Lady Arabella Denny & The Magdalen Asylum Dublin & ...

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€3,800

Lady Arabella Denny & The Magdalen Asylum

Dublin & Kerry Interest:   A large wooden Commemoration Plaque / Board in honour of Lady Arabella Denny (1707 – 1792) for her immense philanthropic work, and for founding Ireland’s first Magdalene Asylum, in Dublin in 1765. The wording painted on board, approx. 84cms x 122cms (33" x 48") gold on black ground.

The wording on the plaque as follows:
This Institution For the Reception of Penitent Females Under the Age of 20 
Was Founded the 11th of June 1765, by Lady Arabella Denny, daughter of the Earl of Kerry, and widow of Arthur Denny Esq. of Tralee
By the zeal and exertions of this excellent lady, this Asylum was the means of restoring many, during her life time, to Virtue and Happiness, and by her influence, and the tried usefulness of such a shelter from disgrace and ruin, it experienced the most decided marks of public approbation and assistance. 
Since that period it has continued to answer all the humane purposes of its establishment, and its directors expect from the public the same liberal support. As the institution derives its funds from voluntary subscription, and principally from the Collections in the Chapel, the congregation are earnestly entreated to consider that the benefaction of each individual contributes materially to provide the means of rescuing their fellow-creatures from all the miseries of profligacy and vice, and is indispensibly necessary for the maintenance of the charity.  

This plaque, which formerly stood in the Magdalen Chapel, not only gives due praise to Lady Arabella’s good work but stresses its high moral purpose and urges the congregation to contribute generously to its continuance.

Together with the above Plaque, there is an accompanying shield shaped brass ‘Organ’ Plaque, erected from contributions by the community to the late Revd. A. Pollork, who served as Chaplain and Organist to the Asylum for 12 years, during the mid 19th Century.

Included also in this lot is an Armchair known as ‘The Foundresses Chair.’ The late 19th Century mahogany chair has been cut down to a size suitable for nursing children. It has been clearly valued at respected, as it has been extensively and expertly repaired over the years.


Provenance:  When the Magdalen Institution was moved from Leeson St., Dublin, the Church and Institute buildings were demolished in the late 1950’s for development purposes. The two plaques and the chair were salvaged by H. Verschoyle Campbell of Fitzwilliam Square & Tassagart, Saggart, Co. Dublin. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Church, attached to the Magdalen Institute for many years.

Lady Arabella Denny (1707-1792), described by a biographer as “one of the great philanthropists of the eighteenth century”, was the second daughter of Thomas Fitzmaurice, later created Earl of Kerry, and Anne, daughter of Sir William Petty, creator of the Down Survey.  As a teenager she lived mainly in her parents’ home at Lixnaw Castle, where her first charitable project was to run a dispensary for the poor living on the estate.

In 1727 she married a neighbour, Colonel Arthur Denny, MP, “a very good sort of man, uninformed and ignorant;” however, his brother Sir Thomas, “a coward, a savage, and a fool”, made her life miserable by his bullying – a problem she resolved by learning to become a crack shot with a pistol and threatening to kill him unless he left her alone.

On the death of her husband in 1742, leaving her a childless widow with a generous allowance, she went to live in Dublin, settling eventually at Peafield Cliff opposite the end of Merrion Avenue.  In 1758 she was so horrified on reading a government report into the appalling conditions at the Foundling Hospital that she organised a group of ladies to superintend the running of the hospital, effecting major improvements in the lives of the inmates; she also spent a great deal of her own money on the construction of new buildings.


Her work on behalf of abandoned infants drew her attention to the plight of their mothers, who in many cases had been rejected by their families and left to starve on the streets.  In 1765 she founded in Leeson Street, Ireland’s first Magdalen Asylum, where young women were taken in, given proper care, and trained in practical skills such as weaving and lace-making which would serve them well when they returned to the outside world.

The cost of maintaining the asylum went far beyond Lady Arabella’s means, so in 1768 she founded a chapel attached to the building, where the great and the good were encouraged not only to attend but to subscribe generously to the collections.  Meanwhile, she continued an active social life, leading to contacts with wealthy and prominent people who soon flocked to the chapel, not only to the weekly services but to special Charity Sermons preached by learned and eloquent clerics.


Lady Arabella retired in 1790 owing to old age and illness.  She died at Peafield Cliff in 1792 and was buried in the family vault in Tralee.

Literature:   Dublin Historical Record, Vol. IX, No. 1 Article by Ms. Beatrice Bayley Butler, pp. 1 - 20