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| Bellew of Barmeath Castle, Barons Bellew |
The genealogy below begins with Sir John Bellew (c.1520-1600), kt., who was settled at Bellewstown (Co. Meath), and who married three times and produced a large family, not all of whom can be identified. Bellewstown descended to his eldest son, Sir Christopher Bellew (1545-1610), from whom descended the first branch of the family to be ennobled, the Barons Bellew of Duleek, whose peerage was granted by James II in 1686. The 1st and 2nd Barons were active campaigners in the army of King James in the Williamite war and were both wounded at the Battle of Aughrim. After the death of the 2nd Baron in 1694, their property passed to his younger brother, Richard Bellew, 3rd Baron Bellew of Duleek, who conformed to the established church and appears to have divided his time between England and Ireland. As far as I can establish, this branch of the family never established a country house, and when the 4th Baron died at Lille (France) in 1770, the peerage became extinct.
The lake and pleasure grounds were designed by Thomas Wright (1711-85), the 'Wizard of Durham', a polymath who acted as tutor and adviser to a number of aristocratic families and provided designs for distinctive Rococo garden layouts. While most of his known work is in England, he visited Ireland in 1746-47 at the invitation of Lord Limerick and designed a series of garden buildings on the latter's estate at Tollymore in County Down. He explored County Louth in some detail, and wrote a book about its antiquities called Louthiana, published in 1748. Wright was almost certainly a freemason, and this perhaps explains his introduction to the Bellews. His layout at Barmeath, which was presumably designed for Sir John Bellew, 4th bt., while he was in Ireland in the 1740s, survives remarkably complete and includes a small lake, an archery ground, a maze, a hermitage, a shell house and a rustic bridge, as well as a recently-restored four-acre walled garden. Since the garden layout must date from the 1740s, when Wright was in Ireland, it seems likely that Sir John was planning the remodelling of both the house and gardens, but that his death prevented the plans being carried out or completed until after his brother inherited in 1750.
The crenellated central block was of two storeys, with a two-storey projecting porch in the centre decorated with a battlemented gable and pinnacles. To either side of this were four bays, with the end bays being slightly wider and stepped forward; they had quatrefoil windows on the first floor. The connecting links were of three bays, demarcated by buttresses crowned by pinnacles, and led to single-bay single-storey wings with battlemented gables and pinnacles. Although the wings were only one bay wide, they ran back a long way and one wing incorporated a further tower feature with quatrefoil decoration and a crocketed cupola. According to a description of 1829, the entrance hall was 'a noble apartment, finished in the most florid style of Gothic architecture', while the saloon and library were 'chaste designs, cleverly executed'. A corridor containing a collection of ancestral portraits, led to a theatre, where amateur productions were performed 'before a fashionable and happy assemblage' on a regular basis in the 1820s and 1830s; the theatre was destroyed in a fire in 1840.
Later in the 19th century, one of the wings was rebuilt - perhaps for George Leopold Bryan (1828-80) - in a more substantial type of Gothic, with corbelled bartisans, and the centre block was largely pulled down (perhaps with the unfulfilled intention of rebuilding it). The architect for the new wing may have been Charles Frederick Anderson (1802-69). The central block was not rebuilt but was replaced by a somewhat makeshift single-storey corridor, which became the only indoor link between the wing in which the family lived and that which housed their servants. When the surviving wall of the old central block collapsed onto the corridor, the connection was severed, and Lord Bellew joked that he was changing the name of the place to Ballyshambles!
During the Second World War, the house was occupied by the Irish army, and after the war, much of it was pulled down, leaving only the former chapel, which was adopted for parochial worship, and some ruins. After the chapel closed and was deconsecrated in 1983, however, it and the surviving ruins were incorporated into a new house built after 1996 for the songwriter Jimmy MacCarthy.
Sir John's second son, John Bellew (c.1548-89) was given a part of his father's estate at Lisrany near Ardee at his marriage in 1575, and he and his son, Patrick Bellew (c.1577-1610), added to this, through their marriages, further lands in Co. Louth, so that the estate came to encompass some 700 acres. Patrick's son, John Bellew (1605-79), was sent to study at Grays Inn in London and was probably subsequently articled to Richard Hadsor, an attorney in the Inner Temple, whose family had an estate near Lisrany. Having completed his studies he returned to Ireland to practice as an attorney and in 1632 he purchased an additional property at Willistown (Co. Louth), where he made his home. For a brief period in the late 1630s, when he became an MP in the Irish parliament and a JP, and held an estate of some 1400 acres as well as his legal practice, he must have must have been prosperous and hopeful of further advancement. But the storm clouds that led to two decades of political and religious conflict in Ireland were already gathering, and although there is evidence that Bellew initially sought compromise between the establishment and the Ulster Catholics under O'Neill who rose in rebellion in 1641, he was quickly forced to flee his estates and join the Catholic confederacy based in Kilkenny.
The outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 led Charles I to instruct his Lord Lieutenant to negotiate a temporary cessation of hostilities in Ireland, achieved in 1643. This allowed the Bellews to resume occupation of their lands at Willistown and elsewhere, although John himself probably remained at Kilkenny on his military duties. In 1645 he bought the lands of a neighbour who was struggling financially 'in these unbearable times'. Bellew remained on active service with the Confederacy's army throughout 1647 and 1648, but in the latter year the Lord Lieutenant sequestered his lands at Willistown and granted them to a Lt-Col. Bellay, who probably left the Bellews in possession in return for a rent. The conclusion of a peace agreement in 1648, and the dissolution of the Confederacy, allowed John Bellew to shed his rebel status and receive a commission in Ormonde's newly-reformed army, but he was captured during Ormonde's attack on Dublin. He did not remain a prisoner for long, being released after payment of a ransom in September 1649, and for some time he seems to have been used by both sides to negotiate prisoner exchanges and ransoms. He was also involved in 1652 in the negotiation of the Articles of Kilkenny, under which the opponents of the Commonwealth regime finally surrendered in return for pardon for life and protection for themselves and their personal estates. With the signing of the Articles, Bellew's military career was at an end and he returned to the law, but his estate in Louth and Meath would be sequestered and he would be forced to transplant to lands in Galway which were both less extensive and far less productive than the lands he was losing. By dint of legal challenges and petitions, he put off his relocation until the autumn of 1655, but was then forced to accept an allocation of 793 acres in Galway in lieu of his 1,460 acres estate in Louth and Meath.
The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought the hope that displaced Irish Catholics would be able to recover their estates within the Pale, but the king's obligations to Protestant loyalists, and their opportunities for lobbying him, carried far more weight than the claims of displaced Irish Catholics, and the post-Restoration settlement strongly favoured the rights of Protestant settlers. The king's Gracious Declaration of 1661 made special provision by exception for the restoration of estates to those Old English Catholics whose 'eminent services' merited special consideration, but John Bellew was not among their number, and instead he petitioned the king for restoration of such of his former property as was in the king's hands, and lands of equivalent value to that part of his property which had been granted to Protestant settlers. The petition (one of many hundreds which the king received) was referred to a committee which reported favourably, and in March 1661 the king issued a letter ordering his restoration. In addition to pursuing his own claim, Bellew also acted as agent for his friend Theobald Taaffe, Viscount Corren (later 1st Earl of Carlingford), who was among those mentioned in the Gracious Declaration as entitled to restoration of his estates, but whose lands in Louth and Sligo had all been granted to Protestants, some of whose rights were also enshrined in the Gracious Declaration. Over the next decade, John Bellew was successful in recovering a good deal of his own and Lord Carlingford's property, and in 1669-71 the latter made a gift to him of lands totalling 1,081 acres including the Barmeath estate as recompense for his efforts. Barmeath was subsequently to become the family's principal seat.
