house again for a few years, but towards the end of the 18th century, Anngrove was sold by the profligate 7th Earl to the Wise family, from whom it was inherited in the 19th century by the Gubbins family. The estate was sold to the Land Commission in 1909, and by the 1950s the house was attached to a small farm. It began to suffer from subsidence and was progressively abandoned as it became dangerous. In the early 1960s a new bungalow was built behind the old house to replace it, and some fittings from the old house were relocated there before the shell of the building was blown up with the help of an explosives expert from a nearby quarry; demolition had taken place by 1965.

Descent: built for Sir James Cotter (c.1630-1705); to son, James Cotter (1689-1720); to widow Margaret, who sold to James Barry (1667-1748), 4th Earl of Barrymore; to son, James Barry (1717-51), 5th Earl of Barrymore; to son, Richard Barry (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore; to son, Richard Barry (1769-93), 7th Earl of Barrymore; who sold to Francis Wise (1766-1842); to nephew, Francis Wise (1797-1881); to nephew?, Thomas Wise Gubbins (d. 1904); estate sold to Irish Land Commission, 1909... Joe Fenton (fl. 1950-2000), who demolished the house c.1965.

Barry family of Castle Lyons etc., Viscounts Buttevant and Earls of Barrymore

Barry, James. Eldest son of Richard Barry, feudal baron of Ibawne and 3rd Barry Roe (Red Barry) and his wife, [forename unknown] O'Driscoll. He succeeded his father as the 4th Barry Roe. He married 1st, Ellen [surname unknown], whom he repudiated and had the marriage annulled by the church, and 2nd, Eileen (to whom he had been betrothed prior to his first marriage), daughter of Finn MacDermot MacCarthy Reagh, Lord of Carberry (and sister of his first wife's second husband!) and had issue:
(1.1) Richard Barry (q.v.)
(2.1) James Barry (d. 1507), feudal baron of Ibawne and 5th Barry Roe; died without issue at sea while returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, 1507;
(2.2) David Downe Barry; feudal baron of Ibawne and 6th Barry Roe; murdered his uncle Redmond Barry and his nephew Richard Barry; married Ellis, daughter of William Barry Oge, and had issue four sons (all of whom were killed by their cousin, James Barry (d. 1581), 4th Viscount Buttevant (q.v.), and two daughters; as well as an illegitimate son and daughter;
(2.3) A daughter; married as his first wife, Donal MacCarthy.
His date of death is unknown. His first wife married 2nd, Donal MacCarthy Reagh, daughter of Cormac McTeigh McCarthy, Lord of Muskerry; her date of death is unknown. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, Richard. Only child of James Barry, 4th Barry Roe, and his first wife Ellen, whom he repudiated; following the annulment of their marriage, Richard was declared illegitimate, and therefore, although he claimed the feudal barony of Ibawne, the family estates descended to his half-brother. He married 1st, Isabel, daughter of Sir James Fitzgerald, a younger son of the 8th Earl of Kildare KG, and 2nd, Moryda, daughter of [forename unknown] McMahon of Corkabaskin in Thomond, and had issue:
(1.1) James Barry, 4th Viscount Buttevant (q.v.);
(2.1) Richard Barry; murdered by his half-uncle, David Downe Barry, 6th Barry Roe.
He was known as 'of the Rath'.
His date of death is unknown. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, James (d. 1581), 4th Viscount Buttevant. Only son of Richard Barry and his first wife, Isabel, daughter of Sir James Fitzgerald. He is said to have murdered the four sons of his half-uncle David Downe Barry, and seized the feudal barony of Ibawne to which his father had been entitled de jure as the eldest son of the 4th Barry Roe. On 28 April 1558 he was granted a pardon for these crimes as 'James Barry of Barrescourt, Viscount Barrymore, otherwise James called Barrymore and Barryroe', and he was summoned to Parliament on 12 January 1559/60 as 'James le Barry D[omi]n[u]s de Buttevant', and placed next after the earls in order of precedence. By a deed of 18 March 1560/1 he obtained from Edmond Barry of Rathgobbane (who was the rightful heir to the Barry peerages, to which he should have succeeded in 1558), a surrender of the family estates to him and his heirs for ever', and he had livery of these estates from the Crown on the 27 April 1561 in a deed addressed to him as 'James Barry, Viscount Buttevant, kinsman and heir of James late Lord', which marks the Crown's acquiescence in his succession to the estates as well as the title. He was knighted at Limerick, 30 March 1567, and on 5 April that year he had a commission to execute martial law which recognised him as Lord Barrymore as well as Viscount Buttevant. He married, by 1548, Eileen alias Ellen, illegitimate daughter of Cormac MacCarthy Reagh, and had issue:
