The

Reverend The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...

Henry Maxwell, 6th Baron Farnham (1774 – 19 October 1838) was an

Irish peer The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

and

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

clergyman who reputedly used his prerogatives as landlord to induce his distressed tenants to abandon their Catholic faith and take the Anglican communion. He was the son of Henry Maxwell,

Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Until the ...

, and grandson of

John Maxwell, 1st Baron Farnham John Maxwell, 1st Baron Farnham (1687 – 6 August 1759) was an Ireland, Irish peerage, peer and politician. He was the son of the Reverend Robert Maxwell and Anne Stewart, daughter of Colonel George Stewart. His paternal grandfather was Robert ...

. On his brother's death, he succeeded as 6th Baron Farnham on 20 September 1838, holding the title for just under a month before his own death. He married on 8 September 1798 to Lady Anne Butler (d. 29 May 1831), daughter of

Henry Thomas Butler, 2nd Earl of Carrick Henry Thomas Butler, 2nd Earl of Carrick (19 May 1746 – 20 July 1813), styled The Honourable from birth to 1748 and then as Viscount Ikerrin between 1748 and 1774, was an Irish peer and politician. He was the son of Somerset Butler, 1st Earl ...

. They had the following issue: #

Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham 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 w ...

(b. 9 August 1799 - d. 20 August 1868). # Sarah Juliana (b. 14 December 1801, died ''unknown''); she married on 18 March 1828 to

Alexander Saunderson Colonel Alexander Saunderson (1783–1857) was a Whig MP for Cavan 1826–1831. He was a landed gentleman with 12,000 acres. Although from the Protestant planter tradition, he supported Catholic emancipation. Alexander Saunderson was a k ...

(1783–1857) who was MP for

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 ( ...

1826–1831. Their son

Edward James Saunderson Colonel Edward James Saunderson (1 October 1837 – 21 October 1906) was an Anglo-Irish landowner and prominent Irish unionist politician. He led the Irish Unionist Alliance between 1891 and 1906. Early life Saunderson was born at the family ...

was also MP for Cavan 1865–1874 and later became MP for North Armagh 1885–1906. # Somerset Richard Maxwell, 8th Baron Farnham (b. 18 October 1803 - d. 4 June 1884). # Harriet Margaret Maxwell (b. 11 February 1805 – d. 4 July 1880); she married firstly on 14 February 1826 to Edward Southwell Ward, 3rd

Viscount Bangor Viscount Bangor, of Castle Ward, in County Down, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. History The title was created in January 1781 for Bernard Ward, 1st Baron Bangor, who had previously represented County Down in the Irish House of Commons. ...

(1790–1837); and married secondly on 4 October 1841 to Major Andrew Nugent. # John Barry, born 16 May 1807. # Anne, born 26 May 1809. # Edward William, born November 1812. # James Pierce Maxwell, 9th Baron Farnham (b. 1813 - d. 26 October 1896). # Richard Thomas Maxwell (b. 19 February 1815 – d. 22 January 1874); he married on 7 March 1848 to Charlotte Anne Elrington (d.1 March 1910), daughter of Henry Preston Elrington. Their son, Somerset Henry Maxwell, became 10th Baron Farnham. # Robert Thomas, born November 1817. # William George, born 1821 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 The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, one of the suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of Dublin. The episcopal title takes its name from the towns of Kildare and Old Leighlin i ...

, to investigate Farnham's claims of hundreds of conversions to Protestantism on his estate. Ensor's reports assured the bishop that, such as they were, the conversions were a case of "

souperism Souperism was a phenomenon of the Irish Great Famine. Protestant Bible societies set up schools in which starving children were fed, on the condition of receiving Protestant religious instruction at the same time. Its practitioners were revi ...

" and would not survive the then near-famine conditions in the area. Farnham was succeeded by his eldest son Henry, who, in the Great Famine, was similarly accused of withholding assistance and relief from tenants who refused to abjure their Catholic faith.

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
*

* ttp://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/mm4ae/maxwell03.htm Maxwell family genealogy, part 03 showing the Maxwell of Calderwood, Maxwell of Farnham (co. Cavan), and Maxwell of Finnebrogue families.

External links

Cavan County Museum - The Farnham Gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farnham, Henry Maxwell, 6th Baron 1774 births 1838 deaths 18th-century Irish nobility 19th-century Irish people People from County Cavan Ordained peers 6 Anti-Catholicism in Ireland