Robert Hussey and Mary Nesbitt, Dublin and Galtrim

[mitchellowens]

Seeking information about Robert Hussey (born circa 1720) and his wife, Mary Nesbitt, both reportedly of Galtrim, Ireland, though they show up in the 1750s and 1760s in Dublin. They had at least three children: Helen Barbara (married Bordeaux merchant Jacques Meyere); Frances (aka Françoise (married Bordeaux resident Jean Alefsen, 1770); and Mary (aka Marie, died Bordeaux, 22 January 1768, age 22), wife of Capt. Charles Sexton, British Navy. I believe they also had a son, Robert, born Dublin 1761, and another daughter, Katherine, who married, around 1770, George Hyde Clarke of Hyde Hall, Cheshire, England. Am seeking definitive connection between Katherine Hussey (aka Katherine Hussey Nesbitt) and Robert and Mary Hussey.

[shanew147]

You didn't mention what documentation you already have or what type of information you are looking for but the details you are looking for a very early and before the start of most parish records.

Church of Ireland Record for the parish of Galtrim, Co. Meath only go back to the 1870s for baptisms and 1845 for marriages, and RC records for the parish which covers the area (Moynalvey) go back to 1811 for baptisms and 1783 for marriages.


Shane

[mitchellowens]

Unfortunately, Shane, I'm shooting in the dark a bit. The information I have is from a genealogist in Bordeaux, France, as well as some ancient published materials. I am trying to establish that Robert Hussey and Mary Nesbitt were indeed Katherine (Hussey) Clarke's parents. Am a trustee of Hyde Hall (http://www.hydehall.org), and Katherine (Hussey) Clarke was its builder's mother. Her father is always listed as Robert Hussey of Galtrim or Dublin, and her maiden surname is usually written as "Hussey Nesbitt." After some days of searching, I've stumbled across Frances, Mary, and Helen Barbara Hussey (aka Hussey Nesbitt in some sources), three sisters whose birth years are close to Katherine's. Hence my gut feeling they might be sisters. Am trying to establish that, but at the moment, it's needle-in-a-haystack time.

[mitchellowens]

I have since discovered that Katherine (née Hussey) Clarke was a niece of Dorothy Nesbitt, mistress and later second wife of the 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (Lady Macclesfield died in 1779). Executors of Lady Macclesfield's will included Arthur Nesbitt and Charles Nesbitt, whose names I came across in a legal proceeding some years later, concerning Lady Macclesfield's properties in Tobago and Barbados. Have yet to put my hands on a copy of said will.

Curiously a woman I believe to be Katherine Hussey's sister Helen Barbara Hussey married Jacques Skinner, a Bordeaux negociant, and had, among other children, a son, Jean-Jacques (aka James) Macclesfield Skinner. The use of Macclesfield as a middle name certainly seems to establish some sort of relationship. And as stated in several books, Katherine Hussey Clarke's younger son, Edward, married his cousin Georgiana O'Moran, described as a grandniece of Dorothy Macclesfield, which would perhaps indicate that Georgiana's mother and Katherine were likely sisters.

Still I need the so-called smoking gun: proof that Katherine Hussey, Mrs George Hyde Clarke, was indeed a daughter of Robert Hussey and Mary Nesbitt.