Thomas and Catherine Murray-Prior

Andrew and Frances Murray-Prior’s elder son Thomas Murray-Prior Esq of Rathdowney m. Catherine Palmer. 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). Presumably because he died there, he was buried at Newry, County Down (now in Northern Ireland). His wife Catherine was the elder daughter of Joseph Palmer Esq. of Cuffsborough, Queen’s County; he commanded a militia corps as a Colonel.¹⁾

Robert and Thomas Bertram M-P believed that Catherine and Thomas married when young, doing so by eloping to Gretna Green (this makes more sense if the couple were in England but, as the Anglo-Irish tended to have their offspring educated and socialised in England, this is possible). Presumably to quash gossip, the couple had a later, conventional marriage ceremony in Donnybrook, Dublin.²⁾ They had five children: two daughters who died young (Ellen and Catherine); and three sons (Thomas, Lodge Morres, and Hervey Morres).³⁾

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'⁴⁾ and certainly they appear to have been sold.

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-P⁵⁾ states that Thomas and Mary Ann were ‘possibly’ married; Thomas Bertram M-P refers to their marriage as a 'rumour'⁶⁾. Mary Ann Thompson later married, ‘perhaps bigamously’, William Lynch. 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. 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’.⁷⁾ Effective blackmail?

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.