Chairman of the Parsonstown (Birr) Union Board of Guardians.
First Chairman of the Edenderry Town Commissioners, 1903-1906.
Robert Fleetwood Berry was born on the 1st January 1777, the twelfth child and seventh son of Thomas and Frances Berry of Eglish Castle near Birr. As a young man, he was apprenticed, from 1793 until some time after 1801 to Mr John Brennard, a cotton merchant and draper, of Castle Street, Liverpool. By 1804, he lived in Ireland and was employed in the linen business in Dublin. In 1812 was living at Gallen, King's County, being employed in connection with the Grand Canal. On the 14th of November of that year he married Elizabeth Crow at St. Catherine’s Church, Tullamore. She was the daughter of Edward Crow of the Round House, Cromac Street, Tullamore. After their marriage they lived at Shannon Harbour. He died there suddenly on the 21st August 1822 and was buried in the Berry enclosure in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland Church at Eglish, King's County.
James Armstrong Berry of Irishtown, Eglish was born on the 13th July 1770, the 8th child and 4th son of Thomas and Frances Berry of Eglish. He lived for most of his life on the townland of Ballinagulna, about ½ a mile from Eglish in a small mill. He was a Captain in the Eglish Troop of Yeomanry in 1808. In 1818 he married Margaret. In the census of 1821 he describes himself as a farmer and miller. In March 1834 he was living in Parsontown (Birr). His eldest son William was born in 1819 and died on the 17th April 1850 at Mossfield.
Sterling Berry was born in 1771, the ninth child and fifth son of Thomas and Frances Berry of Eglish. He married in 1806 and died in 1828.
Catherine Maria Dawson was the daughter of Thomas Townley Dawson and married firstly James Tisdall, and had two children by him, James Thomas Townley Tisdall and Louisa Tisdall. She married Charles Bury in 1798 shortly after the death of James Tisdall from epilepsy. They had one son, Charles William, who succeeded his father in 1835.
Her daughter by her first marriage, Louisa Tisdall (1796-1882), married George Marlay, and many years later in 1912, her grandson, Charles Brinsley Marlay, bequeathed his estate at Belvedere, Mullingar, County Westmeath to his distant cousin Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury. Charles Brinsley Marlay also inherited Catherine Maria's papers which are now housed in the University of Nottingham.
The 3rd earl of Charleville inherited the bad debts of previous generations. Prior to his succession, he was a lieutenant of 43rd foot and married Arabella Case in 1850. They had five children, but on returning to Charleville in 1851, numerous tragedies befell the family. Arabella died in 1857 from scarletina at the age of 35 years, and two years later, in 1859, the earl died at the age of 37. Their five young children, all minors and now wards of Chancery, were left in the care of their uncle, the Hon Alfred Bury and his wife, at Charleville Castle. In 1861, in a tragic accident, their seven year old daughter Lady Harriet Bury, fell to her death while attempting to slide down the banisters in the castle.