Family
Richard MacDonnell, of the Tynekill MacDonnells of Leinster, was the son of Robert MacDonnell (1764–1821) of High Park, nr Douglas, Co. Cork, and Susanna Nugent (1766–1836) of Ardmore, Co. Waterford, of the Cloncoskraine Nugents in the same county. For the most part of his life, his father had been a prosperous man. He had been given a lucrative revenue appointment at Cork by a close friend of his own father's - George Lowther - and had contemplated an early retirement on his substantial properties. But following the overthrow of Napoleon, property prices fell dramatically and he, like many others, died an impoverished and disappointed man.
In 1810, Richard MacDonnell married Jane Graves, daughter of the Very Rev. Richard Graves, and sister of Robert James Graves. They were the parents of fourteen children, including Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell and Major-General Arthur Robert MacDonnell. He was the uncle of Francis Brinkley and Richard Charles Mayne, and the uncle and guardian of Edmund Allen Meredith, the principal of McGill University in Montreal.
Read more about this topic: Richard Mac Donnell (scholar)
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“When a family is free of abuse and oppression, it can be the place where we share our deepest secrets and stand the most exposed, a place where we learn to feel distinct without being “better,” and sacrifice for others without losing ourselves.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“Female Virtues are of a Domestick turn. The Family is the proper Province for Private Women to Shine in. If they must be showing their Zeal for the Publick, let it not be against those who are perhaps of the same Family, or at least of the same Religion or Nation, but against those who are the open, professed, undoubted Enemies of their Faith, Liberty, and Country.”
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“I duly acknowledge that I have gone through a long life, with fewer circumstances of affliction than are the lot of most men. Uninterrupted health, a competence for every reasonable want, usefulness to my fellow-citizens, a good portion of their esteem, no complaint against the world which has sufficiently honored me, and above all, a family which has blessed me by their affections, and never by their conduct given me a moment’s pain.”
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