John Bellew and his wife Mary had five (or according to one source, six) sons and one daughter. His eldest son and principal heir was Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1635-1716), who inherited the family estates in Louth and Galway apart from a fairly small property in Galway granted to his younger brother Christopher (c.1640-1709), who was evidently their father's favourite son and from whom descend the Grattan-Bellew family of Mount Bellew [who will be the subject of my next post]. Sir Patrick was raised to a baronetcy by King James II in 1688, the letters patent passing the Great Seal on what was subsequently deemed to be the last day of the king's reign, following the invasion of England by William of Orange, although the warrant for the grant had been issued over a year earlier. After fleeing England, James II came to Ireland and summoned a parliament in Dublin that quickly passed the Repeal Act designed to restore landownership to the position obtaining prior to the Commonwealth confiscations, and also an Act of Attainder, by which supporters of King William were outlawed and dispossessed of their estates. For those like the Bellews who had purchased lands since the Restoration as well as being dispossessed during the Commonwealth, the Repeal Act was very much a double edged sword, and although Sir Patrick Bellew and at least two of his sons joined James II's army, their enthusiasm for the Stuart cause must have been tempered by personal considerations. Sir Patrick's eldest son, Sir John Bellew (c.1665-1734), 2nd bt., pursued a more equivocal course, perhaps being employed by both sides as a double agent with a view to securing his title to the family estates whichever faction came out on top. In the event, Sir Patrick was judged to have the benefit of the terms of the Treaty of Limerick, and was allowed to return to his estates, which in due course descended to his son, Sir John.
The 2nd baronet married twice and produced sixteen children, about many of whom little is known. His eldest son, Patrick Bellew (c.1686-1720), became an officer in the French army and was twice married, but had no children and died in the lifetime of his father. The estates in Louth and Galway therefore descended to the second son, Sir Edward Bellew (c.1690-1741), 3rd bt., who may also have spent some time on the Continent, as he died in Flanders while making his way from Paris to Ireland. His children were then all minors, and his heir was Sir John Bellew (1728-50), 4th bt., who is known to have travelled to Italy and may have had aesthetic interests, since he would appear to have commissioned a design for laying out the gardens at Barmeath from Thomas Wright in 1747 or 1748. Indeed, it seems likely that he planned also the rebuilding of the house at Barmeath, although work had perhaps not started before his untimely death from smallpox in 1750. His brother, Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1735-95), 5th bt., saw through the rebuilding of the house and the implementation of Wright's landscaping scheme, and he sold his property in Co. Galway to Michael Bellew (d. 1797) of Mount Bellew. He is notable chiefly for his role in Catholic politics, where he was an effective advocate for increasing the rights of Catholics, which had been severely restricted by the penal laws. He held moderate views and succeeded to some extent in being trusted by both sides of the debate. His sons, Sir Edward Bellew (c.1758-1827), 6th bt., and William Bellew (c.1762-1835) pursued a similar line, but the latter forfeited some of his credibility with more radical Catholic nationalists by supporting the Act of Union, which he judged would allow Catholic voices to be heard more clearly at Westminster.
Sir Edward's two sons, Sir Patrick Bellew (1798-1866), 7th bt. and Richard Montesquieu Bellew (1803-80) both benefited from the final achievement of Catholic emancipation and became Whig MPs at Westminster. Sir Patrick became an Irish Privy Councillor in 1838 and held several further public appointments, which led to his being raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Bellew in 1848. It was he who gave Barmeath Castle its current neo-Norman form around 1830. His only son, Edward Joseph Bellew (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew, had a much less notable public career, but through his marriage to Augusta Mary Bryan (c.1834-1904), brought her family's seat at Jenkinstown Park (Co. Kilkenny) into the family. The couple had four sons, the eldest of whom joined the army, became an alcoholic, and committed suicide in his father's lifetime. The second son, Charles Bertram Bellew (1855-1911), 3rd Baron Bellew, became an Irish representative peer in the House of Lords in 1904, but he and his wife had no children, so on his death the estates and title passed to his next brother, George Leopold Bellew (1857-1935), a career soldier who had already inherited Jenkinstown from his uncle in 1880 and taken the name Bryan. After inheriting the title and the Barmeath estate, he continued to live at Jenkinstown, even when it quite literally started collapsing about his ears, and after the 3rd Baron's widow quitted Barmeath in 1922 that house remained empty for almost two decades. The 4th Baron married only in 1927 and had no children, so on his death the title and estates passed to his two eldest nephews. Edward Henry Bellew (1889-1975), 5th Baron Bellew, a London stockbroker, inherited Jenkinstown but promptly sold it in 1936. His younger brother, Bryan Bertram Bellew (1890-1981), later 6th Baron Bellew, inherited Barmeath and moved there in 1938, undertaking a restoration of the house before handing it over to his only son, James Bryan Bellew (1920-2010), 7th Baron Bellew, in 1952. The 7th Baron separated in 1961 from his wife, who remained the chatelaine at Barmeath, while he moved to London with his mistress. When they finally divorced in 1977, it was made a condition of the divorce settlement that Barmeath was handed over to their son, Bryan Edward Bellew (b. 1943), 8th Baron Bellew, who after a career in the British army took over Barmeath and has overseen a progressive restoration of the property. His son, the Hon. Anthony Richard Brooke Bellew (b. 1972), is heir apparent to the title and estate.
Barmeath Castle, Dunleer, Co. Louth
At the core of the house there is said to be a 12th century Anglo-Norman castle, now detectable only in the thickness of some of the walls at the north-east corner of the building. It was built for the More alias Moore family, not for the Bellews, who although of equal antiquity acquired Barmeath only in the 1670s, when Sir John Bellew accepted the castle and 2,000 acres from Lord Carlingford as payment in kind for successfully recovering the Carlingford estates after the Civil war. A two-storey wing was added in around 1700 and the castle in this form was depicted on an 18th century estate map. Towards the middle of the 18th century, the house was completely remodelled as a large but quite plain three-storey Georgian double-pile block, seven bays wide with a central doorcase. The end elevations had paired chimneystacks and gables rising above the side windows. This work is not firmly dated, but was probably carried out for Sir Patrick Bellew (d. 1795), 5th bt., soon after he inherited in 1750, although it had perhaps been planned by his elder brother, Sir John Bellew (1728-50), 4th bt., who died unexpectedly from smallpox.
