Sir Robert Heron, 2nd Baronet (27 November 1765 – 29 May 1854) was a British Whig politician. He sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1812 to 1847, with a break in 1818–1819.

Early life

He was born in

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road bypasses the town on the line ...

, Nottinghamshire, the son of Thomas Heron of

Chilham Castle Chilham Castle is a Jacobean manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The keep is of Norman origin and dates to 1174; the manor house was completed in 1616 for Sir Dudley Di ...

, Kent, Recorder of Newark and educated at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

. He inherited his baronetcy and extensive estates in Lincolnshire from his uncle, Sir Richard Heron, 1st Baronet on the latter's death in 1805.

Parliament

He served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire for 1809–10 and was then elected at the 1812 general election as a member of parliament (MP) for

Great Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linc ...

. He held the seat until the next general election, in 1818, when he did not stand again in Grimsby. He did however, stand in 1818, for election in Lincolnshire County, though unsuccessfully. He returned to the Commons the following year, when he was elected at a by-election in November 1819 as an MP for

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

. He held that seat until the 1847 general election, when he did not stand again.

Stubton Hall

Heron owned Stubton Hall, a large estate at Stubton (near

) on the border of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. The estate had belonged to the Heron family from since 1789, and the 17th-century hall was extensively rebuilt in the early 19th century by Sir Robert. He had initially used it as a summer retreat, but after being elected to Parliament he decided to make Stubton his main home. The architect Jeffry Wyatt drew up plans for remodelling, which had to be revised after the building was found to be in a poorer condition than was thought, and the resulting works were a big drain on Heron's finances: in January 1814 he recorded in his diary that he had spent £7,000 just get the building "covered in". He also kept a large

menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to the m ...

, and successfully bred a range of exotic animals including

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...

alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. It is similar to, and often confused with, the llama. However, alpacas are often noticeably smaller than llamas. The two animals are closely related and can success ...

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagas ...

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethiz ...

armadillo Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, alo ...

s and

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s. Sir Robert and his wife Amelia, daughter and coheir of

Sir Horace Mann, 2nd Baronet Sir Horatio (Horace) Mann, 2nd Baronet (2 February 1744 – 2 April 1814) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1807. He is remembered as a member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire and a patron of Kent crick ...

; had no children, and thus the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

became extinct on his death. The estate passed to George Nevile, a relation of Amelia, and then to Sir Ralph Wilmot, 6th Baronet, on whose death it was sold to

Edmund Royds Sir Edmund Royds, OBE, DL (6 July 1860 – 31 March 1946) was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician. He practised law in London, and held a country seat in Lincolnshire, from where he was returned to the House of Commons fr ...

. Stubton Hall was restored in 2009, and re-opened as a wedding venue.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heron, Robert 1765 births 1854 deaths People from Newark-on-Trent Whig (British political party) MPs Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 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 UK MPs 1841–1847 Politics of Peterborough Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain High Sheriffs of Lincolnshire Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Great Grimsby