Lady Louisa Conolly

Who was Lady Louisa Conolly?

Lady Louisa Conolly, known from 1743 to 1758 as Lady Louisa Augusta Lennox, was the third of the four Lennox Sisters immortalised in Stella Tillyard's book Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox and the BBC television series based on it.

The Lennox sisters were daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, a legitimate descendant of an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England. After the death of her parents, Lady Louisa was brought up by her sister Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster, in Kildare and married Tom Conolly, the grand-nephew of William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, at the age of 15. They lived in the Palladian mansion Castletown House in County Kildare, the decoration of which she directed throughout the 1760s and 1770s, while her husband raised and rode his racehorses. Unhappily childless, Lady Louisa virtually adopted her niece Emily Napier, the daughter of her sister Sarah Lennox.

Lady Louisa was a noted philanthropist contributing to many charity initiatives. She also developed the first Industrial Schools where boys learnt trades.

On her death in 1821 she left the Castletown estate to a great-nephew, Edward Michael Pakenham, later the MP for Donegal, on condition he adopted the surname of Conolly.