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| Barmeath Castle: a romantic mid 19th century view of the house from the south-east. |
In the early 19th century the first Lord Bellew commissioned a Hertfordshire engineer and architect, Thomas Smith, who had several commissions in County Louth (including the remodelling of Castle Bellingham), to dress the house up as a neo-Norman castle. The style was perhaps chosen to reflect the Anglo-Norman origins of the Bellew family, but was anyway significantly more popular in Ireland than in Britain (having first been used by Nash at Killymoon Castle, and later employed at Gosford Castle and Glenstal Castle). Smith removed the end gables, replaced the eaves cornice of the Georgian house with battlements, and added round corner turrets which rise a storey higher than the house and have bold machicolations and giant arrow loops. The yard at the back of the building was screened by a long two-storey wing with bartisans, diagonal buttresses and tall mullioned windows. Smith made a new neo-Norman entrance to the yard from the north, and also added, at the north-west angle of the house itself, a tall rectangular tower with a circular stair-turret, which became the new principal entrance, and which breaks the symmetry of the building. On the ground floor it has a porte-cochère, and a stone portcullis set in an archway decorated with chevron ornament, and flanked by neo-medieval carved heads as corbel stops for the main mouldings. To bind the new and old work together, Smith cased the whole building in cement, lined to look like blocks of stone, and added hoodmoulds above the Georgian sash windows, which he retained.
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| Barmeath Castle: the house from the south-west in 1994. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved. |
Inside, Smith combined an element of replanning with the retention of many of the fine Georgian interiors, and his new decoration is mostly in a restrained Gothick style. By placing the new entrance at the north-west corner, Smith was able to move the approach drive away from the principal reception rooms, and to convert the former entrance hall into a reception room. This gave the main reception rooms greater privacy, and allowed them to be more effectively warmed. The hall, which still has black and white marble chequered floor and a fine central ceiling rose of Rococo plasterwork, is now divided from the staircase by an arcaded screen. The mahogany staircase is particularly handsome, with a pair of substantial fluted Ionic column balusters to each step, and a heavy, swooping handrail that culminates in a luxuriously exaggerated spiral. The staircase rises, under another exceptionally rich Rococo ceiling rose, to an elegant landing where the doorcases to the principal rooms are richly decorated: that to the drawing room is flanked by Corinthian columns and has a swan-neck pediment, while that to the library has a triangular pediment and a frieze of crossed palm fronds. The drawing room itself suffers from its low ceiling height and has a rather dull plaster ceiling of a diagonal grid with a shallow central boss. It is, however, relieved by a very fine marble chimneypiece with neo-classical inlay decoration in the style of Pietro Bossi, The library where the bookcase doors with their complicated geometric astragals are separated by Ionic pilasters and surmounted by broken pediments, is more successful. The ceiling is less elaborate than those in the hall and staircase, but incorporates masonic symbols, reflecting the reputed use of this room for masonic lodge meetings in the 18th century.
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| Barmeath Castle: the gateway to the service court is the most ardently medievalising feature. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved. |
Descent: Theobald Taafe (c.1603-77), 2nd Viscount Corren and 1st Earl of Carlingford; granted 1672 to John Bellew (1605-79); to son, Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1635-1716), 1st bt.; to son, Sir John Bellew (c.1665-1734), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir Edward Bellew (c.1690-1741), 3rd bt.; to son, Sir John Bellew (1728-50), 4th bt.; to brother, Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1735-95), 5th bt.; to son, Sir Edward Bellew (c.1758-1827), 6th bt.; to son, Rt. Hon. Sir Patrick Bellew (1798-1866), 7th bt. and 1st Baron Bellew; to son, Edward Joseph Bellew (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew; to son, Charles Bertram Bellew (1855-1911), 3rd Baron Bellew; to brother, George Leopold Bellew (later Bryan) (1857-1935), 4th Baron Bellew; to nephew, Bryan Bertram Bellew (1890-1981), 6th Baron Bellew, who gave it 1952 to his son, James Bryan Bellew (1920-2010), later 7th Baron Bellew; given c.1977 to his son, Bryan Edward Bellew (b. 1943), 8th Baron Bellew.
Jenkinstown House, Ballyragget, Co. Kilkenny
The estate was in the hands of the Bryan family from at least the beginning of the 18th century, but nothing is known of the house that stood here at that time. The first recorded house was an early 19th century 'pasteboard Gothick' building, but still laid out in the traditional Palladian form of a central block connected to wings by single-storey links. It was built for Maj. George Bryan MP (1770-1843) to the design of William Robertson of Kilkenny, before 1829, and may have incorporated part of the earlier house on the site..jpg) |
| Jenkinstown House: an engraving of the house published in 1832. |
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| Jenkinstown House: an undated photograph showing the house after the demolition of the original central block and the rebuilding of the right-hand wing. |
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| Jenkinstown House: the present building, incorporating some of the ruins of its predecessor. |
Descent: James Bryan (d. 1714);... George Bryan (1720-96); to son, George Bryan MP (1770-1843); to Col. George Bryan (1796-1848); to George Leopold Bryan MP (1828?-80); to nephew, George Leopold Bellew (later Bryan) (1857-1935), 4th Baron Bellew; to nephew, Edward Henry Bellew (1889-1975), 5th Baron Bellew, who sold 1936... sold 1996 to Jimmy MacCarthy; sold 2020 for use as a wedding and events venue.
Bellew family of Barmeath Castle, baronets and Barons Bellew
Bellew, Sir John, kt. (c.1520-1600). Son of Christopher Bellew (d. c.1532) and grandson and heir of Sir Walter Bellew (d. 1542) of The Roche and Castletown. He married 1st, Margaret, daughter of Oliver Plunkett, 1st Baron Louth; 2nd, as her sixth husband, Janet (d. 1582), daughter of Roger Sarsfield of Sarsfieldtown (Co. Meath), and 3rd, before 1584, Ismay (fl. 1587), daughter of John Nugent of Philipstown Nugent near Dundalk (Co. Louth) and widow of [forename unknown] Gay; and had issue by his first two wives including:
(1) Sir Christopher Bellew (1545-1610), of Bellewstown; married Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Cusack (1490-1571), Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and had issue (from whom descended the Barons Bellew of Duleek);
(2) John Bellew (c.1548-89) (q.v.);(3) Rev. Robert Bellew (fl. 1576), vicar of Dundalk (Co. Louth);(4) Richard Bellew (d. 1596) of Stameen; married Margaret, daughter of Nicholas Alcock of Drogheda, and had issue;(5) Maud Bellew; married Patrick White of Richardstown Dunleer (Co. Louth);(6) Alison Bellew; married Martin Blake of Athboy (Co. Meath);(7) Mary Bellew; married [forename unknown] Plunkett;(8) Elizabeth Bellew; married William Moore of Barmeath;(9) Margery Bellew; married [forename unknown] Elcock of Drogheda (Co. Louth).
He settled at Bellewstown (Co. Louth).
He died in 1600; his will was proved in 1600. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife died in 1582; his third wife was living in 1587 but her date of death is unknown.
Bellew, John (c.1548-89). Second recorded son of Sir John Bellew (c.1520-1600), kt., and his wife Margaret, daughter of Oliver Plunkett, 1st Baron Louth. Educated at Oxford University (MA; LLB). After graduating he settled at Port near Dunany (Co. Louth). He married, 1575, Joan, daughter of Richard Lynam of Adamstown Drumcar, and had issue:
(1) Patrick Bellew (c.1577-1610) (q.v.);(2) Nicholas Bellew, of Dunleer;(3) Ismay Bellew;(4) Margery Bellew; married, 1601, Robert Fitzsymons;(5) Joan Bellew; married Patrick Verdon of Clonmore.
He was granted the Lisrany (near Ardee) estate of about 700 acres by his father at the time of his marriage.
