BLENNERHASSETT, Harman, English emigrant in America: b. Hampshire, England, 8 Oct. 1764; d. on the island of Guernsey, 2 Feb. 1831. He sprang from a wealthy and highly connected house which traced its an cestry back to Edward III; was educated at Westminster School, London. and Trinity Col lege, Dublin, graduating 1790. The youngest of three sons, he studied for the law, but the death of his brothers soon after made him head of the family. Early in 1796 he privately mar ried his sister's daughter, Margaret Agnew, a beautiful and highly accomplished girl of 18, also of excellent family, her father having been lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Man, and her grandfather an English officer killed at Germantown. This incestuous union brought its ultimate punishment from nature in a family of physical and moral wrecks; but a more mediate one was entire social ostracism, which soon drove him to break his entail and sell his estates, except some reserved incomes, and come to America with his wife, bringing with him at the same time his library and philosophical ap paratus. Arriving 1 Aug. 1796, he settled, in 1798, on a small island in the Ohio River a few miles below Parkersburg, W. Va., and spent $60,000 on a house and grounds, pictures and statuary. This was for years the show place of America west of the Alleghanies, and drew a stream of notable guests, whom he entertained with lavish hospitality. Here he read, culti vated music, which was his chief passion, and dabbled in feeble absent-minded scientific ex periments. In 1805 Aaron Burr (q.v.) was one of his guests, who then or next year induced him to join in the scheme for a southwestern empire, to include Mexico, in which fantastic state Blennerhassett was to be prime minister and a duke, and perhaps ambassador to Eng land. He was a timid, dreaming, futile, unad venturous man, but like many such may have fancied himself a great statesman and hero in posse. He may have consented to Burr's pro posal because Mexico was farther from Great Britain than the Ohio, and the canker of his life was fear lest chance should disclose his secret to his friends and children. His wife, much the stronger nature of the two, was cer tainly ambitious for him, and he would not have embarked in such a venture without her approval. Anyway, he advocated Burr's "colon ization" plan in the papers, and invested a great sum in arms, ammunition, provisions, boats, etc.,
on the faith of obligations from Burr's son-in law Allston, which were largely defaulted. The scheme fell through: Blennerhassett was twice arrested, imprisoned and tried for trea son, but discharged in 1807 on the acquittal of Burr. His place, however, had been wantonly injured by the militia, and was seized by his creditors and turned into a hemp field. The mansion was converted into a granary and was finally burned by accident. Blennerhas sett now settled in Natchez, and soon after bought a 1,000-acre cotton plantation on the Mississippi, a few miles above Port Gib son, which he called La Cache. It was un successful, and the War of 1812 injured his commercial speculations; and in 1819 he sold it for $28,000 and removed to Montreal, prac tising law in hope of obtaining a judgeship through his old schoolmate, the Duke of Richmond. This failing, he returned to Eng land in 1822 in hope of winning back his prop erty, by a reversionary action, and then of ob taining employment through an influence which no longer existed. In 1824 he came back after his family. Everything failed him, though he and his wife were decently treated; at last his health gave way, and he died at Port Saint Pierre on the island of Guernsey. He was generous with his money while he had it, and helped out of financial difficulties sev eral of the musicians he consorted with. His wife, though disinherited, had always had an income paid her by her sisters; and in 1838 she received a property by the will of her husband's maiden aunt. In 1840 she came to the United States to push a claim before Congress for the island property, and indemnity for the ravages of the militia. Henry Clay favored it, and its passage was probable; but before it came up she died in New York, 16 June 1842. The story of her being left penniless with a dependent family (the youngest was 19 at his father's death), and of her dying in poverty and being buried by sisters of charity, are fictions. She had some literary ambitions, and while in Montreal wrote two volumes of verse, The De serted Isle) (1822), and The Widow of the Rock, and Other Poems) (1824). Consult Therese Blennerhassett-Adams, The True Story of Harman Blennerhassett) in the Cen tury (Vol. 62, 1901) ; (The Blennerhassett Papers) (1864) ; Safford, 'Life of Blennerhas sett) (1835) ; Pidgin, a romance (1902).