What a surprise to receive a reply to my post, which I'd completely forgotten about! I bought my copy of 'Newhouses revisited' from Whitehaven Record Office when I spent a day there in 2016, but copies are available on ebay. The book includes a chapter on the Unthank family, and looking more carefully at this I see that the reformer was actually Thomas Unthank, the brother of John Unthank. As Sarah said, John died in the 1819 Kells pit disaster, shortly after the birth of his daughter Elizabeth, who later married Samuel McCourt. I found 10 McCourt children born between 1840 and 1852, all with MMN Unthank, so presumably the children of Samuel and Elizabeth, including a Gilbert born in 1856.
I took an Ancestry DNA test last year, and I have matches to ancestors of 2 of Gilbert McCourt's siblings: Isabella (1840-1911) and Joseph (1845-1922). So it does seem likely that my 3g grandmother Mary McCourt (who married Peter MacClorey in 1828) was related to Samuel McCourt. (I initially thought that Mary McClorey, nee McCourt, died in 1875, but I have more recently found a Mary McClurry in the 1881 and 1891 censuses, dying in 1892.)
The 1841 census shows Mary McCourt (c1788-1859) living with sons Joseph (b c1826) and John (b c1828); in 1851 she is with son Joseph and daughter-in-law Augusta.
So were Mary, Samuel, Joseph and John all siblings, the children of John McCourt and Mary Holmes, or was the relationship more complicated? Baptism records might show, but they're not easily available, though it's good to know that there are some Whitehaven records on FreeReg (for which I do a bit of transcribing). One family tree says that John McCourt (1784-1830) came from Ireland, so they may well have been Catholics. I know that Mary's husband Peter MacClorey came from Ireland and was buried at St Begh’s Roman Catholic Priory. Perhaps another trip to Whitehaven Record Office would help?