He died in November 1589. His widow's date of death is unknown.
Bellew, Patrick (c.1577-1610). Elder son of John Bellew (c.1548-89) of Lisrany and Graftonstown, and his wife Joan, daughter of Richard Lynam of Adamstown Dunleer (Co. Louth). He married, 1603, Mary, daughter of James Warren of Warrenstown (Co. Louth), and had issue:
(1) John Bellew (1605-79) (q.v.);(2) Richard Bellew;(3) Matthew Bellew;(4) Anne Bellew.
He inherited Lisrany estate from his father in 1589 and came of age in about 1598.
He died in 1610. His widow married 2nd, Patrick Russell of Brownstown (Co. Dublin); her date of death is unknown.
Bellew, John (1605-79). Eldest son of Patrick Bellew (c.1577-1610) and his wife Mary, daughter of James Warren of Warrenstown (Co. Louth), born 1605. Educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1627) and was perhaps articled to Richard Hadsor of the Inner Temple as an attorney. JP for County Louth, 1639; High Sheriff of Co. Louth, 1641-42; MP for County Louth in the Irish Parliament, 1639-41, when he was expelled for his role in the Catholic rebellion; he served as an officer of the Catholic Confederation (Lt-Gen. 1642) and later an officer in the Royalist army under the Duke of Ormonde (Capt., 1648), and was taken prisoner at Rathmines, 1649. After the restoration, he used his connections with the Dukes of York and Ormonde, and with his cousin Theobald Taaffe, Lord Carlingford (for whom he acted as agent for his Irish estates), to petition for the restoration of his estate in Co. Louth, and also to recover Lord Carlingford's Irish estates. He married, 1634, Mary, daughter of Robert Dillon of Clonbrock, and had issue:
(1) Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1635-1716), 1st bt. (q.v.);(2) Robert Bellew (d. 1718?); an apothecary in Dublin; married Bridget, daughter of [forename unknown] Seagrave and widow of [forename unknown] Dillon; living in 1709 and possibly the man of this name (of Reynoldstown (Co. Meath)) whose will was proved in 1718;(3) Christopher Bellew (c.1640-1709) [for whom see my next post on the Bellew and Grattan-Bellew family of Mount Bellew];(4) Nicholas Bellew (d. c.1690?); attorney in Dunleer (Co. Louth); perhaps killed while fighting in the army of James II;(5) James Bellew (d. 1690); attorney in Dunleer (Co. Louth); perhaps killed while fighting in the army of James II;(6) Mary Bellew (fl. 1703); married, January 1664/5, Sir Gerald Aylmer (c.1640-1702), 2nd bt. of Balrath (Co. Meath), and had issue three sons and one daughter; living in 1703.
He inherited Lisrany from his father in 1610 and came of age in 1626. He purchased Willistown (Co. Louth) about 1632. His estates (1,400 acres) in Co. Louth were confiscated by the Cromwellian government in 1648 and in 1655 he was forcibly resettled at Clonoran and Corgarrowes in Co. Galway. After the Restoration, he was able to recover about one-third of his Louth property and some other lands in lieu of his former estates. About 1672 he was granted Barmeath by Lord Carlingford, in lieu of payment for his services as attorney and agent. He also retained his Galway property after the Restoration, although his title to these estates was only confirmed in 1677 and 1678.
He died in 1679. His widow built a mortuary chapel for her husband at Barmeath in 1679; her date of death is unknown.
Bellew, Sir Patrick (c.1635-1716), 1st bt. Eldest son of John Bellew (1605-79) and his wife Mary, daughter of Robert Dillon of Clonbrock, born about 1635. High Sheriff of Co. Louth, 1687, and later commissioner for raising the monthly levies of £20,000 from County Louth for the support of King James' army. He was created a baronet by King James II, 11 December 1688. During the Williamite wars he supported King James and became a Lt-Col. in Luttrell's Dragoons. He and his younger sons, being eligible for the benefit of the treaty of Limerick, avoided outlawry following the victory of King William III, but while he was 'on his majesty's service in the north', the former occupiers of his lands had entered upon them, and he experienced some difficulty and financial loss in regaining his estates. He married, 1664 (settlement 7 January), Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Barnewall, 2nd bt., of Crickstown Castle, and had issue:
(1) Sir John Bellew (c.1665-1734), 2nd bt. (q.v.);(2) Robert Bellew (d. 1733); said to be a captain in Lord Louth's regiment in the army of James II;(3) Richard Bellew; said to be a captain in Lord Bellew's regiment in the army of James II; inherited the property of his uncle James Bellew (d. 1690);(4) Christopher Bellew;(5) Pierce Bellew; died young;(7) Mary Bellew (d. 1726); a nun; prioress of a Benedictine house in Channel Row, Dublin, 1717-26;(8) Eleanor Bellew; married a Mr Evers;(9) Cicely Bellew;(6) Juliana Bellew (d. 1728); married, as his second wife, John Browne (d. 1712) of The Neale (Co, Mayo); died 1728;(10) Helena Bellew; married a Mr Darcy;(11) Monica Bellew; married a Mr Plunket.
He inherited Barmeath and Castle Bellew (Co. Galway) from his father in 1679.
He died in January 1715/6. His wife's date of death is unknown.
Bellew, Sir John (c.1665-1734), 2nd bt. Eldest son of Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1635-1716), 1st bt., and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Barnewall, 2nd bt., of Crickstown Castle (Co. Meath), born about 1665. He briefly held a commission in King James II's army in Ireland, but seems to have been something of a double agent, being 'outlawed by his own consent to prevent [the Jacobites] having any suspicion of the services he was doing for their majesties in [Jacobite] quarters, and pardoned pursuant to a promise made him by the government': the services were probably to aid the Irish peace party in negotiations, with a view to securing his title to the family estates. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet, January 1715/6. He married 1st, 1 December 1685, Clare (d. 1708), daughter of Edward Taylor and sister and heir of Nicholas Taylor of Dublin, and 2nd, Elizabeth (d. 1736), daughter of Edward Curling, who was the storekeeper of Londonderry during the siege of 1690, and had issue:
(1.1) Patrick Bellew (c.1686-1720); an officer in the French army from c.1704; married 1st, 1 July 1713, Mary (d. 1714), daughter of Richard Bourke (d. c.1704), 8th Earl of Clanricarde and 2nd, in or after 1714, Frances, daughter of Sir George Hamilton (Count Hamilton in France) and widow of Henry Dillon (d. 1714), 8th Viscount Dillon; died without issue in the lifetime of his father, 12 June 1720; administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 30 June 1720;(1.2) Sir Edward Bellew (c.1690-1741), 3rd bt. (q.v.);(1.3) Clare Bellew (d. 1734?); married 1st, 1720, Gerald Fitzgerald (d. 1731) of Kilmore and had issue three sons and two daughters; married 2nd, Hyacinth Cheevers (d. 1758) of St Brendan's, Cregan (Co. Galway), and had issue at least one further daughter; said to have died 23 July 1734;(1.4) Richard Bellew (1702-92), born 1702; married Mary, daughter of Col. Creagh of Bearnagihy, and had issue at least three sons (including Maj-Gen. Patrick Bellew (d. 1799)); died 6 April 1792 and was buried at Moylough (Co. Galway);(1.5) Christopher Bellew (d. 1712); killed in a duel at Oranmore (Co. Galway), 17 October 1712;(1.6) A son, who probably died in infancy;(2.1) Richard Bellew; possibly the man of Drogheda and later Rogerstown (Co. Meath) who married Frances [surname unknown] and died c.1766; administration of goods granted to his widow, 10 February 1766;(2.2) William Bellew; an officer in the infantry; married Letitia (d. 1751), daughter of Col. Tulikin, but had no issue;(2.3) Charles Bellew; died in infancy;(2.4) John Bellew; died in infancy;(2.5) John Bellew; died in infancy;(2.6) John Bellew; died in infancy;(2.7) Edward Bellew; died in infancy;(2.8) Elizabeth Bellew; married, 6 March 1733, Hugh Woodside of Dublin, merchant;(2.9) Mary Bellew; married, 1735 (licence 6 August), George Berford;(2.10) Juliana Bellew; married, 19 January 1737, Francis Palmer of Carramore (Co. Mayo).