(1) Richard Barry (d. 1622), de jure Viscount Buttevant; born deaf and dumb, and on that account (although not mentally impaired) was omitted from the succession to the peerage; he seems to have held a part of the family estates which passed on his death to his great-nephew, the 6th Viscount; he died unmarried and without issue at Liscarroll, 24 April 1622;
(2) David Barry (1550-1617), 5th Viscount Buttevant (q.v.);
(3) Hon. William Barry (d. 1584), of Timoleague; married Sheelagh (alias Julia) (fl. 1594), daughter of Sir Finn MacCarthy Reagh and had issue two sons; died about August 1584; inquisition post mortem held 4 November 1584;
(4) Hon. Edmund Barry (d. by 1602); died without issue before 1602;
(5) Hon. John Barry (d. 1627), of Liscarroll; high sheriff of Co. Cork, 1602-03; married 1st, Joan, daughter of Edmund Fitzgerald, The White Knight, but had no issue; married 2nd, Ellen, daughter of Sir Dermot McTeige McCarthy and had issue five sons and one daughter; died 31 January 1627;
(6) Hon. Joan Barry; married David Roche, 7th Viscount Roche of Fermoy (d. 1635) and had issue five sons and four daughters;
(7) Hon. Honora Barry; married Patrick Condon of Ballymacpatrick (Co. Cork);
(8) Hon. Eleanor Barry; married Sir Owen O'Sullivan;
(9) Hon. Ilane Barry; married Callaghan McTeige McCarthy of Muskerry.
He seized the barony of Ibawne on the south coast of County Cork from the cousins he murdered, and presumably extorted the Barrymore estates from his kinsman Edmond Barry by the implied threat of similar violence.
He died 10 April 1581; an inquisition post mortem was apparently not held until 31 March 1624. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Barry, David (1550-1617), 5th Viscount Buttevant. Second son of James Barry (d. 1581), 4th Viscount Buttevant, and his wife Eileen alias Ellen, illegitimate daughter of Cormac MacCarthy Reagh, born 1550. He succeeded his father in at least some of the family estates and assumed the title of 5th Viscount Buttevant, 10 April 1581, as his elder brother was deaf and dumb; this was apparently accepted by the Crown as he was summoned to Parliament in 1585 as the 'Viscount of Barry, alias Buttevant', and placed next in precedence to the Earls. He joined the Earl of Desmond's rebellion in 1593 but abandoned the rebel cause in 1599 and made his peace with the Crown by paying a fine of £500 in 1602. He thereafter remained faithful to the Crown and was granted 31-year leases by King James I on a great part of the McCarthy lands which had been forfeited to the Crown. By 1615 he was one of the Council of the province of Munster. He married 1st, Ellen (fl. 1599), younger daughter of David Roche, 5th Viscount Roche of Fermoy, and 2nd, Sheelagh (alias Julia), daughter of Cormac McCarthy of Muskerry, and had issue, perhaps with others*:
(1.1) Hon. David Barry (d. 1604/5) (q.v.);
(1.2) Hon. Honora Barry; married 1st, as his second wife, Gerald FitzGerald, of the Decies, and 2nd, Patrick Browne (d. 1637) of Mulrankin (Co. Wexford), and had issue two sons and several daughters;
(1.3) Hon. Helena Barry (d. 1642); married 1st, John Oge Le Poer (aka Power) (killed by Edmund Fitzgerald, the White Knight, before 1606), eldest son and heir of Richard Power, 4th Baron Power of Curraghmore, and had issue one son (the 5th Baron Power); married 2nd, by December 1606, as his third wife, Thomas Butler KG (d. 1614), 10th Earl of Ormonde, but had no issue; married 3rd, 15 August 1616, Sir Thomas Somerset KB (c.1579-c.1651), 1st and only Viscount Somerset of Cashel (Co. Tipp.) of Badminton House (Glos), third son of Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, and had further issue one daughter; died in 1642 and was buried at Raglan (Monmouths.);
(1.4) Hon. Mary [name uncertain] Barry; married James Tobin of Kumpshinagh (otherwise Compsy, near Clonmel) (Co. Tipp.);
(1.5) Hon. Ellen Barry; married Sir Edmund (aka John) FitzGerald (d. 1640) of Ballymaloe (Co. Cork), and had issue one daughter (who died young);
(1.6) Hon. Catherine Barry; married Richard Burke of Derry Maclaghny (Co. Galway);
(1.7) Hon. Margaret Barry (d. c.1609?); married, c.1603, Rt. Hon. Robert Dillon, 2nd Earl of Roscommon (d. 1642) (who m2, Lady Dorothy (b. 1579), youngest daughter of George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon and widow of Sir James Stewart, and m3, c.1625, Anne, daughter of Sir William Stroud and widow of Lord Folliott, and had further issue by both of them), and had issue three sons; perhaps died about 1609;
(2.1) Hon. Joan (alias Margaret) Barry; married Sir Dermot O'Shaughnessy (d. 1673) of Gartinshegory (Co. Galway) and had issue two sons and three daughters.
He inherited Barryscourt Castle from his father in 1581.
He died at Barryscourt, 10 April 1617. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His widow married 2nd, as his second wife, Sir Roger O'Shaughnessy (d. c.1650), but her date of death is unknown.
* The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that the 5th Viscount and his second wife had three sons and four daughters.

