Within the northern perimeter of the Blessed Virgin graveyard in Lucan village is a small grave that leans against the wall. The gravestone, despite its age, remains remarkably clear.
This grave belongs to a small child, named Miss Emily Packenham. Her parents, as transcribed on her gravestone, were Admiral Sir Thomas Pakenham and his wife Louisa Anne.
The Pakenham family were not natives to the Lucan area. Admiral Sir Thomas Pakenham was the son of Lord Longford, and his wife Elizabeth, Countess of Longford. The family home was Pakenham Hall in Co Westmeath. Two hundred years after Miss Emily’s death this is still the Pakenham family home. It is now more widely known as Tullynally castle[1].
Born in 1813, Emily was the youngest of the 15 children born to Admiral Sir Thomas Pakenham and Louisa Anne[2].
Sir Thomas was one of multiple sons and was not in line to inherit the family estate. He followed the steps in many of his position and sought his fortune elsewhere. He chose the navy and through favour and experience became a successful naval officer[3]. He held numerous commands in his position. His most famous involvement was in the ‘Glorious First of June’ the first great naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between the French and the British in the Atlantic Ocean. Francesco Bartolozzi commemorated this battle and the naval officers who engaged in it in an engraving[4].
Emily’s mother Louisa Anne was born to the Hon. John Staples and Harriet Connolly. Louisa Anne had a closer attachment to the Lucan area as her maternal uncle was Thomas Connolly of Castletown House. This house would eventually pass to her eldest son and the eldest brother of Emily, Edward Pakenham. Louisa had a number of half siblings from her father’s second marriage to Henrietta Molesworth, daughter of the third Viscount Molesworth. Henrietta also had a number of half siblings, one of which was the tragic Mary Molesworth, whose husband, the first Earl Rochford kept her imprisoned in solitary confinement for the majority of their marriage.[5] She was released on the death of her husband but never recovered from her ordeal and died shortly afterwards.
Emily’s most famous relative however is from her paternal line. Her cousin through her father’s eldest brother Edward was Catherine Pakenham, informally known as Kitty. Kitty had formed an attachment in her teenage years to the Hon. Arthur Wellesley. By the time of Emily’s birth in 1813, Kitty and Arthur had married. Arthur would become the Duke of Wellington, famous for his victory at Waterloo in 1815. It is unknown how are aware Emily would have been of her famous family connection as despite their close familial relationship Kitty was 40 years older than her paternal younger cousin.
Emily never lived to embrace her family legacy as she died at 8 years of age in 1821.
Possibly, due the large number of children in her family and her early death, Emily and other siblings found themselves omitted from some peerage lists. Her small gravestone is one of the very few reminders left that she had existed at all.
Her death and presence in the Blessed Virgin Mary graveyard are still a mystery we hope to resolve.
References:
[1] History,http://www.tullynallycastle.ie accessed13/12/2021
[2] Collen H, Debrett’s Genealogical Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland, London, William Pickering, 1847 pg. 480.
[4] Commemoration of victory of 1 June 1794 [“The Glorious First of June”; Third Battle of Ushant], www.artcollection.culture.gov.uk, accessed 10/12/2021
[3] Hon Sir Thomas Pakenham www.morethannelson.com accessed 13/12/2021
[5] Horstman, A, Victorian Divorce, Oxon, Routledge, 2016, pg 9.
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