University Archives
O'Kelly family
Dennis O'Kelly was a central figure in Irish horse racing during its infancy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and was owner of the famous race horse, Eclipse (c.1750-1820). He never married and the bulk of his estate went to his brother's son, Dennis O'Kelly (1784-c.1830). However, he also never married and the estate passed on his death to the son of his sister, Mary O'Kelly, whose daughter married into the Grattan family. The papers of Colonel Dennis O'Kelly comprise some personal accounts and title deeds relating to property at Stanmore in Middlesex in the late eighteenth century. There are also deeds for property in Epsom in Surrey and in Piccadilly and Half Moon Street in London. There are circa 70 letters to Dennis O'Kelly, about race horses, debtors and debts, dated 1785-1820, as well as three more bundles of letters dated 1794-1817 which include correspondents such as Lady Anna Donegall, Earl Moira and Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. [DDLA/40]