Barry, Hon. David (d. 1604/5). Eldest son of David Barry (1550-1617), 5th Viscount Buttevant, and his first wife, Ellen, younger daughter of 5th Viscount Roche of Fermoy. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Power, 4th Lord Power, of Curraghmore (Co. Waterford), and had issue:
(1) James Barry (fl. 1600); elder son; died before 1605;
(2) David Barry (1605-42), 6th Viscount Buttevant and 1st Earl of Barrymore (q.v.).
He died in the lifetime of his father in 1604/5. His widow's date of death is unknown.

Barry, David (1605-42), 6th Viscount Buttevant and 1st Earl of Barrymore. Only surviving child of the Hon. David Barry (d. 1604/5) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Richard le Poer, 4th Lord le Power and Curraghmore, born after his father's death, 10 March 1604/5, probably at Buttevant (Co. Cork). He was a ward of John Chichester, 1610-12 and then of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and was brought up a Protestant. He succeeded his grandfather as 6th Viscount Buttevant, 10 April 1617. His guardian paid £3,000 for him to be created, 28 February 1627/8, 1st Earl of Barrymore, and he took his seat in the Irish parliament as such, 14 July 1634. He was commissioned in 1639 to raise a regiment of 1,000 men in Ireland for service in the first bishops' war in Scotland, but he was only able to raise a small force because of lack of funds. He commanded a regiment again in 1640, and served as its Colonel. In 1641, with the start of the Irish rising, he garrisoned his castle at Shandon near Cork for the king, and in 1641-42 he led successful military operations against the Irish confederates which secured Co. Cork for the king. He was then joined with Lord Inchiquin in a commission for the civil government of Munster, but he was, however, wounded at the Battle of Liscarroll in July 1642, and died a couple of months later. A portrait at Fota House, normally described as being of the 1st Earl, is evidently of an unidentified man who was aged 66 in 1636, and no likeness of him seems to have survived. He married, 29 July 1621*, Lady Alice (1607-66), eldest daughter of his guardian, Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and had issue:
(1) Richard Barry (1630-94), 2nd Earl of Barrymore (q.v.);
(2) Lady Ellen Barry (1631-55), said to have been born 9 September 1631; married, before 1652, as his first wife, Sir Arthur Denny (1629-73) of Tralee Castle (Co. Kerry), and had issue one son; died 1655;
(3) Lady Catherine Barry (b. 1632?), said to have been born in 1632; married Edward Denny (1630-95) of Castle Lyons, son of Sir Edward Denny of Tralee Castle (Co. Kerry) and had issue three sons;
(4) Hon. James Barry (c.1635-64), born about 1635; an officer in the army; died without issue, 1664.
He inherited Barryscourt Castle and Castle Lyons from his grandfather in 1617 and the estates of his deaf-and-dumb great-uncle in 1622. He had livery of his lands, 13 May 1625; his guardian (who continued to exert much influence after Barry came of age, as he held mortgages on most of the Barry lands) paid for the remodelling of Castle Lyons from 1636.
He died 29 September 1642 and was buried in the Boyle vault at Youghal (Co. Cork). His widow married 2nd, by 1645, Col. John Barry of Liscarrol, who was a Roman Catholic, and died 23 March 1666, being buried at St. Patrick, Dublin (as 'Mrs Barry') on 25 March 1666.
* He was 16 and she was 14 at the time of this marriage.

