Themselves unhappily childless, at that point they took up the welfare of young children from disadvantaged backgrounds as a lifelong project, contributing both money and effort towards initiatives which would enable foundlings and vagabonds to acquire productive skills and support themselves.

They developed one of the first Industrial Schools where boys learnt trades, and Lady Louisa took active personal interest in mentoring the students.

Upon his death, the major part of his estates, which included Wentworth Castle, passed to a distant relative, Frederick Vernon.

Lady Louisa received the Castletown House and estate, as also certain liquid investments and valuable urban properties, which enabled her to live in comfort and continue her activities until her own death in 1821.

She willed these substantial properties to a great-nephew, Edward Michael Pakenham (grandson of Thomas' sister Harriet), later the MP for Donegal,[2] The 1769 travelogue "Hibernia Curiosa: A Letter from a Gentleman in Dublin to his Friend at Dover in Kent..." by John Bush was dedicated to Conolly.