Henry Brooke Parnell, 1st Baron Congleton PC (3 July 1776 – 8 June 1842), known as Sir Henry Parnell, Bt, from 1812 to 1841, was an Irish writer and Whig politician. He was a member of the Whig administrations headed by Lord Grey and

Lord Melbourne Henry William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (15 March 177924 November 1848) was a British Whig politician who served as the Home Secretary and twice as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His first premiership ended when he was dismissed ...

of the 1830s and also published works on financial and penal questions as well as on civil engineering. He was a grand-uncle to the Irish nationalist leader

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1875 to 1891, Leader of the Home Rule Leag ...

Background and education

Parnell was the second son of

Sir John Parnell, 2nd Baronet Sir John Parnell, 2nd Baronet (25 December 1744 – December 1801) was an Anglo-Irish Member of Parliament. Biography A Church of Ireland landowner, his family had originally migrated to Ireland from Congleton in Cheshire. Although not from a ...

Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer 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 office was sometimes called the ...

, and Laetitia Charlotte, daughter of Sir Arthur Brooke, 1st Baronet. His younger brother William Parnell-Hayes was the grandfather of

. He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. In 1801 he inherited the family estates in Queen's County on the death of his father, bypassing his disabled elder brother according to a special Act of Parliament passed in 1789. In 1812 he succeeded as fourth Baronet, of Rathleague, on the death of his brother.

Political career

Parnell represented Maryborough in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

from 1798 until the Act of Union in 1801. In April the following year he was elected to

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

for Queen's County, but relinquished this seat already in July of the same year, when he was returned for Portarlington. However, he resigned the seat already in December 1802. In 1806 he was once again elected for Queen's County, and represented the constituency until 1832. In 1828 he was chairman of the Select Committee on the State of Public Income and Expenditure which successfully recommended abolition of the 280-year-old

Navy Board The Navy Board (formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes) was the Regulatory agency, commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headqua ...

and the merging of its functions into the

Board of Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

. It was by Parnell's motion on the civil list that the Duke of Wellington's administration was defeated in 1830. The Whigs came to power under Lord Grey and in 1831 Parnell was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed

Secretary at War The secretary at war was a political position in the English and later British government, with some responsibility over the administration and organization of the Army, but not over military policy. The Secretary at War ran the War Office. Aft ...

, a post he held until February 1833. He resigned his seat in Parliament the same year but returned in 1833 as the representative for

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. When the Whigs again came to power in April 1835 under

, Parnell was made

Paymaster of the Forces The Paymaster of the Forces was a position in the British government. The office was established in 1661, one year after the Restoration (1660), Restoration of the Monarchy to Charles II of England, and was responsible for part of the financin ...

and

Treasurer of the Ordnance The Treasurer of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance in the United Kingdom, the office being created in 1670. The office was abolished in 1836 and its duties merged with that of several others to form the office ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

. These offices were consolidated into that of

Paymaster General His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The position is currently held by Nick Thomas-Symonds of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. History The post was ...

in 1836, and Parnell retained this post until the government fell in 1841. The latter year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Congleton, of

Congleton Congleton is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is on the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 28,497 and the built-up area ha ...

in the County Palatine of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

Works

*''Observations upon the State of Currency of Ireland, and upon the Course of Exchange between London and Dublin'' (1804; 2nd edn., 1804; 3rd edn. (with additional appendix), 1804). *''The Principles of Currency and Exchange, illustrated by Observations on the State of Ireland'' (1805). *''An Historical Apology for the Irish Catholics'' (1807). *''A History of the Penal Laws against the Irish Catholics, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union'' (1808; a 'new edition' appeared in vols. xx. and xxi. of the ''Pamphleteer'' (1822); 4th edn. (with slightly altered title), 1825). *''Treatise on the Corn Trade and Agriculture'' (1809). *''The Substance of the Speeches of Sir Henry Parnell, bart., in the House of Commons, with additional Observations on the Corn Laws'' (1814; 3rd edn. published in vol. iv. of the ''Pamphleteer'' (1814). *''Observations on the Irish Butter Acts'' (1825). *''Observations on Paper Money, Banking, and Over-Trading, including those parts of the Evidence taken before the Committee of the House of Commons which explain the Scotch System of Banking'' (1827, 1829). *''On Financial Reform'' (1830; 2nd edn., 1830; 3rd edn., 1831; 4th edn., 1832). Selections from this book, compiled by Henry Lloyd Morgan, were published under the title of ''National Accounts'' (2nd edn., 1873). *''A plain Statement of the Power of the Bank of England, and the Use it has made of it; with a Refutation of the Objections made to the Scotch System of Banking, and a Reply to "The Historical Sketch y J. R. McCullochof the Bank of England,"'' (1832). *''A Treatise on Roads, wherein the Principles on which Roads should be made are explained and illustrated by the Plans, Specifications, and Contracts made use of by Thomas Telford, Esq., on the Holyhead Road'' (1833; 2nd edn., 1838). *''The Psalms: a new Version'' (1860; 2nd edn., 1875). Parnell was the author of books and pamphlets on matters connected with financial questions, the major important work being ''On Financial Reform'', published in 1830. Parnell was opposed to the prevailing

protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

system and advocated

retrenchment Retrenchment (, an old form of ''retranchement'', from ''retrancher'', to cut down, cut short) is an act of cutting down or reduction, particularly of public expenditure. Political usage The word is familiar in its most general sense from the mot ...

of public expenditure, especially for the armed services.Sidney Buxton, ''Finance and Politics: An Historical Study, 1783–1885. Volume I'' (London: John Murray, 1888), p. 32, n. ‡. ''On Financial Reform'' proposed the repeal of taxes on raw materials and home manufactures, along with the reduction of import duties on foreign manufactures. He also favoured the reduction of taxes on "luxuries", such as tea, sugar, tobacco, wine and spirits. To pay for these reforms, Parnell proposed the reintroduction of the

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

. According to Sidney Buxton, ''On Financial Reform'' exercised a considerable influence on public opinion and "laid before the country the financial and fiscal policy that

Peel Peel or Peeling may refer to: Places Australia * Peel (Western Australia) * Peel, New South Wales * Peel River (New South Wales) Canada * Peel Parish, New Brunswick * Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community in Peel Parish * Pee ...

and

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

afterwards carried through". One of the main representatives of the so-called "British

free banking Free banking is a monetary arrangement where banks are free to issue their own paper currency ( banknotes) while also being subject to no special regulations beyond those applicable to most enterprises. In a free banking system, market forces co ...

school", Parnell argued that the best way to achieve monetary stability was to revoke the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

's monopoly on the issue of

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

s. These ideas were defended by Parnell and others in opposition to those of the

British Currency School The British Currency School was a group of British economists, active in the 1840s and 1850s, who argued that the excessive issuing of banknotes was a major cause of price inflation. They believed that, in order to restrict circulation, issuers of ...

who advocated legal restrictions on the amount of notes that could be issued, with respect to their deposits in

specie Specie may refer to: * Coins or other metal money in mass circulation * Bullion coins * Hard money (policy) * Commodity money * Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money * Specie Payment Resumption A ...

, and the British Banking School, which advocated discretionary policy by the banks in monetary matters. Support for free banking declined after Parnell's death in 1842, and the

Bank Charter Act 1844 The Bank Charter Act 1844 ( 7 & 8 Vict. c. 32), sometimes referred to as the Peel Banking Act of 1844, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed under the government of Robert Peel, which restricted the powers of British bank ...

eliminated the right of new banks in England and Wales to issue notes, consolidating the Bank of England's monopoly. Anna J. Schwartz, "Banking School, Currency School, Free Banking School," in ''The New Palgrave: Money'' (London, W. W. Norton & Company, 1989), . Parnell also wrote about

penal Penal is a town in south Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago. It lies south of San Fernando, Princes Town, and Debe, and north of Moruga, Morne Diablo and Siparia. Penal is noted as a heartland of Hindu and Indo-Trinidadian culture. History Up ...

matters. In the domain of civil engineering, he authored the 1833 and 1838 editions of ''A Treatise on Roads'', in which the works and techniques of

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

were described.

Family

Parnell married Lady Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of

John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

, in 1801. In 1842, having suffered for some time from ill health and melancholy, he committed suicide by hanging, aged 65. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son John Vesey Parnell. Lady Congleton died in February 1861. The couple had three sons and three daughters who reached adulthood. A daughter, Frances Louisa, died when she was five years old, and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

. Her monument bears the inscription "Sacred to the memory of Frances Louisa Parnell. Born 28 October 1806 Died 18 September 1812. Interred under this spot. This monument is placed here by her afflicted and disconsolate mother." His great grandson Henry Parnell, 5th Baron Congleton was the youngest Member of Parliament killed in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

References

External links