Barry, Rt. Hon. Richard (1630-94), 2nd Earl of Barrymore. Elder son of David Barry (1605-42), 6th Viscount Buttevant and 1st Earl of Barrymore, and his wife Lady Alice, eldest daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, born in Dublin, 16 October and baptised at St Werburgh, Dublin, 4 November 1630. He succeeded his father as 2nd Earl, 29 September 1642, at the age of 12, and was made a ward of his mother at the king's command. He was educated privately, including a period in 1645-47 when he was in London and his tutor was the famous poet, John Milton: not an obvious choice for a young man with an ardently Royalist mother and a Catholic stepfather. In or before 1649 he went to France, where he married, against the wishes of his mother, one of Queen Henrietta Maria's ladies in waiting and lived until after her death. His second marriage aligned him, by contrast, with the Commonwealth administration, and may be a reflection of his political astuteness in seeking advantageous alliances. At the Restoration he was included in a special pardon issued by Charles II to the family and friends of the Earl of Orrery (who was his uncle), and he became an officer in the army (Col., 1661). He sat in the Irish Parliament from 1661-94, including during King James II's parliament of 1689, and was sworn of the Irish Privy Council, 1661 and again, 1687. He married 1st, before December 1649 in France, Susan (1629?-c.1655), daughter of Sir William Killigrew, 2nd, November 1656, Martha (d. 1664), daughter of Henry Lawrence of London, President of Cromwell's Council, and 3rd, February 1666, Dorothy, daughter of John Ferrer of Dromore (Co. Down), and had issue:
(1.1) Lady Mary Barry (c.1650-1711); married 1st, Rev. Garrett Barry (d. 1685), Chancellor of Armagh Cathedral, and 2nd, Rev. Christopher Sheares (c.1662-1704), rector of Ballymore and Tandragee (Co. Armagh), and had issue 'a numerous family'; died at Dun Laoghaire (Co. Dublin), 1711;
(1.2) Lady Catherine Barry (b. c.1651; fl. 1699); married 1st, 1666 (settlement), John Townsend (b. c.1646; fl. 1675), son of Col. Richard Townsend of Castletown (later Castle Townshend, Co. Cork), and had issue one son and two daughters; married 2nd, 1679 (licence), Capt. Charles Barclay of London, and had further issue one daughter; living at Skibbereen (Co. Cork) in 1699;
(1.3) Lady Susan Barry (b. c.1653); died unmarried;
(2.1) Lady Martha Barry (d. 1657); died young, 1657;
(2.2) Lawrence Barry (c.1657-99), 3rd Earl of Barrymore (q.v.);
(2.3) Hon. Richard Barry; died young;
(2.4) Hon. David Barry; died young;
(2.5) Lady Theodora Barry; married Charles May (d. 1724);
(3.1) James Barry (1667-1747), 4th Earl of Barrymore (q.v.);
(3.2) Hon. Richard Barry (c.1668-1754); educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1681; BA 1685; MA 1688); appointed joint second remembrancer of the Court of Exchequer (a sinecure), 1683; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1697; Lt-Col., 1706; retired about 1715), who was captured at the Battle of Almansa, 1707; burgess of Carlingford, c.1713; MP for Enniscorthy, 1692-93, 1695-99 and for Baltimore, 1713-14; died 1754;
(3.3) Lady Dorothy Barry (c.1670-1749); married Col. Sir John Jacob (c.1665-1740), 3rd bt. of West Wratting Park (Cambs), who sold his colonelcy of a regiment of foot to his brother-in-law, the 4th Earl, and had issue one son and three daughters; died 27 January 1748/9;
(3.4) Lady Anne Barry (d. by 1720); married, c.1700, Rt. Rev. Dr. Henry Maule (1676-1758), rector of Mourneabbey, Shandon etc. and later bishop of Cloyne, 1726-31, Dromore, 1731-44 and Meath, 1744-58 (who m2, c.1720, Catherine, daughter of Sir Richard Rooth or Ruth and widow of William Stawell (d. 1701) of Kinsale, and m3, 1725, Dorothy (d. 1743), daughter of Capt. Thomas Gookin of Bandon and widow of Rev. R. Roffen, without further issue), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died before 1720;
(3.5) Lady Margaret Barry; married, 1711, Thomas Crosbie (d. 1731) of Ballyheigue (Co. Kerry), MP for Dingle, 1713-14, 1715-31, and had issue one son and two daughters;
(3.6) Lady Elizabeth Barry; died young;
(3.7) Hon. David John Barry (c.1688-1744), of Mahon (Co. Cork); educated at Cork and Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1705); an officer in the army (Lt., 1708; Capt., 1712; retired 1716); sheriff of Cork, 1728; MP for Belfast, 1727-44; married Margaret, daughter of Frederick Crosbie and widow of John Blennerhassett of Ballyseedy; died October 1744;
(3.8) Hon. Ferdinando William Barry; died young.
He inherited Castle Lyons from his father in 1642.
He died November 1694. His first wife died before 1656. His second wife died in 1664 and was buried at St. Margarets (Herts). His widow married 2nd, as his third wife, Sir Matthew Deane (c.1626-1711), 1st bt., of Dromore; her date of death is unknown.

