John William Plunkett, 17th Baron Dunsany
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The 17th Lord Dunsany was the second1 son of Edward Plunkett [29 November 1808 - 22 February 1899], the 16th Lord Baron of Dunsany and Lady Anne Constance Dutton [12 September 1816 - 27 June 1858]. He was born 31 August 1853. John William received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Trinity College [1877] and a Master of Arts from Cambridge [1881]; he was Lieutenant R.N. Artillery Volunteers an an M.P. [Member of Parliament, Conservative] for South Gloucester 1886-92. He proved his right to vote at the elections of Representative Peers [Ireland] 1890 and Representative Peers [Ireland] 1893-99.
John William was married, 3 April 1877, at St. George's Church, St. George's Street, Hanover Square, London, England, to his cousin, Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor, the only daughter and heir to Colonel Francis Augustus Plunkett Burton, Coldstream Guards,and by Sarah Frances Elizabeth, younger daughter and coheir of John Samuel Wanley SAWBRIDGE-ERLE-DRAX, of Charborough Park, Dorset. She was descended from James Drax, a young Englishman who, with a few hundred pounds, had sailed from the Port of London for Barbados in the late 1920's. There he had made a fortune develping sugar and slaves into a hugely profitable business. Just before the turn of the seventeenth century, the family returned to England and purchased an estate in Dorset. Lady Dunsany inherited Charborough Park, Dorset, in 1905. John William and Ernle Elizabeth had two sons, Edward John Moreton Drax, the 18th Baron Dunsany and Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly. [Charborough Park was left to Reginald, who changed his name to Drax].
Lady Dunsany was a cousin of Sir Richard Burton, the great traveller, scholar, wrighter and translator of "Arabian Nights." Her son and heir, Edward, may have inherited his imaginative streak from the Burton family.
1His elder brother, Hon. Randal Edward Sherborne Plunkett, M.P., for West Gloucester 1874-80, died unmarried on 25 December 1883, at Madeira, aged 35.
John was an exceptional sportsman and was reputed to have been the best marksman in England. He was deeply interested in mechanical things and developed his own X-Ray machine, which was in operation in Dunsany Castle before his death in 1899.2 The Dunsany version of the Rőntgen ray machine was given to Sevenoaks Hospital in 1918. He had acquired the right to drive the Irish Mail Train and regularly took charge of the branch line train from Dublin to Drumree, County Meath, Ireland. He was also responsible for having the first Irish telephone system installed in Dunsany.
The Baron died after a short illness on 16 January 1899 at Dunsany Castle, aged forty-five years.
His widow, who by Royal License, 20 December 1905, assumed the names of Plunkett-Ernle-Ernle-Drax, died at her residence, Dunstall Priory, Shoeham, near Sevenoaks, Kent, England, on 28 February 1916.
2Rőntgen delivered his seminal paper on the subject in Berlin in 1895.
Source: "The Story of Dunsany Castle," by Malachy Lynch and Mary-Rose Carty, ppg. 50-51 [1]