He inherited Barmeath and Castle Bellew from his father in 1716.
He died 23 July 1734; his will was proved in Dublin, 1735. His first wife died in 1708. His widow married 2nd, St. Laurence Berford and died 3 January 1735/6.
Bellew, Sir Edward (c.1690-1741), 3rd bt. Second, but eldest surviving, son of Sir John Bellew (c.1660-1734), 2nd bt., and his first wife Clare, daughter of Edward Taylor, born about 1690. He succeeded his father as 3rd baronet, 23 July 1734. He married, before 1728, Eleanor (fl. 1749), eldest daughter and co-heir of Michael Moore of Drogheda (Co. Louth), and had issue including:
(1) Sir John Bellew (1728-50), 4th bt. (q.v.);(2) Sir Patrick Bellew (d. 1795), 5th bt. (q.v.);(3) Michael Bellew (fl. 1749); possibly a Roman Catholic priest;(4) William Bellew;(5) Francis Bellew;(6) Bridget Bellew; living in 1741.
He inherited Barmeath from his father in 1734.
He died in Flanders, while travelling from Paris to Ireland, in October 1741; his will was proved in Dublin, 4 June 1742. His widow's death of death is unknown.
Bellew, Sir John (1728-50), 4th bt. Eldest son of Sir Edward Bellew (c.1690-1741), 3rd bt., and his wife Eleanor, eldest daughter and co-heir of Michael Moore of Drogheda (Co. Louth), born 1728. He succeeded his father as 4th baronet, October 1741 and came of age in 1749. He undertook a Grand Tour shortly before his death. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Barmeath from his father in 1741 and may have commissioned the garden layout from Thomas Wright c.1747.
He died of smallpox at Barmeath, 2 November 1750; his will was proved 9 January 1750/1.
Bellew, Sir Patrick (c.1735-95), 5th bt. Second son of Sir Edward Bellew (c.1690-1741), 3rd bt., and his wife Eleanor, eldest daughter and co-heir of Michael Moore of Drogheda (Co. Louth), born about 1735. He succeeded his elder brother as 5th baronet, 2 November 1750. He was increasingly active in Catholic politics after about 1760, and petitioned in 1762 for Catholics to be allowed to join the army; in 1778 he spent much of the year in England lobbying for the Catholic Relief Act, but he later became uncomfortable with the more radical direction been taken by the Catholic Committee, which he left in 1791. He married, 1756 (licence 18 August), Mary, daughter and co-heir of Matthew Hore of Shandon (Co. Waterford), and had issue:
(1) Sir Edward Bellew (c.1758-1827), 6th bt. (q.v.);(2) Matthew Bellew (d. 1823), an officer in the Austrian service (Maj.); died at Teschen, Silesia (now Poland), 1823;(3) John Bellew (fl. 1792); an officer in the Austrian cavalry (Capt.) by 1778; living in 1792;(4) William Bellew (c.1762-1835), born about 1762; educated at the English College, Douai, Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1782) and King's Inns, Dublin (called 1792); one of the first four Catholics called to the Irish bar when this became possible in 1792 (KC c.1834); an aloof and reserved man, he nonetheless became a leading Catholic activist and member of the Catholic Committee; initially opposed to the Union with Britain, he came to feel that it would allow the Irish Catholics greater parliamentary influence and therefore supported it, receiving a pension of £300 a year from the Government for doing so, which thereafter reduced his credibility in Catholic affairs; he appears to have been unmarried and died 27 March 1835;(5) Patrick Bellew (d. 1789?); possibly the man of this name from Drogheda (Co. Louth), who died June 1789;(6) Michael Bellew;(7) Richard Bellew;(8) Robert Bellew;(9) Francis Bellew; tried, 'for appearing in arms with a mob of defenders', 1792;(10) Frances Bellew (d. 1845); married, 1786, Malachy Donelan (1762-1830) of Ballydonelan; will proved in Dublin, 1845;(11) Mary Bellew (d. by 1832); married, 1799, Deane Theophilus Swift (1774-1858), the United Irishman (who m2, 25 May 1832 at St Olave, Hart St., London, Frances Daly (1796-1857)), and had issue one surviving son; died before 1832.
He inherited Barmeath from his elder brother in 1750, and rebuilt the house, incorporating some elements of the old castle. In 1786 he sold his property in Co. Galway to Michael Bellew (c.1735-97) of Mount Bellew.
He died at Barmeath, 5 March 1795. His widow died in Dublin, 11 February 1801.
Bellew, Sir Edward (c.1758-1827), 6th bt. Eldest son of Sir Patrick Bellew (c.1735-95), 5th bt., and his wife Mary, daughter and co-heir of Matthew Hore of Shandon (Co. Waterford), born about 1758. He succeeded his father as 6th baronet, 5 March 1795. As a young man he spent several years in Italy, where he visited Venice and attended the Academy in Turin, 1779-81. JP for County Louth, c.1795-1827. An officer in the Barmeath Volunteer Cavalry (Capt., 1796). A trustee of Maynooth College from its foundation, 1795-1827. He was active in the Catholic Committee from the 1780s, and continued to work for emancipation through the Catholic Board, being one of the delegates who presented the Catholic petition to Parliament in 1805. His aristocratic outlook and moderate views on emancipation made him increasingly uncomfortable with a growing middle-class and radical tendency in the movement, and he left the Board in 1816. He joined the Catholic Association in 1823, but was not very active in it. He married, 13 August 1786 at St Mary's R.C. Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, Mary Ann (1761-1837), daughter and heir of Richard Strange of Rockwell Castle (Co. Kilkenny), and had issue:
(1) Frances Bellew (c.1790-1860), born about 1790; married, 23 October 1809, Sir Edward Joseph Smythe (1787-1856), 6th bt. of Acton Burnell Hall (Shrops.), Esh Hall (Co. Durham) and Wootton Hall (Warks), and had issue four sons and three daughters; died 17 August 1860; will proved 5 October 1860 (effects under £4,000);(2) Sir Patrick Bellew (1798-1866), 7th bt. and 1st Baron Bellew (q.v.);(3) Richard Montesquieu Bellew (1803-80), born 12 February 1803; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (admitted 1821) and Kings Inns, Dublin (admitted 1824); Whig MP for Co. Louth, 1832-52, 1859-65; while committed to the repeal of the Act of Union and of consistently reforming views, his moderate approach and refusal to distance himself from the Whigs after their inadequate response to the Irish Famine set him at odds with more radical politicians like Daniel O'Connell; he was a lord of the treasury, 1847-52; a poor law commissioner for Ireland and a paid member of the Local Government Board for Ireland, 1865; DL for Co. Louth; married, 1827, Mary (d. 1828), daughter of John Lalor of Cranagh (Tipperary), but had no issue; died in Dublin, 8 January 1880; will proved 17 March 1880 (effects under £10,000).