Barry, Lawrence (c.1657-99), 3rd Earl of Barrymore. Eldest son of Richard Barry (1630-94), 2nd Earl of Barrymore, and his second wife Martha, daughter of Henry Lawrence of London, born c.1657. He was attainted by the Parliament of King James II in 1689 for remaining in England, but restored soon afterwards. He succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Barrymore, November 1694, and took his seat in the Irish parliament, 27 August 1695. He married, 1682, Hon. Catherine Barry (1663-1737), eldest daughter of Richard Barry, 2nd Baron Barry of Santry, but had no issue.
He inherited Castle Lyons from his father in 1694.
He died 17 April 1699. His widow married 2nd, 1699, Francis Gash, revenue collector, and 3rd, 8 December 1729, Sir Henry Piers (1678-1734), 3rd bt., of Tristernagh; she died 8 June and was buried at St Mary, Dublin, 10 June 1737; her will was proved 1744.

James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore

Barry, Rt. Hon. James (1667-1748), 4th Earl of Barrymore. Eldest son of Richard Barry (1630-94), 2nd Earl of Barrymore, by his third wife, Dorothy, daughter of John Ferrer of Dromore (Co. Down), born 1667. He succeeded his half-brother as 4th Earl, 17 April 1699, but did not take his seat in the Irish parliament until 14 February 1703/4. He was an officer in the army, 1688-98 and 1702-15 (Capt., 1689-93, 1694-98; half-pay 1698-1702; Col., 1702; Brig-Gen. 1707; Maj-Gen. 1709; Lt-Gen. 1711), and was pardoned for an unspecified 'crime or misdemeanour' in 1700. He served under Lord Galway in Spain and was taken prisoner at Caya, 1709, being freed and returning to London in 1710; he was again in Spain in 1712 and 1713, where he was for a time second-in-command to the Duke of Argyll, but he was relieved of his command in 1715 at the time of the Jacobite uprising, presumably because of concerns about his loyalty. As an Irish peer he was allowed to sit in the British House of Commons, and he was Tory MP for Stockbridge, 1710-13, 1714-15 and for Wigan, 1715-27 and 1734-47 and was appointed to the Privy Council for Ireland, 1714; his adherence to the Tories was somewhat capricious, and he occasionally voted with the Whigs. He was made a freeman of Cork, 1700, Salisbury, 1712 and a burgess of Wigan, 1712 and served as Mayor of Wigan in 1725 and 1734, where he built a new Town Hall in 1720. He was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Oxford (DCL), 1735/6 at the time of his son's graduation. He embraced the Jacobite cause in his later years, conspiring from about 1740 with English Tories for a Stuart restoration aided by a French invasion. In 1740, he visited Cardinal Fleury to persuade him to support it, and in 1743 Louis XV's master of horse, the 2nd Duke of Ormonde, travelled to London to meet Barrymore and other Tory peers to conspire to French invasion. Barrymore was to be part of the Young Pretender's council of regency should the invasion be successful. In February 1744 the British government discovered from a spy in their service in France the English members of the conspiracy and Barrymore was arrested. After the collapse of the Jacobite rising of 1745 the government decided not to prosecute Barrymore, perhaps partly on the grounds of his age. He married 1st (with £10,000), perhaps c.1693, Hon. Elizabeth Boyle (1662-1703), daughter of Charles Boyle, Lord Clifford of Londesborough and sister of the 3rd Earl of Cork, 2nd, June 1706 (without her father's consent or knowledge), Lady Elizabeth (d. 1714), daughter and heiress of Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, and 3rd, 12 July 1716 at St Anne, Soho, London, Lady Anne (d. 1753), youngest daughter of Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall, and had issue:
(1.1) A son (d. 1707), born before 1703; died 30 May 1707;
(1.2) Lady Charlotte Barry (d. 1708), born before 1703; died unmarried and was buried at St Michan, Dublin, 1 June 1708;
(1.3) Lady Anne Barry; married James Maule (d. 1749), son of Rt. Rev. Henry Maule, bishop of Cloyne and later of Dromore and of Meath, but died soon afterwards;
(2.1) Lady Penelope Barry (1708-86), born 18 April 1708; inherited Wardley (Lancs) from her father but sold it to the Duke of Bridgewater, 1760; married, 1730*, (div. for adultery, 1736) Maj-Gen. the Hon. James Cholmondeley (1708-75), youngest son of George Cholmondeley, 2nd Earl of Cholmondeley, but had no issue; died 1786;
(3.1) James Barry (1717-51), 5th Earl of Barrymore (q.v.);
(3.2) Lady Catherine Barry (1718-38), born 9 November and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 4 December 1718; died unmarried, 1738;
(3.3) Hon. Richard Barry (1721-87) [for whom see Smith-Barry family of Marbury Hall, Belmont Hall, Fota Island and Ballyedmond]
(3.4) Lady Anne Barry (c.1722-58); married, c.1750, Walter Taylor of Castle Taylor, Ardrahan (Co. Galway) (who m2, October 1766, Hester, daughter of Richard Trench MP of Garbally (Co. Galway), and had issue one son and four daughters); died without issue, 21 March 1758;
(3.5) Hon. Arthur Barry (1724-70), born 1724; educated at Westminster School, 1733-40, Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1742) and Lincolns Inn (admitted 1742); admitted a burgess of Belfast, 1753; MP for Belfast in the Irish Parliament, 1757-60; portrait painted by Francis Cotes is now at Tabley House (Ches.); lived at Ruloe, Weaverham (Ches.); died unmarried in Dublin, 23 October 1770 and was buried at Great Budworth (Ches.); will proved in the PCC, 8 January 1771;
(3.6) Hon. John Barry (later Smith-Barry) (1725-84) [for whom see Smith-Barry family of Marbury Hall, Belmont Hall, Fota Island and Ballyedmond].
He inherited Castle Lyons from his half-brother in 1699, and purchased Anngrove alias Ballinsperrig, where he lived when in Ireland. In 1712 he successfully challenged the will of Lord Rivers (which had left nothing to his second wife), and subsequently inherited the Brignall (Yorks NR), Rocksavage (Ches.) and Wardley (Lancs) estates, the latter giving him control of the Rivers family's political interest at Wigan. He made some additions to the house at Rocksavage.
He died 5 January 1747/8 and was buried at Castlelyons, where he was commemorated by a monument. His first wife died in 1703; administration of her goods was granted to her husband, 10 October 1703. His second wife died in childbirth, 19 March 1714. His widow died in December 1753 and was buried at Castlelyons.
* By this marriage the Rocksavage estate passed to the Cholmondeleys, but Rocksavage Hall was abandoned soon afterwards.

