Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham
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The Rt Hon. Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham, K.P. (9 August 1799 – 20 August 1868), was an Irish peer, a Member of Parliament, an evangelical Orangeman and County Cavan landowner. During the hunger years of late 1820s and late 1840s, he was much reviled for evicting tenants and for offering relief only on condition of conversion to Protestantism.


Political career

Lord Farnham was the son of The 6th Baron Farnham and
Lady ''Lady'' is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. "Lady" is al ...
Anne Butler. In 1824, he was elected to the
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for
County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...
and continued to occupy the seat as a
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until 1838. The latter year he succeeded his father to become the 7th Baron Farnham, inheriting the huge Farnham Estate in
County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...
, and subsequently served as an Irish representative peer from 1839 to 1868. He was made a Knight of St. Patrick in 1845. In Parliament, Maxwell voted against
Catholic relief The Roman Catholic relief bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late 18th and early 19th centuries before the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom to remove the restrictions and prohibitions imposed on British ...
, against parliamentary reform, and against provision for the Irish poor through tax on absentee landowners Honours notwithstanding, Maxwell was regarded even in official circles as a particularly unfortunate example of an absentee. In 1823,
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...
, then
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
, commented that "such men as Mr. Henry Maxwell, drawing enormous sums from Irish livings, and leading a profligate life at
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, are the real enemies of the establishment".


Evicting and evangelizing landlord

In 1827, the liberal lawyer George Ensor was asked James Warren Doyle, the
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, to investigate claims of hundreds of tenants converting to Protestantism on the Farnham estate. Ensor's reports assured the bishop that, such as they were, the conversions were a case of " souperism" and would not survive the then near-famine conditions in the area. Maxwell, meanwhile, moved a resolution for establishing a subscription for the
loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
Brunswick Club at the county meeting in Cavan and was prominent in Protestant activities there and in Dublin, where he had become secretary of the
Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...
. In the Great Famine from 1845, the estate again accused of souperism—Maxwell (now Lord Farnham) was opening his soup kitchens only to those who would abjure their Catholic faith and take
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
communion in the established
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. He also was seen to continue with evictions.


Death and commemoration

Maxwell was killed with his wife, and about 30 others, in the Abergele rail disaster in August 1868. They in the front carriage of the London to Holyhead express at Chester when it collided with a goods train carrying petroleum. Their incinerated remains were only identifiable from their pocket watches. He was succeeded in his title and estates by his brother, himself a former Conservative Member for Cavan, Somerset Richard (1803–84). A statue in his honour was erected in
Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...
, funded by a levy exacted on his tenants by his younger brother and heir. It now stands outside Cavan County Council offices. 


References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. ()
Peerage of the British Empire – Baron Farnham

Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire – Baron Farnham
* *

showing the Maxwell of Calderwood, Maxwell of Farnham (co. Cavan), and Maxwell of Finnebrogue families.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Farnham, Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron 1799 births 1868 deaths Knights of St Patrick Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Cavan constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 Farnham, B7 Politicians from County Cavan 19th-century Irish people Irish representative peers 7 Accidental deaths in Wales Railway accident deaths in the United Kingdom Orange Order Anti-Catholicism in Ireland