Ralph Verney, 2nd Earl Verney PC, FRS (1 February 1714 – 31 March 1791), was a member of the Verney family of Middle Claydon and a British politician. From 1737 until 1752, when he succeeded to the earldom, he was styled Lord Fermanagh. He sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

several times between 1753 and 1791.

Life

Verney was born on 1 February 1714, the son of Ralph Verney, the first Earl Verney, of Claydon House,

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; and Catherine, daughter to Henry Paschall of Baddow Hall in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. In 1740 he married Mary, daughter of Henry Herring, a director of the

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. They had no children. She died on 22 January 1791, and Verney died on 31 March of the same year; both were buried in the family vault in the church of Middle Claydon. He left debts of over £115,000. His various titles were extinguished at his death. His estates were inherited by Mary Verney, the daughter of his elder brother John, who had died in 1737. At the recommendation of William Pitt, she was created Baroness Fermanagh in 1792.

Politics

Verney succeeded his father in the earldom in 1752. However, as this was an

Irish peerage 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 ...

, it did not entitle him to a seat in the

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(although it did entitle him to a seat in the

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). He was elected to the

for Wendover in 1753, a seat he held until 1761. He later represented

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between 1761 and 1768, and

from 1768 to 1784 and again from 1790 to 1791. On 22 November 1765 he was appointed to the Privy Council. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1758.

Claydon House

He rebuilt Claydon House in Buckinghamshire between 1757 and 1771. The house today represents only the west wing, which was originally connected to an identical east wing by a colonnaded rotunda surmounted by a cupola. Cost overruns on the building meant that Lord Verney had to spend the final years of his life on the continent to escape his creditors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verney, Ralph Verney, 2nd Earl 1714 births 1791 deaths Ralph Earls in the Peerage of Ireland Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Welsh constituencies British MPs 1747–1754 British MPs 1754–1761 British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1790–1796 Fellows of the Royal Society Hereditary peers elected to the House of Commons