Barry, James (1717-51), 5th Earl of Barrymore. Eldest son of James Barry (1667-1748), 4th Earl of Barrymore, and his third wife, Lady Anne, youngest daughter of Arthur Chichester, 3rd Earl of Donegall, born 25 April 1717. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1733; MA 1735/6). He succeeded his father as 5th Earl, 5 January 1747/8. He married, 8 June 1738 (with £30,000), Hon. Margaret (c.1710-88), younger daughter of Paul Davys, 1st Viscount Mount Cashell and sister and heiress of the 3rd Viscount (d. 1736), and had issue:
(1) James Barry (1739-40), born 27 January 1738/9; died in infancy, February 1739/40;
(2) Anne Barry (1740-42); died young, 12 July 1742;
(3) Lady Catherine Barry (b. 1741), baptised 23 December 1741; died young;
(4) Lady Margaret Barry (b. c.1743), born about 1743; died young;
(5) A son; died in infancy;
(6) Richard Barry (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore (q.v.).
He inherited Anngrove and Castle Lyons from his father in 1747, but lived in Boulogne from 1748 until shortly before his death.
He died in Dublin, 19 December 1751*; his will was proved in 1752. His widow died in Dublin, 2 December 1788; her will was proved in March 1791.
*An earlier report, that he had died in Boulogne in August 1751, was later retracted.

