Born: 1678 (circa), United Kingdom
Died: 1755
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Mary Morris
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Jane McKee. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Mary Drelincourt (c.1678–1755), was born near Wrexham, north Wales, daughter of Peter Morris, who was dean of Derry briefly in 1690, and Margaret Morris. She had one sister and three brothers, two of whom made careers in the Church of Ireland, Edward (Maurice) becoming bishop of Ossory (1754–6). Like her husband, she was a significant benefactress to the church and to education. She commissioned Rysbrack to sculpt a very fine monument to her husband in Armagh cathedral. She also founded the Drelincourt charity schools in Armagh in 1732, and established the Berse–Drelincourt school on her estate at Berse near Wrexham, where she also built a church in 1742. In addition, an endowment was established to support the poor of the conforming French church in Dublin. She died in 1755. Mrs Drelincourt’s charitable endowments were strongly influenced by her late husband’s wishes, as expressed in his will, which left £5,000 to his daughter on her marriage, provided that her mother approved the match. If she married without consent, the money was to go to a number of charitable projects, including those later carried out by Mrs Drelincourt.
Their daughter Ann (b. 1709) became a viscountess, Lady Primrose, and continued the charitable work of her parents, leaving in 1775 a sum of money to the city of Armagh which was used to instal the city’s first piped water supply. The Rysbrack sculpture in Armagh cathedral and the Drelincourt School in Armagh still commemorate the generosity of the Drelincourt family.