Ellen Courtenay (1802-c1837)
COURTENAY, the accuser of Daniel O’Connell, was born in Co Cork. In 1817, at the age of 15, she moved to Dublin, and the Catholic bishop of Cork, John Murphy, provided her with a certificate testifying to the “excellence of her moral character”. She first came into contact with O’Connell when she visited his house to discuss a mortgage belonging to her father. She later claimed to have become uncomfortable in his presence. Months later she received a summons to O’Connell’s house, where (she later claimed) he seduced her.
She gave birth, on November 4th 1818, to an illegitimate child, whom she christened Henry Simpson, allegedly at O’Connell’s suggestion. This child was later known as Henry O’Connell. Moving to Paris, and then to London, she pursued a teaching and then a stage career.
O'Connell refused to support her or the child, and in February 1831 she appealed for aid to the O'Gorman Mahon, who had nominated O'Connell for the Clare election in 1828. In this letter she wrote that she wished to avoid scandal, and there is also a reference to a Catholic priest who was "deeply involved". On November 25th 1831, the radical Henry Hunt forwarded a letter from Courtenay to O'Connell that was regarded as an attempt at blackmail. It was ignored. The next year she appealed to the Rev Charles Boyton, the Irish Orange polemicist, and Remigius Sheehan, editor of the Orange Dublin Evening Mailnewspaper, for help in publicising her allegations, but both declined.
In 1832 she was imprisoned for debt in London's Fleet prison. There she published her pamphlet, A narrative by Miss Ellen Courtenay, of most extraordinary cruelty, perfidy and depravity perpetrated against her by Daniel O'Connell. This work was published by Barnard Gregory, editor of the Satiristand a notorious blackmailer, which led to further doubts about its veracity. While Courtenay was in prison her son was placed in a Catholic orphanage, apparently at the request of a religious professor who was a friend of O'Connell. After her release, the allegations were brought before the courts in March 1836. It seems her son was assaulted by John O'Connell MP, Daniel's son, after leaving Mass. John was fined 20 shillings at Bow Street court three days later, and the resemblance between Henry and Daniel O'Connell provoked much comment. The speculation in England about O'Connell's proclivities became so pronounced that his wife, Mary, felt obliged to join him in his efforts to quell the rumours.
Courtenay never wavered in her allegation that O’Connell was “the seducer of my innocence”. She disappeared after 1836 and is believed to have died the following year. It will probably never be proved whether she was indeed the victim of a rape or seduction by an older man, a fantasist or a cynical blackmailer.
From the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of irish Biography. See dib.ie for more details