Editorialana. 119
BLENNERHASSET REDIVIVUS.
The Century for July (1901)
contains an article by Therese Blenner-
hassett Adams on "The True Story of
Harman Blennerhassett." The
author very briefly recites the history
of the Blennerhassetts who built
that magnificent mansion on the historic
island in the Ohio near Belpre
in the year 1798.* The article is
valuable historically as authentically
stating that the main, if not sole cause
of the departure from Ireland
and emigration to America of the
Blennerhassets, was their social
ostracization, owing to the fact that
the wife of Harman Blennerhassett
was his niece.
"Early in 1796 Harman
Blennerhassett, then thirty-one years old,
married in England Miss Margaret Agnew,
daughter of Captain Robert
Agnew of Howlish, County Durham, a young
lady of eighteen. Her
father was lieutenant governor of the
Isle of Man, and a son of General
James Agnew of American Revolutionary
fame." The mother of Mar-
garet Agnew was Catherine, one of the
sisters of Harman Blenner-
hassett. For this cause she (Margaret)
was disinherited. The young
lady was absent at school; her uncle
(Harman) was sent to take her
home; instead of doing so he married
her. He was thirty-one. The fam-
ilies on both sides-the Agnews and the
Blennerhassets, forever after-
wards turned their backs upon the
eloping couple. Harman broke the
entail established by his father Conway
Blennerhassett, and sold his
share of the estate to Thomas Mullin,
afterward Lord Ventry. He re-
ceived $160,000 in money. Besides this
he was the recipient of an
income of $6600 and more, which belonged
to the entailed estate as
a separate portion, which could not be
transferred and the use of which
he had until death.
The connection of Blennerhassett with
the Burr expedition is not dis-
cussed at any length. It is only
admitted that Blennerhassett became
heavily involved financially in the
schemes of Burr. "Blennerhassett's
reason" says the author, "for
joining Burr was not that of adventure,
but to remove himself farther from those
who knew him. He had family
friends who respected him through the
position he occupied in his own
country. Among those who knew the sad
story of his life, there were
not many on this side of the water, but
the dread was with him always
that the truth would become known to his
children."
Therese Blennerhassett Adams repudiates
the generally promulgated
account of the extreme poverty and
desolate "taking off" of both Harman
and Margaret Blennerhassett. "The
abject-poverty tales of Blennerhas-
sett and his family serve well the
purpose of romance but not of fact,
because they are untrue."
Blennerhassett was well cared for till his death,
which occurred at Port Pierre, Island of
Guernsey, February 2, 1831.
Margaret died June 16, 1842, in her
sixty-fourth year "in the house
she herself rented and paid for" at
75 Greenwich Street, New York.
See Volume I, page 127, Publications
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.