Katherine Plunket

Katherine Plunket (born as Catherine Plunket; 22 November 182014 October 1932) was an Anglo Irish aristocrat and artist from Ballymascanlan, County Louth, a prolific Botanical illustrator and painter., the oldest person ever to be born and die in Ireland and the fourth oldest-lived Irish person in history, having lived to 111 years and 327 days. Biography Plunket was born at Kilsaran, near Castlebellingham in County Louth, Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom, prior to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921). The eldest of six children, one of whom died in infancy, she was a granddaughter of William Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland. Her father Thomas Plunket, 2nd Baron Plunket (1792–1866), was a junior Church of Ireland clergyman when she was born and later became the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, she was featured in numerous peerage books of the period including Whittakers. Her mother Louisa Jane Foster (22 November 1794 – 14 January 1893) (married on 26 October 1819, Kilsaren) was the second daughter of Rebecca M'Clure and John William Foster of Fanevalley, County Louth, Member of Parliament for Dunleer, and was related to the Earl of Clermont. Her first and second cousins included three titled members of the Irish aristocracy. She was baptised Anglican in Kilsaran Church on 13 December 1820 as Catherine Plunket, though she spelt her name with a "K" for her entire life. She inherited from her mother one of the family's ancestral homes, Ballymascanlon House near Dundalk, and oversaw the upkeep of the home and gardens until she contracted bronchitis aged 102 (her only serious health problem). The house is now a hotel.