Portrait of Edward O’Dell of Carriglea
Drawing
inscribed ‘C Grant, del., Oxford.’ Pencil and watercolour.
The Irish branch of the O’Dells is said to have come
from the village of O’Dell in Bedfordshire. In 1678 Charles O’Dell of
Castletown McEnery, Co Limerick married Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Osborne
of Ballintaylor and built a house called Mount O’Dell, a few miles from
Dungarvan. In 1827 John O’ Dell built a new house in a Tudor Gothic style to a
design by Daniel Robertson, not far from the old family home at Mount O’Dell. In 1827 he married Caroline Ambrosia King,
daughter of Lieut. Col. Sir Henry King. According to newspapers reports he died
in May 1847 aged 45 of Famine fever which he caught while attending Relief
Committee meetings in Dungarvan. John had no children, so he left Carriglea to
his nephew.
Edward
O’Dell (1807-1869) was the brother of John O’Dell (1801-1846) of
Carriglea. Edward was educated at Harrow and at Christchurch, Oxford,
where this sketch was executed. Before moving back to Carriglea in 1846
Edward had been on a continental tour and had visited Sicily with John, 2nd Marquis
of Ormonde and was writing an account of this trip. In 1838 Edward married
Harriett Ricarda Nugent-Humble of Cloncoskeran House, and they lived in Malta
before returning to Carriglea. Edward held the post of magistrate and had
a keen interest in history.
This
portrait was sketched by C. Grant at Oxford. Little is known of this artist but
there is a lithograph based on a portrait by him of Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount
Gough in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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| Edward O'Dell Carriglea House 1830 |