He inherited Barmeath from his father in 1795.
He died at Barmeath, 15 March 1827. His widow died in London, 14 May 1837 and was buried at Barmeath, 29 May 1837; her will was proved in Dublin, 1837.
Bellew, Rt. Hon. Sir Patrick (1798-1866), 7th bt. and 1st Baron Bellew. Elder son of Sir Edward Bellew (c.1758-1827), 6th bt., and his wife Mary Ann, daughter and heir of Richard Strange of Rockwell Castle (Co. Kilkenny), born in London, 29 January 1798. High Sheriff of Co. Louth, 1831, but resigned this appointment to stand for Parliament; Whig MP for County Louth, 1831-32, 1834-37; Privy Councillor for Ireland, 1838; Lord Lieutenant of Co. Louth, 1831-66; Colonel of the Co. Louth militia. He succeeded his father as 7th baronet, 15 March 1827, and was created Baron Bellew of Barmeath, 10 July 1848. He was a Trustee of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, 1836-66; a Commissioner of National Education, 1839-66; and an Irish charity commissioner, 1844-57, and was appointed a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria, c.1850. He married, by special licence at the Manor House, Bathampton (Som.), 19 January 1829, Anna Formina (1799-1857), daughter of Admiral Don José Maria de Mendoza y Rios of Seville (Spain), and had issue including:
(1) Edward Joseph Bellew (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew (q.v.);(2) Hon. Frances Mary Bellew (1833-1911), born 20 May and baptised at St Michan, Dublin, 23 May 1833; married, 26 May 1865 at St Kevin, Dublin (div. 1900 on the grounds of his adultery with Louisa King), Capt. John Woolmore Smith (c.1837-1903) of Milesdown House, Castlebellingham (Co. Louth), but had no surviving issue; died 7 February 1911 and was buried at Rugby Cemetery; administration of her goods was granted to her sister, 7 March 1911;(3) Hon. Annabella Mary Bellew (1834-1923), of Thornfield, Rugby (Warks), born 29 August and baptised at Dublin R.C. Cathedral, 3 September 1834; married, 18 June 1857, Lt-Gen. Conyers Tower CB (1816-1903), second son of Col. Henry Tower of Elemore Hall (Co. Durham), but had no issue; died 19 February 1923; will proved 27 April 1923 (estate £26,009);(4) Hon. Ismay Louisa Ursula Bellew (c.1836-75), born c.1836; married, 8 January 1861 at Barmeath, Hon. Jenico William Joseph Preston (1837-1907), later 14th Viscount Gormanston, eldest son of Edward Anthony John Preston (1796-1876), 13th Viscount Gormanston, but had no issue; died 19 August 1875;(5) Hon. Fermina Magdalena Bellew (1838-1932), born 14 November 1838; married, 7 May 1862 at Castlebellingham, Capt. the Hon. Everard Joseph Stourton (1834-69), second son of William Stourton (1776-1846), 18th Baron Stourton, of Cave Castle (Yorks ER), and had issue three sons and two daughters; died aged 93 at Thornfield, Rugby, on 29 February 1932; administration of goods granted 6 March 1933 (estate £8,344).
He inherited Barmeath from his father in 1827, and remodelled it to the designs of Thomas Smith c.1830.
He died at Barmeath, 10 December 1866, and his will was proved in Dublin, 11 May 1867. His wife died at Barmeath, 2 August 1857; her will was proved in the PCC, 20 November 1857.
Bellew, Edward Joseph (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew. Only son of Sir Patrick Bellew (1798-1866), 7th bt. and 1st Baron Bellew, and his wife Anna Formina, daughter of Admiral Don José Maria de Mendoza y Rios of Seville (Spain), born in Dublin, 3 June and baptised at Dublin R.C. Cathedral, 7 June 1830. Educated at Stonyhurst*. An officer in the Co. Louth militia (Maj.). High Sheriff of Co. Louth, 1854-55. He succeeded his father as 8th baronet and 2nd Baron Bellew, 10 December 1866. He married, 7 February 1853 at Connahy (Co. Kilkenny), Augusta Mary (c.1834-1904), only daughter of Col. George Bryan MP of Jenkinstown (Co. Kilkenny), and had issue:
(1) Hon. Patrick George Bellew (1853-74), born 1 December and baptised at Connahy, 14 December 1853; an officer in the 20th Regiment (2nd Lt., 1873), who is said to have become an alcoholic and attempted to shoot Capt. Buller of 16th Regiment a few days before he committed suicide by shooting himself at Fermoy Barracks, 25 May 1874; buried at Fermoy;(2) Charles Bertram Bellew (1855-1911), 3rd Baron Bellew (q.v.);(3) George Leopold Bellew (later Bryan), 4th Baron Bellew (q.v.);(4) Hon. Richard Eustace Bellew (1858-1933) (q.v.).
He inherited Barmeath Castle from his father in 1866.
He died at Kaiserhof, Bad Nauheim (Germany), 28 July 1895, and was buried at Bad Nauheim; his will was proved 25 September 1895 (effects £29,079). His widow died in Venice (Italy), 11 May 1904, and was buried there; administration of her goods was granted 21 June 1904 (effects £2,025).
* He was a contemporary at Stonyhurst of Sir Roger Tichborne, and was subsequently one of the principal witnesses against the celebrated 'Tichborne claimant'.
Bellew, Charles Bertram (1855-1911), 3rd Baron Bellew. Second, but eldest surviving, son of Edward Joseph Bellew (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew, and his wife Augusta Mary, only daughter of Col. George Bryan MP of Jenkinstown (Co. Kilkenny), born 19 April 1855. An officer in the Royal Elthorne Militia (Lt., 1873; resigned 1873), the Louth Militia (later 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles) (Sub-Lt., 1876; Lt., 1876; Capt. 1882). He succeeded his father as 9th baronet and 3rd Baron Bellew, 28 July 1895, and was an Irish representative peer in the House of Lords, 1904-11. High Sheriff of Co. Louth, 1895; Lord Lieutenant of Co. Louth, 1898-1911. He was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland. He married, 8 August 1883 at All Saints, Barton (Lancs), Mildred Mary Josephine (1856-1934), daughter of Sir Humphrey de Trafford (1808-86), 2nd bt., but had no issue.
He inherited Barmeath Castle from his father in 1895. His widow continued to occupy the house until 1922, but lived latterly at Haslemere (Surrey).
He died 15 July 1911; his will was proved 1 November 1911 (estate £3,795). His widow died 29 December 1934; her will was proved 28 March 1935 (estate £67,443).
