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The Career of Harman Blennerhassett Author(S): J The Career of Harman Blennerhassett Author(s): J. E. Fuller Source: Kerry Archaeological Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 17 (Oct., 1916), pp. 16-41 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30059729 Accessed: 27-06-2016 10:59 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Kerry Archaeological Magazine This content downloaded from 130.63.180.147 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:59:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms RESIDENCE OF HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. This content downloaded from 130.63.180.147 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:59:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Career of Harman Blennerhassett. DO not know that the chequered life of the subject of this memoir has ever been fully chronicled in this country, though exhaustive details can be gleaned from American publications.1 The stor y ought to be of great interest to Kerry- men; for not only was he a scion of "the Kingdom," but related to all the leading families in the county. He J was the younger son of Conway Blenner- .. hassett of Castle Conway, Killorglin; was educated at Westminster School; obtained his B.A. and LL.B. degrees in T.C.D. in 1790; and in Michaelmas term of that year entered at the King's Inns, and was called to the Bar at the age of twenty-five. Having succeeded by the death of his brother to a plentful estate, he determined to travel, and with several boon companions he went to France. At the period of his visit that nation had been shaken by the whirlwind of revolution, and the military despotism of her monarchs overthrown. The Bastile had 1 Most of the facts in my narrative have been culled from a work by W. H. Safford published in Cincinnati (1861), Martin's " History of Louis- iana," Marshall's " History of Kentucky," Gayarre's "Louisiana," " Mem- oirs of General Wilkinson," "Memoirs of Colonel Aaron Burr," &c., &c. Safford's book is the most interesting, being devoted exclusively to Blen- nerhassett, and based on private documents furnished by his only sur- viving son, Joseph Lewis Blennerhassett, then a practising lawyer in Troy, Lincoln County, Missouri. I have quoted largely without stopping to make a'cknowledgment or apology; and I put in no claim to originalty-being merely a compiler. This content downloaded from 130.63.180.147 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:59:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 18 THE CAREER OF IIARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. been torn down from its summit to its foundation by the infuriated advocates of anarchy, and France was still tremb- ling from the convulsions of her people when Harman Blen- nerhassett arrived in Paris. He had been already strongly suspected by his relatives of being in secret sympathy with the revolutionary spirits of Ireland. Thoroughly read in the political writings of Voltaire, and a disciple of Rousseau, a more interesting and opportune period could not have pre- sented itself for his visit. There were quite a number of young Irishmen in Paris at the time of the emeute, which culminated in the death of the unfortunate Louis. Many of them entered into the spirit of the Revolution and endeav- oured to enlist the sympathies of the insurgents against England. Two of these were John and Henry Sheares, who were present at the taking of the Bastile, and with whose subsequent fate we are familiar. Then, too, the successful stand of the American Colonies after several years of war for independence appealed to the romantic nature of Blen- nerhassett, and he found it difficulty to keep aloof from the entangling snares of party strife, though on his return to Ireland he at first chose rather to pursue the more flowery paths of literature. But the turmoil which prevailed dis- tracted him, and interrupted the pleasure which, in seclu- sion, he hoped to find. Unsettled in his views, and at vari- ance with his kith and kin, he determined to dispose of his extensive property and leave Ireland for America. He sold his estate to his relative Thomas Mullins of Burn- ham [afterwards the first Lord Ventry], and when the sale was completed he made immediate preparations for depar- ture, and started for Kinsale, where his sister Susan, wife of John, 26th Lord Kingsale, then resided; from there he sailed for England to complete arrangements for transmitting his acquired wealth to the New World and supplying himself with the necessary outfit. While in London he frequently met and became affianced to a Miss Margaret Agnew, dafighter of The Lieutenant- Governor of the Isle of Man, and grand-daughter of General Agnew, who fell at the battle of Germanstown. She was young, intelligent, and beautiful, possessed of an uncommon degree of energy coupled with a temperament of romantic This content downloaded from 130.63.180.147 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:59:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE CAREER OF HARMAN BLENNERILASSETT. 19 ardour. She listened with captivated delight to fairy tales of the far-off land in the Western World, and did not hesitate to link her destinies with his in the rural paradise which his imagination had so vividly depicted. Having supplied himself in London with an extensive Library, and with materials necessary for future use in the study of phil- osophy and astronomy, he sailed with his young bride for New York in 1796. Here he remained for several months to study the topography of the country and the character of its inhabitants, and on August the 18th, 1796, he wrote a long descriptive account of his travels to his nephew, Thomas de Courcy [afterwards 27th Lord Kingsale]. It is dated from Long Island, and occupies fourteen pages of Safford's book. From it I make a few extracts: "On first setting foot on American soil," he says, "I was visited with sensations which I certainly never experienced in the old country. While they excited severe regrets, as I cast my eyes back on the sea that interposed so wide a space between me and the many dear ties I left behind, they soon inspired more selfish reflections to cheer me with the contemplation of so grand a barrier betwen me and the malevolence of my enemies, while it seemed, at the same time, the only limit of my natural and political independence. But these prospects merely dawn at present; and my expectations will not ripen till I shall have acquired a landed property equal to that with which I have parted." He goes on to say-" here we shall remain till the end of the month, when I shall pass through [New] Jersey on my way to Philadelphia," and refers to "the beautiful diversity of cultivated country, large and well fenced fields of cucumbers, musk, and water melons, with plenty of apple and peach orchards. The peaches though no more attended than your wildings in Kerry, have as good a flavour as the best ever produced at Reen. Grapes are universal, but seem totally neglected. The farmers, nine out of ten Dutch, or their descendants, are not only comfortable, but rich." The 6itter is full of interest, but as its contents are descriptive and not personal to Blenner- hassett, I pass on. He subsequently explored the territory West of the Alle- This content downloaded from 130.63.180.147 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:59:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 20 THE CAREER OF IIARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. g0hanies, particularly the valley of the Ohio, and with his wife arrived at Pittsburgh in the fall of 1796. Here they obtained a passage in a "Keel-boat"-- in those days the most comfortable mode of travelling, and soon reached Mar- ietta, then the principal town in the State of Ohio. Fuilly satisfied with the attractiveness of the country here, he aban- doned any further explorations and resolved to settle in the neighbourhood. The following spring he purchased an island in the Ohio river containing about one hundred and seventy acres. To one of his romantic temperament the locality was truly delightful. "Upon its sloping banks waved the branches of the willow and laved their foliage in the passing stream. The majestic forest trees, untouched by the hand of civilisation, reared their trunks as monarchs of the land; while the wild briar and woodbine blending in promiscuous profusion entwined their tendrils around the shrubbery of the wild wood. Flowers of rare beauty burst spontaneously from the soil, and mingled their fragrance with the passing breeze. The feathery songsters. warbled their notes in the secluded groves, making vocal each branch with nature's music. Could the mind in pursuit of seclusion and repose picture a situation more desirable? Here might his cultivated taste adorn the ruder touches of nature, and mellow into soft shades the harsher outlines of her pencil; here might the mind unfettered by worldly cares drink deep draughts from Truth's ever-flowing fountain; here, when fatigued with the severer studies of science, he could amuse himself with the traditions and stories of several intelligent revolutionary soldiers who resided on the opposite shore; or, as game abounded, might engage in hunting and fishing." Well had it been for Blennerhassett had he been content with these enjoyments, but, as we shall see, his impressionable temperament seduced him into politics, and led him to cast in his lot with Revolutionaries, who wrecked his bright prospects and left him stranded on the rocks of sedition and bankruptcy.
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