#5786, Petronella Hallberg RIKSDAGSMAN

Petronella Hallberg inherited Hatley Manor from her Aunt Ingrid Christina Hallberg. Miss Hallberg arrived in Carrick-on-Shannon in 1871 and it is believed that she became engaged to a County Inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary, who was a Catholic. She met Charles Cecil Beresford Whyte in Co Roscommon and subsequently broke off the engagement with the County Inspector and married Charles Whyte in 1874. They had twelve children, two of whom were killed in a freak accident at Hatley Manor.

On 21st July 1885 a huge dummy chimney on Hatley Manor in Carrick-on-Shannon collapsed killing the two children, Ingri and Lucille and their nanny, Elizabeth Sullivan. Mrs Whyte had just left the room to collect letters delivered by the postman otherwise she would have been killed also. Elizabeth Sullivan was buried beneath a distinctive headstone bearing a small cross in a grave yard beside the River Shannon at Jamestown near Carrick-on-Shannon.