The Rt.Hon. George Hampden Evans (died 2 July 1842) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

politician.

Biography

George was the eldest son of Captain Hampden Evans and his wife Margaret née Davis of Portrane,

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

. in 1805 he married Sophia Parnell, only daughter of Sir John Parnell former

Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the title was sometimes given as ...

. The Evans family were the principal landowners in the Portrane area, and in 1820, on the death of his father, George inherited the family estates. He was

High Sheriff of County Dublin The Sheriff of County Dublin (or (High) Sheriff of the County of Dublin) was the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Dublin. Initially, an office for a lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the Sheriff became an annual appointment foll ...

in 1829–1830. At the 1832 general election, Evans was elected to the

United Kingdom House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

. He described himself as an independent, although he took the Whig

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

. In June 1834 he was involved in an angry public confrontation with

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, leader of the

Repeal Association The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Acts of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland. The Association's aim was to revert Ireland to th ...

. O'Connell dismissed Evans as both a landlord and a Whig. Evans replied that "I belong to no party, I have no object in view but the happiness and prosperity of Ireland." He was highly critical of what he saw as O'Connell's autocratic leadership style and assumption that he represented all shades of Irish opinion. He argued that O'Connell was trying to silence the "men of property and education" adding that he would sooner "be doomed to perpetual exile than submit to such a tyranny". By November 1834 the two parliamentarians had patched up their differences, jointly forming an Anti-Tory Association in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. He was appointed to the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

by Lord Fortescue, the

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...

. Evans held his seat at the general elections of

1835 Events January–March * January 7 – anchors off the Chonos Archipelago on her second voyage, with Charles Darwin on board as naturalist. * January 8 – The United States public debt contracts to zero, for the only time in history. ...

and

1837 Events January–March * January 1 – The destructive Galilee earthquake causes 6,000–7,000 casualties in Ottoman Syria. * January 26 – Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the United States. * February – Charles Dickens's ...

, but was unseated in 1841. He died suddenly at his residence, Portrane House, from what was described as "an attack of flying gout to the heart". In 1844 his widow built a replica of an

Irish round tower Irish round towers ( ga, Cloigtheach (singular), (plural); literally 'bell house') are early mediaeval stone towers of a type found mainly in Ireland, with two in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man. As their name indicates, they were origin ...

in his memory, which now stands in the grounds of St Ita's Hospital, Portrane.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, George Hampden 1842 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 Members of the Privy Council of Ireland High Sheriffs of County Dublin Year of birth unknown Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

Biography

References

Further reading

External links