Name Theodosia Countess | Died 1817 | |
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Theodosia Hawkins-Magill (5 September 1743 in Brighton – 2 March 1817 in Brighton), later Countess of Clanwilliam, was a great heiress and landowner in County Down, Ireland.
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She was daughter and heir of Robert Hawkins-Magill (d. 10 April 1745), of Gill Hall, Dromore, County Down, by his second wife, Anne Bligh, daughter of John (Bligh), first Earl of Darnley.
She married John Meade (21 April 1744 – 19 October 1800 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin) on 29 August 1765, son and heir of Sir Richard Meade, 3rd Bart., of Ballintober, co. Cork, by Catherine, daughter of Henry Prittie, of Kilboy, co. Tipperary. Sir John Meade, 4th Bart., was created Baron Gillford, of the manor of Gillford, co. Down, and Viscount Clanwiliam, of co. Tipperary, on 17 November 1766, and Earl of Clanwilliam on 20 July 1776; all in the peerage of Ireland. Previously he had been MP for Banagher, 1764-66. Between them (hers being the far greater share) their estates in 1799 were said to be worth £14,000 per annum, which made them approximately the 11th largest landowners in Ireland.
When young she was painted by both Reynolds and Gainsborough.
She lived at Gill Hall and at Burrenwood; a cottage ornée put up near Castlewellan on some land half way between her mother's house* (*Mrs Pendarves/Mary Delany of Bernard Ward and the former Lady Anne Hawkins-Magill: 'He wants taste and Lady Anne is so whimsical that I doubt her judgement') at Castle Ward (the mother had married (December 1747) Bernard Ward after the early death of her first husband, Robert Hawkins-Magill (d.1745)), the Greenore Ferry, Rathfriland, and her ancestral seat at Gill Hall.
Burrenwood is comparable with the Swiss cottage at Cahir (Tipperary); Derrymore, Bessbrook, Co. Armagh (National Trust, of Northern Ireland); and the Petit hameau de la Reine at Versailles.
Burrenwood stands between the forest parks of Tollymore and Castlewellan, beside the Mourne mountains and just inland from Dundrum bay at Newcastle.
Gill Hall, near Dromore
Meanwhile Gill Hall had become one of the most haunted houses in Ireland and was home to the Beresford ghost story.
This took place 14 October 1693 when John Power, 2nd Earl of Tyrone (1665-1693) told his friend, (the sister-in-law of Sir John Magill (d.1700)), Nichola Sophia (1665/6-1712/13), youngest daughter of Hugh, 1st Lord Hamilton of Glenawly, wife to Sir Tristram Beresford, 3rd Bt., (1669-1701) and mother of Sir Marcus Beresford, 4th Bt and 1st Viscount Tyrone, of his own death that day thus showing, as arranged, that there was life on the other side.Part of the stable block remains but the house was destroyed over thirty years ago.