Richard Graves MacDonnell [SEP] father
Richard Graves MacDonnell was born in Dublin, 8 September 1814, the second son of Richard MacDonnell, the Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and Jane Graves (1793–1882), second daughter of Richard Graves, Dean of Ardagh. He was a nephew of Robert James Graves and the brother of Major-General Arthur Robert MacDonnell. His first cousins included Lady Valentine Blake of Menlough, Sir William Collis Meredith, Edmund Allen Meredith, John Dawson Mayne and Francis Brinkley. MacDonnell entered Trinity College Dublin in 1830, was elected a
James Graves and a brother of Edmund Allen Meredith. His first cousins included John Walsingham Cooke Meredith, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, John Dawson Mayne, Francis Brinkley, Major-General Arthur Robert MacDonnell and Sir James Creed Meredith.
A year after Meredith was born his family moved up to Ardtrea, near Cookstown, County Tyrone, his father having resigned his fellowship in Dublin to take up the position of Rector there. In 1819, Meredith's father died of 'a sudden and awful visitation' at his home while attempting