[1] His father came from a long established family of landowners in County Tipperary, while his mother was the daughter of another High Court judge, John Bennett.

[1] Due to his chronic ill-health he was then placed with a private tutor, Mr Stephens, at Levens near Kendal, Cumbria.

This was a very difficult parish to work in as he had no vicarage and the income was small, but he is said to have gained the trust and respect of his parishioners.

[2] His house in Barnet became a meeting place for evangelicals of all social classes and walks of life "from noblemen to farmers", and he began in 1856 a famous series of conferences on inter-denominational missionary work.

There in 1860 he and his wife began to train deaconesses, a role similar to a nurse (not then a fully respectable occupation) and a social worker (then unknown).

Islington was undergoing great changes as Victorian housing sprawled over the ancient villages, and what had been built as desirable residences soon became overcrowded Dickensian slums.

[4] The Deaconess Institution trained well-educated young women in theory and practice for two years at Mildmay, before sending them to full-time careers in outlying missions in London or further afield.

[5] In 1869 the Pennefathers built a large hall at Mildmay, to host the annual conferences and to serve as the centre for several missionary organisations.

Mildmay founded or nurtured organisations such as the Dorcas Society, a charitable sewing circle; Caroline Hanbury's initiative to distribute flowers to hospitals; an orphanage training girls for domestic service; Mildmay Lads' Institute, to keep boys out of trouble; Metropolitan Free Dormitory Association, a homeless shelter involving Lord Shaftesbury; children's services, stimulated by a visit from American evangelist Edward Payson Hammond.