Andrew Murray Prior and Frances Morres
Andrew Murray Prior Esq. of Rathdowney was John and Mary Murray Prior's eldest son. Initially Andrew Murray, he became Andrew Murray Prior after Tom Prior stipulated that Andrew's parents, John and Mary Murray, should “assume” Prior as their surname.1) As seen, Andrew married into the much-admired Morres family. Andrew's wife Frances Morres was born in Dublin, the daughter of Redmond Morres, Member of Parliament for Dublin (no information is given about her mother) and sister to Lodge Morres, later Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency. By now it appears that the Prior estates had been reduced to just one, at Rathdowney in the southwest of what is now County Laois. In 1777, Andrew Murray Prior became High Sherriff of County Wicklow.
Between 1773 and 1786, Andrew and Frances Murray Prior had 5 children (birth order is not known):
1. Eleanor,
2. Mary (‘Polly’) who emigrated to the USA after she married John Hanna from White County, Illinois: they had 9 children and presumably today have numerous American descendants.2)
3. Catherine (who died young)
4. Thomas and
5. Andrew Redmond Murray Prior. It was Andrew Redmond who allegedly had an an illegitimate child with Lady Sarah Butler.3)
Sources As with other entries for Priors/M-Ps in Ireland, the original source appears to be: John & John B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846, p.1075-76. See also, e.g., Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry,Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, p.49. There is a reference to Andrew Murray Prior in the Morning Post (London) 11 April 1818.(subscription needed to find article.)