General Sir John Lysaght Pennefather was born on September 9th 1798, the third son of the Rev. John Pennefather and Elizabeth Percival. We descend directly from his half-brother, Edward Pennefather, who had been born earlier to the Rev. John Pennefather and his first unnamed wife. Our Edward Pennefather named his oldest son, our great-great-great grandfather, John Lysaght Pennefather, after his half-brother.
I've already done a brief post about Sir John Lysaght Pennefather's military career, so this post focuses on his family.
The wife of General Sir John Lysaght Pennefather was Katherine Margaret Carr/Margaret Carr (1803 - 1880) , the daughter of John Carr and Susannah Senior of Mountrath, Queen's County. Margaret had previously been married to William Bartley of Monaghan.
Her father, John Carr, lived in Mountrath, Laois/Queen's County, but I've failed to find out much about him. The Tithe Applotment books of 1829 only show up a Michael Carr and an Edward Carr living in Lower Mountrath in the parish of Clonenagh and Clonagheen. Later, in 1851, Griffiths Valuation showed up Michael Carr leasing three acres from the landowner, Sir Charles H. Coote. Also in Coote Street, Mountrath town, Dysartbeagh, was a William Senior leasing a house from a James Lawless. In the same townland of Dysartbeagh, a Rev. James Moreton owned 26 acres. This Rev. James Moreton or Morton was of the same family of the Mortons of Little Island, Clonmel, Tipperary, who were related to the Carrs. An 1814 lease noted the names of James Morton, Thomas Morton, George Morton and Charles Henry Coote in relation to property at Little Island, Clonmel and Mountrath.
John and Susannah Carr died young, and their children were taken under the wing of their uncle, a Morton of Little Island, Clonmel, Tipperary.
Richard Carr, Margaret's brother, was sent to London and entered a finance house there. Margaret's sister, Ellen, who had been born circa 1806 in Ireland, married her first cousin, William Carr, a damask merchant. The son of William and Ellen Carr, Henry Tuckey Carr, was born 20th April 1826, at Gt. George's Street, St. Pancras; a daughter, Margaret Carr, was born circa 1827. In 1841, the family were living in Camden Cottages, Kentish Town; Susan Bartley, aged 15, who was the daughter of Margaret Carr and William Bartley, was visiting them on the night of the census. By 1851 they were living in New Barn's House, Ely, Cambridgeshire, although William Bartley was away on business, staying in a boarding house in Halifax, Yorkshire. Their son, Henry Tuckey Carr, a warehouseman, married Hannah Barber Cheetham on September 14th 1864, in St. John's, Manchester. Hannah was the daughter of Joseph Cheetham, also a warehouseman. Henry and Hannah Carr settled in Hulme, Lancashire.
Margaret Carr's first husband, William Bartley, had been born in about 1799 in Lossit, Co.Monaghan to the surgeon, George Bartley and his wife, Christina Metge. George Bartley (1753 - 1800) had been the surgeon of the Monaghan Infirmiary for 50 years.
The children of George and Christina Bartley were Jessie 1785 - 1876 who lived in Dublin, John Metge Bartley 1787 - 1881 who married Jane Cowell, Major General Sir Robert Bartley 1789 - 1843, George who died in 1861, William who married Margaret Carr, and Christina Bartley.
William Bartley was with the 22nd Regiment of Foot, as was John Lysaght Pennefather. William Bartley married Katherine Margaret Carr in about 1824, and the couple had two daughters before William died and was buried in 1828 in Jamaica.
Susan Bartley was born in Jamaica in about 1825, while her younger sister, Margaret Ann, was born on April 23rd 1827, and was baptised at home in St. Pancras, London, on 19th June 1827. The family were living on Georges Street at the time, the same street where Margaret Bartley's sister, Ellen Carr, was living at this time with her husband William Carr.
At the time of his death in Jamaica in 1828, William Bartley was the paymaster of the 22nd Regiment. John Lysaght Pennefather escorted his widow and daughter back to London, and the couple were married on December 9th 1830 in St. Pancras Parish Church. The witnesses were Margaret's brother, Richard Carr, her sister, Ellen Carr, and Ellen's husband who was also the sisters' first cousin, William Carr.
Following their marriage, John Lysaght Pennefather adopted his step-daughter, Susan Bartley Pennefather, and contact with the Bartley family was lost. Margaret accompanied her husband abroad to India, and Susan was sent to boarding school in France, spending holidays at home with her Carr cousins in Camden.
Susan Bartley Pennefather (1825 - 1866) married the Canadian, John Hamilton Gray (1811 - 1887) who was the Premier of Lord Edward Island. John had been an officer in the British Army for 21 years; at the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, his father-in-law, Sir John Lysaght Pennefather, took the recently retired John Hamilton Gray on as a staff assistant. Following the war, he returned to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where he lived at Inkerman House, which had been named after John Lysaght Pennefather's victory during the Battle of Inkerman.
John Hamilton Gray and Susan Bartley Pennefather had five daughters together following their wedding in India. Harriet Worrall Gray was born on a troop ship on the Red Sea, Margaret Bartley was born in South Africa, Florence Bartley in England, Mary and Bertha were both born in Prince Edward Island.
Susan Bartley Pennefather died in Charlottetown in 1864.
In 1861, John and Margaret Pennefather were living in Seale, Surrey, where John was the commander of Aldershot Camp. Their granddaughter, a favourite of Margaret's, was with them on the census. This was Harriet Worrell Gray, who had been born in 1843 - 'at sea' - to Susan Bartley Pennefather and John Hamilton Gray.
In 1871, John and Margaret Pennefather were living in the Chelsea Hospital where John was the governor. Again, Harriet Worrell Gray, was with them, as was a Canadian-born niece, Caroline Riddell, who had been born circa 1849. (Another of our elderly relations was living in the Chelsea Hospital in 1871 - Frederick Courtenay of Dublin was the retired father-in-law of our great-great-great grandfather, John Pennefather of Dublin.)
Cousin Caroline Riddell was one of Harriet's bridesmaids when she married Rev. Henry Pelham Stokes, the son of the cleric George Stokes, on 15th January 1880, at St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens, Chelsea. Harriet's address at the time was 8 Cranley Place, the home of her grandmother, Margaret Pennefather. Her father was noted as John Hamilton Gray, C.M.G., Colonel in the 7th Dragoon Guards. Other bridesmaids were cousins, E.L. Mackay, Florence Moreton and Harriet Hamilton.
Harriet's step-grandfather, General Sir John Lysaght Pennefather died on 9th May 1872 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.
Her grandmother, Lady Margaret Pennefather, died at Cranley Place, Onslow Square, on 7th February 1880, and her will was proved by Harriet Worrall Stokes, wife of Henry Pelham Stokes. Harriet died two years after her maternal grandmother on 13th January 1882 at 5 Coleshill Street, Eaton Square, and was buried alongside her grandparents in Brompton Cemetery. Her husband, Henry Pelham Stokes of Wareham Parish, Dorset, proved her will.