Thomas and Catherine Murray-Prior
Andrew and Frances Murray-Prior’s elder son Thomas Murray-Prior Esq of Rathdowney m. Catherine Palmer. He was born at Rathdowney in 1773, and 'no doubt' baptised there.1) Thomas M-P was High Sherriff of Queen’s County from 1799, and a Member of the Irish Parliament for Lesburne and Bannow (remembering that this is still a time when only the wealthier male landowners voted in parliament and they could control multiple seats). He was buried at Newry, County Down (now in Northern Ireland) under the name of Murray on 5 November 1854.2) His wife Catherine was the elder daughter of Joseph Palmer Esq. of Cuffsborough, Queen’s County; he commanded a militia corps as a Colonel.3)
Catherine and Thomas married when young, doing so by eloping to [wp>Gretna_Green|Gretna Green]], the famous town in Scotland for runaways who could marry under the more lenient Scottish marriage law. Presumably to quash gossip, the couple had a later, conventional marriage ceremony in Donnybrook, Dublin.4) They had five children: two daughters who died young, Ellen and Catherine; and three sons (Thomas, Lodge Morres, and Hervey Morres).5) Their mother Catherine died in Dublin and was buried there in approximately 1802, when her youngest son (Hervey) was three years old.6)
This Thomas Murray-Prior was the last to be able to describe himself as 'Esq. of Rathdowney'. Rosa Praed stated that the estates were 'bankrupt'7) and certainly they appear to have been sold.
Mary Ann Thompson
After his wife Catherine's early death, Thomas M-P had a liaison with a working class woman, Mary Ann Thompson who lived in King's County. Robert M-P8) states that Thomas and Mary Ann were ‘possibly’ married; Thomas Bertram M-P refers to their marriage as a 'rumour'.9) Mary Ann Thompson later married William Lynch - , ‘perhaps bigamously’, if she was married to Thomas M-P. Thomas and Mary Ann’s daughter Honoria adopted the surname Lynch and married Michael (often called Edward) Hankard.
Honoria and Michael Hankard's elder son, also called Michael, emigrated to NSW in 1881 with his wife Mary (nee Connelly) and their three daughters: presumably today they have numerous descendants in Australia.10) Robert M-P believed that another of Honoria and Michael’s sons, Thomas Hankard, threatened to add ‘Murray-Prior’ to his surname ‘but was dissuaded from this course’.11) Effective blackmail?
Four more children?
Thomas Bertram M-P records that Thomas had four other children before his liaison with Mary Ann Thompson. He gives no information about the children's mother/s, just that one line of descent was 'John and Annie Murray-Prior and their children Bertram and Coralie, of New South Wales.' and that he had 'No space for more details.' 12) Certainly space would be needed to summarise the career of John: a colourful one to say the least! click on John Murray Prior/Bertram Murray for more.
Sources: The common source for information about Thomas M-P 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.1076. Robert and Thomas Bertram M-P supplemented their information with family knowledge/gossip. See also TLM-P's Imperial Family Bible; Maximilian Genealogy Master Database 2000.