[2] His father, who also held lands at Horsford, was a substantial landowner and magistrate, noted for his "Godly zeal" and staunchly Puritan views.
John's brothers Edward and Thomas played a key part in the Plantation of Ulster and they and their father were granted large estates in Fermanagh.
[5] Elrington Ball attributes his promotion to the office of Chief Baron in 1621 to his powerful political connections.
The inscription which was added to the tomb after her burial records that several of their children had died in the meantime, including Henry, their eldest son, who was a member of the British Guiana Company, in which capacity he settled in South America, where he drowned in the Amazon River in 1632.
Ball quotes part of her will as evidence of the wealth that the Blennerhassett family had acquired, and also of the pomp and circumstance in which a senior judge and his wife were then expected to live: Lady Blennerhassett bequeathed to her heirs a carriage and horses, much silver plate, several beds, a cabinet, diamonds, pearls, and satin and velvet gowns.
[5] She also possessed some real property, which she left to her daughter Anne's husband, Philip Ferneley, Clerk to the House of Commons.