The first occupant of this house was Mrs. Olivia Beatty who moved here in November 1794. Mrs. Beatty, nee Bell, was the mother of seven children, Edward, Thomas, David, Robert, Frederick, Maria and Olivia. Edward her eldest was eleven, when Mrs. Beatty moved in, with Olivia perhaps her youngest child, being just two years old. She married her husband David in 1782 at the age of 21, in St. Anne’s Parish Church in Dawson Street, which still stands today. At the age of 33 she became a widow; David died on the 7th January 1794.
Mrs. Beatty’s husband had been a wine merchant. Her father-in-law had been a paper merchant, and one time stationer to the revenue commissioners. Trade directories show that up until 1794 they both traded from Number 1, St. Andrews Street. As her husband had left no will, it was through the estate of Edward Beatty Snr. that Olivia gained the means to support herself and her children.
Over and above her marriage settlement she received the ‘sum of £100 for life’, and a choice of either her father-in-law’s country or town house. Although the house had been built by John Usher, an apothecary, who leased it to Olivia Beatty, the land lease from the Fitzwilliam Estate was held by one William Osborne. Mrs. Beatty left Fitzwilliam Street in 1806 and the lease was taken up by Mr. Ponsonby Shaw, a banker. Recent research showed that Olivia Beatty moved to Borodale, a house in Wexford, where she died on 9th September 1843 at the age of 83.