Hampden Nicholson Pepper (1790 - 1855)

Born 1790 in County Meath, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Penelope (Biggs) Pepper — married 17 Jul 1847 (to 7 Sep 1850) in Brinny Church, Brinny, Bandon, Ireland

Descendants

Died 23 Dec 1855 at about age 65 in Kilkee, Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland

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Biography

Hampden Pepper was born in Ireland.

Hampden Nicholson Pepper was born in 1790. He was the son of Simon Pepper and Eleanor Andrews.

His family lived at Lissanisky in 1814^[1]. His father Simon died on 15 August 1821.

Hampden gained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Bengal artillery.

He married Penelope Biggs (the eldest daughter of Thomas Joseph Biggs, Esq. of Bandon) on 17 July 1847 at Brinny, Bandon, Ireland^[2]. Notice of their marriage was printed on page 3 of the Dublin Evening mail dated 21 July 1847:

MARRIAGES.

July 17, at Brinny Church, by the Rev. Thomas Biggs, brother to the bride, Major Hampden Pepper, Bengal Artillery, to Penelope, eldest daughter of Thomas Joseph Biggs, Esq .of Garryhankerdmore.^[3]

They had one daughter: Penelope Susanna Pepper (b. 31 Aug 1850).

Sadly his wife Penelope died on 7 September 1850 in Bengal, India, aged 25, soon after the birth of their daughter.

Hampden returned to Ireland and became romantically involved with Miss Anne M Smithwick (the daughter of Peter Smithwick and Mary Gabbett), and they were planning to marry. Tragically Lieutenant-Colonel Hampden Nicholson Pepper and his betrothed died on 23 December 1855, drowned at Kilkee. An account of the tragic event was printed on page 2 of the Limerick Chronicle dated 29 December 1855:

LADY AND GENTLEMAN DROWN AT KILKEE.

We have the painful duty of recording a most disastrous casualty at the Puffinghole table rocks, west-end of Kilkee, on Sunday last. The weather on the coast had been for a few days previous wild and stormy. The Atlantic surges were impelled against the rugged cliffs to a height seldom seen by visitors, and the foam of the angry billows floated in the air, and fell inland a considerable distance. After Church service on Sunday, the weather brightened up, and the wind had fallen, but there was a fearful sell on the ocean, and several persons walked towards the cliffs, to enjoy the marine prospect for miles at both sides of the bay. Captain and Mrs. Fisher, Lieut.-Colonel Hampden Pepper, of Lissanisky, Robert Smithwick, Esq. and Miss Smithwick, the daughter of Peter Smithwick, Esq. of Shanbally, Tipperary, formed one of the groups. They agreed to visit the Puffing cavern, which the day after a storm usually throws up a fountain of sea water in the most fantastic fashion ; and if the sun happens to paly on this romantic spectacle, the successive jets déau exhibit the varied hues of a rainbow, the ceaseless motion of the tide below keeping all the attractive features above in full exercise. The immediate locale of this singular object is approached by a sliding pathway from the cliff, and then about a perch of almost level granite rock direct to the cavern. Lt.-Col. Pepper and Miss Smithwick were in advance, and the former urging the others to move on, when a coastguard man on the cliff warned the party of the danger of venturing out, and Capt. Fisher observing a huge wave rolling in called out to Lt.-Col. Pepper to mind himself, when the sea broke on the rock with a thundering crash, saturating Capt. and Mrs. Fisher, and completely overpowering Lt.-Col. Pepper and Miss Smithwick, who were both dragged together by the receding swell into the shaft of the Puffing hole and there disappeared, to the horror and amazement of those persons who were providentially saved from a similar fate, the dripping wet and exhausted by the violent shock. The alarm of this tragic event was promptly given ; the police, fishermen and coastguards, hastened to the fearful scene, but no human being dare approach the brink of the Puffing hole, which had just engulphed two victims in the prime of life, and probably mutilated their bodies in a short time by the Malestroom action of the maddening waters in the massive cauldron within. The remains of the unfortunate lady and gentleman have not since been found. Part of an overcoat that Lt.-Col. Pepper wore, and the sleeve of Miss Smithwick's dress, were cast ashore in the vicinity of this awful catastrophe. Lt.-Col. Pepper had a large sum of money on his person when he fell a prey to the merciless element. He served for years in the India Company's Bengal army, and returned to his native country not long since.- The lamented lady was grand-daughter of the late Rev. Robert Gabbett, D.D. and, we are informed by mutual friends, that arrangements were in progress for their matrimonial union when this terrible calamity occurred. How true it is that man proproses and God disposes. The survivors had returned to Lissenisky House, near Nenagh, the seat of Theobald Pepper, Esq. brother of the unfortunate officer.^[4]

His body was probably never recovered.

His Will was proved in 1855^[5].

Sources

1. ↑ https://landedestates.ie/property/4384
2. ↑ "Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGV8-KPMH : 17 March 2018), Hampden Nicholson Pepper and Penelope Biggs, Marriage 17 Jul 1847, Brinny, Bandon, Ireland; citing General Register Office, Dublin; FHL microfilm 101,283.
3. ↑ Dublin Evening mail dated 21 July 1847 page 3 (requires subscription to view)
4. ↑ Limerick Chronicle dated 29 December 1855 page 2 (requires subscription to view)
5. ↑ "Ireland, Diocesan and Prerogative Wills & Administrations Indexes, 1595-1858", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WGH1-3QW2 : Wed Dec 13 12:43:32 UTC 2023), Entry for Hampden Pepper, 1855.

See also:

• A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain ... By Bernard Burke