Bellew (later Bryan), George Leopold (1857-1935), 4th Baron Bellew. Third son of Edward Joseph Bellew (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew, and his wife Augusta Mary, only daughter of Col. George Bryan MP of Jenkinstown (Co. Kilkenny), born 22 January 1857. He took the name Bryan in lieu of Bellew by royal licence, 13 October 1880, in compliance with the will of his uncle, George Leopold Bryan of Jenkinstown Park (Co. Kilkenny). An officer in the 10th Hussars (2nd Lt., 1877; Lt., 1881; Capt., 1887; Maj., 1896; retired 1898), who served in the Afghan war, 1878-79, the Nile expedition, 1884-85 and with the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa, 1900-01, and the Territorial Force in the First World War. As a young man, serving in India, he was a notable polo player and excelled at pig-sticking. JP and DL for Co. Kilkenny; High Sheriff of Co. Kilkenny, 1902-03. He succeeded his elder brother as 10th baronet and 4th Baron Bellew, 15 July 1911, and was a representative Irish peer in the House of Lords, 1914-35. In the 1920s he undertook a world tour, during the course of which he first met his future wife. He married, 9 April 1927 at the church of the Oblates of St Charles, Bayswater (Middx), Elaine Carlisle (1885-1973), daughter of John Benjamin Leach of Queenstown (South Africa) and widow of Herbert Lloyd-Dodd (d. 1914) of Johannesburg (South Africa), but had no issue.
He inherited Jenkinstown Park from his maternal uncle in 1880, and Barmeath Castle from his elder brother in 1911, although he never lived at the latter, which remained empty from 1922 (when his brother's widow moved out) until 1938, when his nephew (the future 6th Baron) moved in. Jenkinstown was sold in 1936, and his widow moved to Kilcreene (Co. Kilkenny) and later to Butler House, Kilkenny City.
He died 15 June 1935; his will was proved 15 July 1935 (estate in England, £43,824) and 24 February 1936 (estate in Ireland, £2,436). His widow died 7 March 1973 and was buried at St. Kieran's Cemetery, Kilkenny; her will was proved 4 November 1975 (estate £25,614).
Bellew, Hon. Richard Eustace (1858-1933). Fourth son of Edward Joseph Bellew (1830-95), 2nd Baron Bellew, and his wife Augusta Mary, only daughter of Col. George Bryan MP of Jenkinstown (Co. Kilkenny), born 31 July 1858. Educated at Beaumont College, Windsor and Prior Park, Bath. He married 1st, 27 October 1887 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Ada Kate (1863-93), second daughter of Henry Parry Gilbey of Stanstead (Essex), and 2nd, 30 November 1895 at the Brompton Oratory (Middx), Gwendoline Marie Josephine (1867-1940), daughter of William Reginald Joseph FitzHerbert Herbert-Huddleston (1841-1929) of Clytha Park (Mon.) and Sawston Hall (Cambs), and had issue:
(1.1) Edward Henry Bellew (1889-1975), 5th Baron Bellew (q.v.);(1.2) Bryan Bertram Bellew (1890-1981), 6th Baron Bellew (q.v.);(1.3) Hon. Guendaline Ada Bellew (1891-1976), born at Jenkinstown Park (Co. Kilkenny), 15/16 December 1891; granted rank of a baron's daughter, 1935; married, 19 October 1916 at the Brompton Oratory, Hugh Lloyd Thomas CMG CVO (1888-1936)*, diplomat, eldest son of William Lloyd Thomas of Tredilion Park, Abergavenny (Mon.), and had issue one son and two daughters; died 25 January 1976; will proved 5 August 1976 (estate £14,387);(1.4) Hon. Ada Kate Bellew (1893-1994), born in London, 5 March 1893; granted rank of a baron's daughter, 1935; married 1st, 1 March 1917 at Poole (Dorset) (div. 1936), Charles Barry Domville (1894-1936**) (who m2, 6 July 1936, Miriam Barbara Baker) of Loughlinstown (Co. Dublin), son of Compton Charles Domvile and had issue one son; married 2nd, 1 July 1937 at Marylebone Registry Office, as his second wife, Lt-Col. Hon. Herbrand Charles Alexander DSO (1888-1965) of Tilshead House (Wilts); died aged 101 in July 1994;(2.1) Hon. Richard Courtenay Bellew (1898-1917), born 16 July 1898 and baptised at the Brompton Oratory; educated at Wellington College; an officer in the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1916), who died of wounds received in action, 21 August 1917 and was buried at Dozingheim Military Cemetery (Belgium); administration of goods granted to his father, 21 November 1917 (effects £1,097);(2.2) Hon. Sir George Rothe Bellew (1899-1993), born 13 December 1899; educated at Wellington and Christ Church, Oxford; served in the Second World War with the RAF Volunteer Reserve (Sq.-Ldr.); a herald and professional genealogist at the College of Arms (Portcullis Pursuivant, 1922-26; Somerset Herald, 1926-50 and Register, 1935-45; Garter King of Arms, 1950-61, in which capacity he was director of all civil ceremonies at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, 1953); honorary genealogist to the Royal Victorian Order, 1945-61, and to the Order of the Bath and Order of St John, 1950-61; inspector of regimental colours, 1957-61; Secretary to the Order of the Garter, 1961-74; he was appointed MVO, 1935; CVO, 1950; KCVO, 1953; KCB, 1961 and KStJ, 1951; and was Knight Principal of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor, 1957 and deputy Knight Principal, 1961; he married, 24 September 1935, Ursula Kennard (1914-94), eldest daughter of Anders Eric Knös Cull KStJ of Warfield House (Berks), and had issue one son; died 6 February 1993; will proved 27 May 1993 (estate £435,567);(2.3) Hon. Patrick Herbert Bellew (1905-84), born at Eastbourne (Sussex), 2 April 1905; artist; an officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (Lt.) during the Second World War; married 1st, 16 April 1936 at Brompton Oratory (div. 1947), Hon. Catherine Moya de la Poer Beresford (1913-67) (who m2, Max Wilhelm Johannsen (1909-65)), younger daughter of John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford (1866-1944), 5th Baron Decies, and had issue one son; married 2nd, 7 September 1954, Helen Carol (fl. 2003), daughter of Walter Clinton Louchheim (1870-1957) of New York (USA); died at Litchfield, Connecticut (USA), 5 April 1994.
He lived at Jenkinstown Park (Co. Kilkenny) and later at Mount Firoda (Co. Kilkenny) and Christchurch (Hants).
He died 8 February 1933; his will was proved 5 April 1933 (estate £6,623). His first wife died following childbirth, 20 March 1893, and was buried at Bishops Stortford Cemetery (Herts). His widow died 21 February 1940; her will was proved 9 July 1940 (estate £467).
* He was killed while riding in a steepchase.
