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Life
?1814-?1800; b. Dublin; son of an dealer in pictures, he studied under Richard Bowyer and became a miniature painter; exhibited RHA 1836-46; condemned to death for the murder of his childless wife Maria Louisa [née Crowe] on Ireland’s Eye (6 Sept. 1852), having for years lived with a mistress Maria Theresa Kenny at Sandymount, with whom eight children; his wife was found died at Long Hole on the island following a painting trip - initially presumed drowned but found to be have been strangled after exhumation with talk of screams heard from the mainland; immediately following her death he moved his second family into his primary residence at 11 Lwr. Merrion St.; defended by Isaac Butt [q.v.], and sentence commuted to life transportation; served his time at Spike Island with an intermission in Bermuda; released in 1879; emigrated to America with his second family, after a visit to Ireland’s Eye by popular repute; subject of an account in Bodkin’s Famous Irish Trials, and a play be Denis Johnston. DIB