Series 6 - Pertaining to William Henry Edmund De Vere Sheaffe Pery (1896-1929), 4th Earl of Limerick (1896-1929)

The Earls of Limerick are descended on their maternal side from Edmond Sexten (1486-1555), who held the office of Mayor of Limerick in 1535 and was the first mayor of native Irish extraction. Originally closely associated with the Earl of Kildare, Sexten changed allegiances and ingratiated himself to King Henry VIII. He was given custody of Derriknockane Castle and remained active on the Crown’s behalf, carrying out much of this work at his own expense and at times pleading financial hardship to the Crown. By way of compensation, Sexten was granted the dissolved priory of St. Mary’s in 1537. St Francis’s Abbey came into his possession in the same year. Bartholomew Striche, who succeeded Sexten as Mayor, made an attempt to overturn the grant of St Mary’s by alleging that the expenses which Sexten claimed had not been paid out of his own purse but at the expense of the city of Limerick, and that by implication the grant should therefore have fallen to the corporation. In 1538, Sexten was committed to Dublin Castle for high treason on grounds dating back to his time as Mayor but was later released and continued to enjoy the favour of the Crown. His grandson and namesake Edmond Sexten (1595-1636) was four times Mayor and five times High Sheriff of Limerick city. He, too, was engaged in a series of disputes with Limerick Corporation, primarily concerning the immunity of the lands of the two dissolved abbeys mentioned above, and whether Sexten alone, or the parish generally, was responsible for the upkeep of the church of St John the Baptist, Limerick, whose tithes were appropriate to St Mary’s. His only sister Susan Sexten married Edmond Pery of Limerick (1599-1655) and succeeded as sole heiress to the Sexten property. Her son, Colonel Edmond Pery married Dymphna Stackpole, a wealthy heiress, and when Colonel Perry died in 1721, his son the Reverend Stackpole Pery succeeded to the Sexten, Pery, and Stackpole fortunes. His second son, the Reverend William Cecil Pery (1721-1794) became Bishop of Limerick in 1784, and six years later was created Baron Glentworth. The peerage title was derived from his maternal great-grandfather Sir Drury Wray of Glentworth, Lincolnshire. Three of William Pery’s sisters married in to Limerick families of note: Dymphna to William Monsell of Tervoe, County Limerick; Lucy to Sir Henry Hartstonge of Bruff, County Limerick, Baronet and MP for that county; and Jane to Launcelot Hill of Limerick city. William Pery’s only surviving son, Edmund Henry Pery (1758-1844) was created Viscount Limerick in December 1800 and the Earl of Limerick in February 1803. He fell out with his eldest son and heir apparent because of the latter’s recklessness with money. In order to protect the family’s future, the 1st Earl made a will in which he vested the estate in a trust and made his heirs tenants for life. He was succeeded in the title by his grandson, William Henry Tennison, who did not mix much in society and who died from a sudden attack of bronchitis at the relatively early age of 56. He was twice married, and was succeeded by his son William Hale John Charles Pery from his first marriage to Susanna Sheaffe. In 1868, the 3rd Earl commissioned Edward William Godwin to design Dromore Castle in the Gothic Revival style near Pallaskenry, County Limerick as a country retreat. The building was completed in 1874. In the event, it was rarely used as a residence and eventually sold in 1939. Like his father, the 3rd Earl was twice married. With his first wife, Caroline Maria Gray, he had one son, William Henry Edmund de Vere Sheaffe, who succeeded him as the 4th Earl. He married May Imelda Josephine Irwin but the marriage ended in a separation in 1897. The couple’s only son Gerard, Viscount Glentworth was an RAF pilot and was killed in action near the end of the First World War in May 1918. The title then passed to the 4th Earl’s half-brother, Colonel Edmond Pery from his father’s second marriage to Isabella Colquhoun. His eldest son Patrick succeeded to the title as the 6th Earl in 1967. The current holder of the title is his son, Edmund Christopher, 7th Earl of Limerick. For a more detailed pedigree of the Earls of Limerick and associated families, please refer to P51/9/5-7.