** He died three weeks after his second marriage, of an apparently accidental overdose of sleeping tablets.
Bellew, Edward Henry (1889-1975), 5th Baron Bellew. Eldest son of Hon. Richard Eustace Bellew (1858-1933) and his first wife, Ada Kate, second daughter of Henry Parry Gilbey of Stanstead (Essex), born in London, 6 February, and baptised at Christ Church, St. Pancras, 11 March 1889. Educated at The Oratory School, Birmingham, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge; served as an officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (2nd Lt., 1914; Lt., 1916) in First World War, but was attached to Royal Naval Air Service and transferred 1918 to Royal Air Force; appointed MBE, 1919. After the war he became a member of the London Stock Exchange. He succeeded his uncle as 11th baronet and 5th Baron Bellew, 15 June 1935. He married, 20 July 1912 at St Mary, Cadogan St., Chelsea (Middx) (sep. by 1939), Barbara Helen Mary (1888-1967), only daughter of Sir Henry Farnham Burke KCVO CB FSA (1859-1930), Garter King of Arms, but had no issue, although he and his wife adopted a daughter in 1918:
(A1) Barbara Mary Corisande Bellew (1917-2003), born 14 July 1917; married, 11 February 1936 (div. 1946), Maj. Cholmeley Dering Harrison (later Cholmeley-Harrison) (1908-2008) (who m2, 1948 (div.), Mary Elizabeth, daughter of [forename unknown] Mattison and formerly wife of [forename unknown] Roberts, and 3rd, 6 January 1972, Christine Cynthia (1908-96), daughter of Lt-Col. Arthur Charles Thomas Veasey and widow of Dr Ronald Hector Cameron Manifold) of Woodstown House (Co. Waterford) and later of Emo Court (Co. Leix), only son of Col. Cholmeley Edward Carl Branfill Harrison CMG CBE, and had issue three daughters; died 31 May 2003; will proved 18 November 2003.
He probably inherited Jenkinstown Park from his uncle in 1935, but sold it the following year; he lived in London.
He died in London, 8 August 1975; his will was proved 26 November 1975 (estate £58,621). His wife was declared bankrupt in 1958 but the decision was subsequently annulled; she died 23 October 1967.
Bellew, Bryan Bertram (1890-1981), 6th Baron Bellew. Second son of Hon. Richard Eustace Bellew (1858-1933) and his first wife, Ada Kate, second daughter of Henry Parry Gilbey of Stanstead (Essex), 11 June 1890. Educated at Stubbington and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was an officer in the Royal Irish Rangers (2nd Lt., 1914; Lt., 1919; ret. 1920) who served in the First World War and was awarded the MC, 1916. He succeeded his elder brother as 12th baronet and 6th Baron Bellew, 8 August 1975. He married, 17 December 1918, Jeanie Ellen Agnes (1890-1973), only daughter of James Ormsby Jameson (1852-1916) of Dolland, Clonsilla (Co. Dublin), and had issue:
(1) James Bryan Bellew (1920-2010), 7th Baron Bellew (q.v.).
He inherited Barmeath Castle from his uncle in 1935 and moved there in 1938, undertaking a restoration of the house. He handed the estate over to his son in about 1952.
He died aged 91 on 7 September 1981. His wife died 18 May 1973.
Bellew, James Bryan (1920-2010), 7th Baron Bellew. Only son of Bryan Bertram Bellew (1890-1981), 6th Baron Bellew, and his wife Jeanie Ellen Agnes, only daughter of James Ormsby Jameson of Dolland, Clonsilla (Co. Dublin), born 5 January 1920. An officer in the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1940; retired as Capt.), who was seconded to RAF (Pilot Offr, 1942; Flying Offr, 1942), 1942-43. After the war he was involved in an unsuccessful business venture in England, and then moved to Ireland in 1952 when his father made over Barmeath to him. He succeeded his father as 13th baronet and 7th Baron, 7 September 1981. He married 1st, 11 June 1942 at St Paul, Knightsbridge (Middx) (sep. 1961 and div. 1977), Mary Elizabeth (1923-78), eldest daughter of the Rev. Edward Eustace Hill of West Malling (Kent), and 2nd, 1978, his long-term mistress, Gwendoline Maltravers (1918-2002), daughter of Charles Redmond Clayton-Daubeny of Bridgwater (Som.) and Bihar (India) and formerly wife of Maj. P. Hall, and had issue:
(1.1) Bryan Edward Bellew (b. 1943), 8th Baron Bellew (q.v.);(1.2) Hon. Angela Mary Bellew (b. 1944), born 11 April 1944; educated at Dublin; married, 2 May 1964 at St Peter, Drogheda (Co. Louth), Capt. Simon Hugh Walford (1933-2023) of Trim (Co. Meath), a leading figure in the Irish horse-racing and bloodstock world, son of Lt-Col. Hugh Carr Walford, and had issue two daughters; now living;(1.3) Hon. Christopher James Bellew (b. 1954), born 3 April 1954; educated at Eton and Durham Univ. (BA, 1976); energy futures broker; married, 1984 (div. 1991) Hon. Rose Griselda (b. 1957), youngest daughter of Michael Francis Eden (1914-77), 7th Baron Henley and 5th Baron Northington, and formerly wife of Stuart C. Ballin, but had no issue; now living.
He was given the Barmeath estate by his father in about 1952, but moved out in 1961 to live in London with his mistress. He was required to hand over the estate to his elder son as a condition of his divorce from his first wife. He lived with his second wife in Twickenham (Middx) for many years, and later at Stow-on-the-Wold (Glos).
He died aged 90 on 3 August 2010; his will was proved 6 April 2011. His first wife died 18 March 1978; her will was proved 29 September 1978 (estate in England £24,610). His second wife died 9 August 2002; her will was proved 18 November 2002.
Bellew, Bryan Edward (b. 1943), 8th Baron Bellew. Elder son of James Bryan Bellew (1920-2010), 7th Baron Bellew, and his first wife, Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Rev. Edward Eustace Hill of West Malling (Kent), born 19 March 1943. Educated at Eton and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. An officer in the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1963; Lt., 1965; Capt., 1969; Maj., 1977; retired, 1978). He married, 18 April 1968, Rosemary Sarah (b. 1947), elder daughter of Maj. Reginald Kilner Brasier Hitchcock (c.1920-2014) of Meers Court, Mayfield (Sussex), and had issue:
(1) Hon. Patrick Edward Bellew (1969-97), born 29 March 1969; died 1997;(2) Hon. Anthony Richard Brooke Bellew (b. 1972), born in Hong Kong (China), 9 September 1972; educated at Stowe; heir apparent to peerage and baronetcy; married, Jul-Sept 2001, Ann Elizabeth (b. 1971), eldest daughter of Peter Plunkett of London, and has issue three sons and one daughter.
He received the Barmeath Castle estate from his father in 1977 or 1978.
Now living. His wife is now living.
Principal sources
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 334-35; Mrs R. Bellew, 'John Bellew of Willistown, 1606-79', Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, vol. 6, no. 4
(1928), pp. 229-237; C. Casey & A. Rowan, The buildings of Ireland: North Leinster, 1993, pp. 152-54; K. Harvey, The Bellews of Mount Bellew, 1998; H. O'Sullivan, John Bellew: a 17th century man of many parts, 1605-79, 2000; R. White, 'An ancient lineage: Barmeath Castle, Co. Louth', Country Life, 6 January 2016, pp. 44-49; Dictionary of Irish Biography entries on members of the Bellew family.
Location of archives
Bellew of Barmeath Castle, baronets and Barons Bellew: deeds, estate and family papers, 1636-1831 [Barmeath Castle Archives]. Later records are presumably also retained by the family.
Coat of arms
Sable, fretty or.
Can you help?
- Can anyone provide images of the principal interiors of Barmeath Castle which they would be willing to allow me to reproduce in this article, or any further images of Jenkinstown Castle?
- Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
- If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.
Revision and acknowledgements
This post was first published 29 April 2023.
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