Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 - 1891)

Born 27 Jun 1846 in Avondale, County Wicklow, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Katharine (Wood) Parnell — married 25 Jun 1891 in Steyning, Sussex, England, United Kingdom

Died 6 Oct 1891 at age 45 in Brighton, Sussex, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Charles Parnell is Notable.

Charles Parnell was born in Ireland.

" Uncrowned king of Ireland"; Became MP at age 29; Leader for Home Rule and Parnellite Party

(Irish: Cathal Stiúbhard Pharnell; 27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish landlord, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Charles Stewart Parnell was born in County Wicklow, the third son and seventh child of John Henry Parnell (1811–1859), a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner, and his American wife Delia Tudor Stewart (1816–1898) of Bordentown, New Jersey, daughter of the American naval hero, Admiral Charles Stewart (the stepson of one of George Washington's bodyguards). There were eleven children in all: five boys and six girls. Admiral Stewart's mother, Parnell's great-grandmother, belonged to the Tudor family, so Parnell had a distant relationship with the British Royal Family. John Henry Parnell himself was a cousin of one of Ireland's leading aristocrats, Viscount Powerscourt, and also the grandson of a Chancellor of the Exchequer in Grattan's Parliament, Sir John Parnell, who lost office in 1799 when he opposed the Act of Union.

The Parnells of Avondale^[1] were descended from a Protestant English merchant family, which came to prominence in Congleton, Cheshire, early in the 17th century where as Baron Congleton two generations held the office of Mayor of Congleton before moving to Ireland. The family produced a number of notable figures, including Thomas Parnell (1679–1718), the Irish poet and Henry Parnell, 1st Baron Congleton (1776–1842) the Irish politician. Parnell's grandfather William Parnell (1780–1821), who inherited the Avondale Estate in 1795, was a liberal Irish MP for Wicklow from 1817–1820. Thus, from birth, Charles Stewart Parnell possessed an extraordinary number of links to many elements of society; he was linked to the old Irish Parliamentary tradition via his great-grandfather and grandfather, to the American War of Independence via his grandfather, to the War of 1812 (where his grandfather had been awarded a gold medal by the United States Congress for gallantry); he was connected with the aristocracy through the Powerscourts.

In June of 1891, Parnell married Katherine (Wood) O'shea.^[2]

He died in his home at 10 Walsingham Terrace, Hove (now replaced by Dorset Court, Kingsway) on 6 October 1891 of pneumonia and in the arms of his wife Katharine (formerly Katharine O'Shea).[4] He was 45 years of age. Though an Anglican, his funeral on 11 October was at the Irish National nondenominational Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, and was attended by more than 200,000 people.^[3][4]

The value of his estate following his death was listed as over £6,000.^[5]

In 1914, John Howard Parnell wrote a memoir about his more famous brother that gives a much more personal side of the man. Most only knew of Charles as the determined, and sometimes controversial, politician.^[6]

Also in 1914, his widow Katherine (Kitty) wrote her own, very personal take on his life.^[7]

In 1937, MGM made a feature film simply titled "Parnell".^[8][9] The film starred Clark Gable as Charles Stewart Parnell, the famous Irish politician, and Myrna Loy as Kitty O'Shea. It was generally deemed unsuccessful, and Gable's worst film.

Sources

1. ↑ Avondale House https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:Avondale_House&public=1
2. ↑ "British Newspaper Archive, Family Notices," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPCK-M9RL : 17 April 2019), Charles Stewart Parnell, Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland, United Kingdom; records extracted FamilySearch and images digitized by FindMyPast; citing Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, 26 Jun 1891, The British Newspaper Archive, Ireland; FHL microfilm .
3. ↑ Find-A-Grave memorial https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4127/charles-stewart-parnell
4. ↑ "British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q269-BMGM : 18 March 2018), Charles Parnell, 10 Oct 1891; citing Obituary, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 0005, Records extracted by FindMyPast and images digitized by FamilySearch. The British Library, London; FHL microfilm 102,001,355.
5. ↑ "Ireland Calendar of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZ5C-15N : 13 March 2018), Charles Stewart Parnell, 06 Oct 1891; citing 00393, 005014906, Principal Probate Registry, Dublin; 100,992.
6. ↑ Charles Stewart Parnell: a memoir, by John Howard Parnell 1914. https://books.google.com/books?id=RbBnAAAAMAAJ
7. ↑ Charles Stewart Parnell: His Love Story and Political Life, by Kitty O'Shea, 1914. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ho1pAAAAMAAJ
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnell_(film)
9. ↑ 1937 Life magazine pictorial of the MGM film "Parnell" https://books.google.com/books?id=yUQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43&

See Also

• FamilySearch profile for reference, may contain errors. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCCB-JQ1
• News Report of Parnell's Death, Willmar Argus Oct 15th 1891, PAGE 2 https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031%2F1H1BCK59%2F91101501&collection_name=847b8e1f-2c38-4575-90c0-a3e05fe6e760&tree=true&CurSearchNum=-1

• The life of Charles Stewart Parnell, 1846-1891, Vol 1, Richard Barry O'Brian 1899. https://books.google.com/books?id=1q2GAAAAIAAJ

• Parnell jilted by American heiress. https://www.historyireland.com/jilted-parnell-american-heiress/

• Parnell family memoir by Charles sister Emily, 1905. https://archive.org/details/patriotsmistakeb00dick/page/n9/mode/2up?

• Wikipedia Profile - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stewart_Parnell

• 1881 newspaper article of arrest https://books.google.com/books?id=SxNCAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1

• Lyons, FSL, Charles Stewart Parnell, Oxford University Press, 1977

• British Heritage, Dec 1999/Jan 2000, vol 21 #1 - "Charles Stewart Parnell. The greatest champion of Irish Home Rule, like a character in a Greek drama, had a tragic flaw.", by Katherine Bailey, pp.14, 16, 17, 70.