Henry Street

Hartstonge Legacy

The Hartstonge and Pery families became closely bound through two marriages that brought together political influence, landed property and urban ambition in eighteenth-century Limerick. Sir Henry Hartstonge, third baronet of Bruff and Court, married Lucy Pery in 1751. She was the sister of Edmond Sexten Pery and the Reverend William Cecil Pery, whose parliamentary, ecclesiastical and property interests increasingly shaped the city. The marriage produced no children, but it placed Hartstonge firmly within the Pery family circle. He became both a political ally and a participant in the development of property connected with Newtown Pery.

Dynasty Secured

Edmond Sexten Pery retired as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in 1785 after fourteen years in one of the most influential offices in Irish political life. The Commons unanimously appealed to the lord lieutenant to obtain a royal honour for him, acknowledging his authority, parliamentary skill and long public service. The Crown responded by creating him Viscount Pery of Newtown Pery, permanently linking his title with the Georgian district he had helped establish in Limerick. The honour elevated a local political and property-owning family into the peerage while commemorating the urban development that had transformed the city’s southern expansion.