John Howard Parnell

Who was John Howard Parnell?

John Howard Parnell was an older brother of the Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell and after his brother’s death was himself a Parnellite Nationalist Member of Parliament, for South Meath from 1895 to 1900. He was also for some years City Marshal to Dublin Corporation and Registrar of Pawnbrokers for Ireland.

John Howard Parnell was the fifth child of John Henry Parnell of Avondale, Co. Wicklow and of his wife Delia, daughter of Commodore Charles Stewart of the US Navy. He was educated in Paris, Chipping Norton and School of Mining where he was awarded a certificate in Geology. He made a late marriage, in 1907, to Olivia Isabella Smythe, daughter of Colonel James Smythe and widow of Archibald Matier of Carlingford, and mother of Captain Archie Matier. Due to the terms of the bequest to the family, it was the younger son Charles who inherited the family estate of Avondale when their father died in 1859, while John inherited another estate in Armagh.

John Howard Parnell was the first of the two brothers to stand for Parliament. He sought election as a Home Rule candidate for Co. Wicklow in the general election of 1874, but was unsuccessful. After this he went to Chambers County, Alabama, USA, where he was a cotton-grower and. later, a pioneering peach farmer, establishing the 700-acre Sunny South Fruit Farm. He also founded the first Catholic congregation in that part of the state, now the Holy Family Catholic Church in Lanett, Alabama.