Barry, Richard (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore. Only surviving child of James Barry (1717-51), 5th Earl of Barrymorre, and his wife Hon. Margaret, daughter of Paul Davys, 1st Viscount Mount Cashell, born October 1745. Educated at Westminster and Eton, and is said to have been at Oxford, although he apparently never matriculated. In the summer of 1764 he was at the Turin Academy with a tutor, Capt. Dobson, for some months, but Lord Kildare wrote home to say "if you but knew all the bad stories in this town [Turin] about that young man, you'd pity his good mother". He succeeded his father as 6th Earl, 19 December 1751, at the age of six. An officer in the 9th Dragoons (Capt., 1767). He was very fond of practical jokes and of gambling on horses and wagers, sometimes combining the two to ensure he was betting on a predetermined outcome. He married, 16 April 1767 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), Lady Amelia (aka Emily) (1749-80), third daughter of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington, and had issue:
(1) Lady Carolina Barry (b. 1768), born 17 May 1768; known, from her language, as 'Billingsgate' by George, Prince of Wales; married, 23 July 1788 (annulled), Louis Pierre Francois Malcolm Drummond (d. c.1833), Comte de Melfort (who m2, Lady Caroline (d. 1846), daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Seaforth, and had issue three sons and one daughter), and had issue one daughter (who died young in 1811); although she was assumed to be still living in press reports of the 8th Earl's death in 1823, she may have died some years earlier;
(2) Richard Barry (1769-93), 7th Earl of Barrymore (q.v.);
(3) Henry Barry (1770-1823), 8th Earl of Barrymore (q.v.);
(4) Rev. the Hon. Augustus Barry (1773-1818), born 16 July and baptised at St. Marylebone, 14 August 1773; educated at Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 1798; BA 1801); ordained deacon, 1803; like his brothers, a member of the Prince Regent's circle, to whom he was known as 'Newgate' on account of being perennially at risk of arrest for debt; died unmarried at Molesey (Surrey), 27 November 1818.
He inherited Anngrove and Castle Lyons from his father in 1751, but let Anngrove. Castle Lyons was destroyed by fire in 1771. He probably lived chiefly in London, where he had a house in Portman Square.
He died at Dromana of a fever (or according to some reports, by his own hand, after losing heavily at cards), 1 August 1773, and was buried at Castlelyons. His widow died  in France, 5 September 1780; her will was proved in April 1781.

Richard Barry, 7th Earl of Barrymore

Barry, Richard (1769-93), 7th Earl of Barrymore. Elder son of Richard Barry (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore, and his wife Lady Amelia, third daughter of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington, born 14 August and baptised at St Marylebone (Middx), 10 September 1769. Educated privately at Wargrave (Berks) and then at Eton, 1784-86. An officer in the Berkshire militia (Ensign, 1789; Lt., 1790; Capt., 1793); Whig MP for Heytesbury, 1791-93. He succeeded his father as 7th Earl, 1 August 1773 and came into possession of his estates, which were worth £10,000 a year, in 1788, although by then he had borrowed extensively on his expectations to enable him to gratify a taste for racing, gambling and amateur theatricals. Indeed, he is reputed to have squandered £300,000 during his short lifetime on these amusements and lavish entertainments for his friends. He maintained two private theatres (the one at his house in Berkshire is said to have cost £60,000 to build and equip in 1788 but the fittings were sold off to help meet his debts in 1792 and the building was then pulled down and replaced by a new stable and coach house; the other, which was a converted auction room in Savile Row, London, and had been a marionette theatre previously, required only £1,500 to make it 'one of the prettiest theatres we have seen'). By 1791 he had to come to an arrangement with his bankers by which he was paid an allowance of £2,500 a year while the remainder of his income was put towards satisfying his debts; he entered parliament chiefly for the protection it offered him for arrest for debt. On account of his wild spirits and behaviour he was known as 'Hellgate' to his friend the Prince of Wales, to whom the Duke of York wrote after his death ‘Though he was a great rogue, yet to be sure it must be confessed that when he pleased he could be exceedingly good company'. He was a friend and patron of several of the greatest figures in theatre and the arts of his day, including David Garrick and Johann Zoffany. His life and death excited such public interest that a Life of the late Earl of Barrymore was rushed into print by his friend J.M. Williams ("Anthony Pasquin") and reached a third and enlarged edition before the end of 1793*. In his person he was a tall, thin man over six feet in height, and he is said to have been personally abstemious despite his lavish entertainment of others. He married, 20 June 1792 at Gretna Green, Charlotte Goulding (c.1776-1866), 'a lady of much personal beauty and adequately accomplish'd', who was however the daughter of a sedan chairman; they had no issue. For some years before his marriage, he had a mistress, Mary Ann Pierce (d. 1832)**, who, after he abandoned her, took to drink and "passed...to the lowest grade of prostitution"; she was handy with her fists and appeared more than 150 times at Bow St. magistrates court charged with affray or being drunk and disorderly. She is said to have spent seven of her last ten years in the Tothill Fields Bridewell, where once she had sobered up she was a model prisoner and was indeed employed as a matron for the other female prisoners. 
He inherited 140,000 acres in Co. Cork from his father in 1773 but sold seven estates before his death. He lived at Barrymore, Wargrave (Berks) and in London, where he began building a house at 105 Piccadilly to the designs of Michael Novosielski (c.1747-95), which was unfinished at his death and later became an hotel. Since Novosielski was a specialist in the design of theatres, he may also have designed the theatre which Barrymore built his house in Wargrave. 
He died as the result of the accidental discharge of a musket being jolted around in a curricle while he was escorting French prisoners of war from Rye (Sussex) to Deal (Kent), 6 March 1793. He was buried in the chancel at Wargrave, 17 March 1793; administration of his goods was granted 26 March 1794 (effects under £5,000)***. His widow married 2nd, 22 September 1794 at St George, Hanover Sq., London, Capt. John Matthew Williams of the 3rd Foot Guards, and had issue one daughter; her will was proved 18 October 1866. His former mistress was buried at St. Giles in the Fields, 23 October 1832.
* A further biography of the Earl and his brothers was written a century later by John Robert Robinson as The Last Earls of Barrymore (1894).
** She sometimes called herself 'Lady Barrymore' and on that account has sometimes been confused with the 7th Earl's widow. She was also popularly known as 'the Boxing baroness'. 
*** A dispute between his widow and his brother about the right to administer his estate was adjusted by his widow giving up this right in return for payment of an annuity of £300 a year out of the estate.

