Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett

Margaret defied social and religious conventions by marrying her maternal uncle, Harman Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irish aristocrat.

[1] Among the most famous guests was former vice president Aaron Burr, who sought the financial support of numerous wealthy landowners including Harman Blennerhassett.

Between 1805 and 1806, Harman and Burr took part in an allegedly treasonous conspiracy to either annex Texas or form a new country in the western United States.

While Margaret was in Marietta, Harman and his associates boarded boats and escaped down the river into the Mississippi Territory.

The following day, the militia of Wood County, Virginia, ransacked the mansion, despite Margaret's pleas to spare their home.

[5] Harman Blennerhassett and Aaron Burr were both arrested and imprisoned in the Virginia State Penitentiary until they were granted freedom.

After Harman tried and failed at setting up a law firm, he returned to Europe while Margaret and the children stayed in Montreal.

She petitioned Congress for restitution for the Blennerhassett Mansion’s destruction alongside Henry Clay, who was previously involved in defending Burr and her husband and had learned that she was residing in a New York tenement and was struggling to support her severely afflicted son.

Clay, recognizing the injustice that had befallen her, attempted to persuade Congress to provide her with a modest compensation for the destruction of her home, years after the tragic events that had happened.

Although a Senate committee voted in favor of her appeal, she died June 16, 1842, in a poor house in New York City.