Notes of the Besnard Family.
By T.E.Evans.
( From MSS. written about 1870 )
No. 3. - PETER BESNARD.
Peter Besnard, the eldest son of Julius Besnard, was named
after his French ancestor, Pierre Besnard, was married to
Ellen Pope, aunt of the Revd. Richard Thomas Pembroke Pope,
the eminent orator, preacher and controversialist. Peter
Besnard had seven sons, Julius, Richard Pope, Nicholas, Peter,
John, Thomas Pope and Robert Langford, some of whom emigrated
to Australia and others to Canada and the United States, but
not one of whom represents at present the family name in this
City. He had also one daughter, Sarah Pope, who was married
to Bartholomew Gibbings, J.P. [Justice of the Peace?], Mayor
of Cork in 1823, and afterwards an Alderman of the Ward in the
time of the old Corporation, and who resided at Gill-Abbey,
over the Southern branch of the Lee, on the picturesque
eminence opposite Sunday's Well, now the site of the Queen's
College, Cork. Alderman Gibbings had a large family, of whom
three daughters now remain in their native land, Ellen, Sarah
and Mary Gibbings, some of the sons having died in early life,
and others having crossed the Atlantic, to seek their fortune,
like so many of their kindred adventurers in the Western World.
