Bartholomew Van Homrigh

[1] Surviving correspondence between 1691-1700 with Godert de Ginkel, the 1st Earl of Athlone, for whom Van Homrigh served as estate agent after the Williamite War in Ireland, detail later troop movements, and various legal and financial updates.

[3][4] Van Homrigh represented Londonderry (Derry) in the 1692 and 1695-99 Irish Parliaments, in the later session serving on committees and backing the Tory Lord Chancellor Charles Porter when the latter was accused of corruption and favouring Catholics whilst in office.

[2] On the decline of the Whig Junto by 1698, the Parliament of England began investigating the King's granting of Irish forfeitures.

56 letters of correspondence between Van Homrigh and Ginkel survive in the private archive of Amerongen Castle, in 1977 entrusted to the Rijksarchief Utrecht.

The name "Vanessa", which gained relative popularity in the twentieth century, was invented by Swift for the poem, the 'Van' from her surname 'Van Homrigh', and 'Essa' a diminutive for Esther.