Barry, Henry (1770-1823), 8th Earl of Barrymore. Younger son of Richard Barry (1745-73), 6th Earl of Barrymore, and his wife Lady Emily, third daughter of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington, born 16 August and baptised at St Marylebone, 21 October 1770. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 1788). An officer in the First Barrymore Cavalry Volunteers (Capt., 1796) and the South Cork Militia (Lt-Col.). He was born with a club foot, which led to his being dubbed 'Cripplegate' by his friend George, Prince of Wales. In 1806 he fought a duel with a Mr Howarth near Brighton following a dispute at cards, in which neither party, fortunately, was injured. He married, 24 January 1795 at Cork, Anne (d. 1832), eldest daughter of Jeremiah Coghlan of Ardo (Co. Waterford) and sister of the 9th Duchess de Castries, but had no legitimate issue*. 
He lived in Sackville St., Westminster (Middx). He sold his brother's Wargrave house in 1795 and the remaining Irish estates in 1799 to John Anderson of Cork.
He died of a stroke at the house of the Duc de Castries in Paris, 20 December 1823, when the earldom became extinct and the viscountcy of Buttevant and barony of Barrymore became extinct or dormant*; administration of his goods was granted 1 December 1826. His widow died in Paris, 6 May 1832; her will was proved in July 1832. 
* Near-contemporary sources all reiterate the statement that he had no legitimate issue, which implies that there were illegitimate children, but I have found no evidence of them.
** The Viscountcy of Buttevant was assumed by James Redmond Barry of Donoughmore (Co. Cork) as heir male of the body of the 4th Viscount. His claim to vote in the election of Irish representative peers was considered by the House of Lords in 1825, but not all the descent was capable of proof and the claim was not renewed.

Principal sources

Burke's Irish Family Records, 1976, pp. 66-75; E. Barry, Barrymore : records of the Barrys of County Cork from the earliest to the present time, with pedigrees, 1902; G.E. C[okayne], The complete peerage, vol. 1, 1910, pp. 435-49; J.G. Taaffe, 'John Milton's student, Richard Barry: a biographical note', Huntington Library Quarterly, August 1962, pp. 325-36; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn., 1990, pp. 6, 34, 72; P. Little, 'The Geraldine ambitions of the First Earl of Cork', Irish Historical Studies, Nov. 2002, pp. 151-68; V. Costello, Irish demesne landscapes, 1660-1740, 2015, p. 160; ODNB entries on 3rd [sic] Viscount Buttevant, 1st Earl of Barrymore and 4th Earl of Barrymore.

Location of archives

Some records are included among the papers of the Smith-Barry family (who will be the subject of a future post) but no substantial archive is known.

Coat of arms

Argent, three bars genelle gules

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide further drawings or photographs of Anngrove/Ballinsperrig, and especially any interiors? It seems remarkable that such a significant house should leave so little trace in the records. 
• Does anyone know anything about the mistress(es) or putative illegitimate children of the 8th Earl?
• I should be most grateful if anyone can provide photographs or portraits of people whose names appear in bold above, and who are not already illustrated.
• As always, any additions or corrections to the account given above will be gratefully received and incorporated.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 1 May 2020 and updated 16-20 June 2020, 3 November 2021.