Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet (23 May 1736 – 3 January 1810) was a British civil servant and politician who 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 ...
for 39 years from 1768 to 1807.
Life
Strachey was the eldest son of Henry Strachey, of
Sutton Court,
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, and his first wife Helen, daughter of Robert Clerk, a Scottish physician.
His grandfather was the geologist
John Strachey and his great-grandfather John Strachey was a friend of
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
.
He was appointed private secretary to
Lord Clive in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in 1762, a position he held until 1768, when he was returned to Parliament for
Pontefract
Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...
. He sat for this constituency until 1774, and later represented
Bishop's Castle
Bishop's Castle is a market town in the south west of Shropshire, England. According to the 2011 Census it had a population of 1,893.
Bishop's Castle is east of the Wales–England border, about north-west of Ludlow and about south-west of ...
from 1774 to 1778 and from 1780 to 1802,
Saltash
Saltash () is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Cornwall". Saltash’s landmarks ...
from 1774 to 1780 and
East Grinstead
East Grinstead () is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast corner of the county, bord ...
from 1802 to 1807.
Strachey was
Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance
The Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance and a member of the Board of Ordnance from its constitution in 1597. He was responsible for keeping record of the number and kind of stores issued ...
from 1778 to 1780 and Principal
Storekeeper of the Ordnance from October 1780 to May 1782 and after a hiatus again in 1783–84. He served under the
Marquess of Rockingham
Marquess of Rockingham, in the County of Northampton, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1746 for Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham, Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Earl of Malton. The Watson family ...
as Joint
Secretary to the Treasury in 1782 and under the
Earl of Shelburne
Earl of Shelburne is a title that has been created twice while the title of Baron Shelburne has been created three times. The Shelburne title was created for the first time in the Peerage of Ireland in 1688 when Elizabeth, Lady Petty, was made ...
as Joint
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
This article lists past and present parliamentary under-secretaries of state serving the home secretary of the United Kingdom at the Home Office.
Non-permanent and parliamentary under-secretaries, 1782–present
*April 1782: Evan Nepean
*Apri ...
from 1782 to 1783.
He took part in the peace negotiations with the American colonies in Paris in 1783 with Richard Oswald representing the British and John Jay, Johns Adams and Benjamin Franklin representing the Americans.
This resulted in the
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and representatives of the United States on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized ...
. He later served as
Master of the Household between 1794 and 1810.
In 1801, he was created a
Baronet
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 ...
, of Sutton Court in the County of Somerset.
Strachey died in January 1810, aged 72, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters
* Henry (surname)
* Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone
Arts and entertainmen ...
. His memorial in
Chew Magna
Chew Magna is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,149.
To the south of the village is Chew ...
was created by
John Bacon.
Family
In 1770 Strachey married Jane, only daughter of Capt. John Kelsall (1702-1787), the widow of Capt. Thomas Latham.
"Capt. John Kelsall
/ref> They had three sons and one daughter. His second son Edward Strachey was the father of John Strachey and Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Strachey and the grandfather of Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychology, psychologic ...
, James Strachey
James Beaumont Strachey (; 26 September 1887, London25 April 1967, High Wycombe) of the Strachey family was a British psychoanalyst, and, with his wife Alix, translator of Sigmund Freud into English. He is perhaps best known as the general ed ...
, Oliver Strachey
Oliver Strachey CBE (3 November 1874 – 14 May 1960), a British civil servant in the Foreign Office, was a cryptographer from World War I to World War II.
Life and work
Strachey was a son of Sir Richard Strachey, colonial administrator and J ...
and Dorothy Bussy
Dorothy Bussy ( Strachey; 24 July 1865 – 1 May 1960) was an English novelist and translator, close to the Bloomsbury Group.
Family background and childhood
Dorothy Bussy was a member of the Strachey family. Her mother was suffragist J ...
.
Other descendants of Strachey include the Liberal politician Edward Strachey, 1st Baron Strachie, the journalist John Strachey and the Labour politician John Strachey.
Lady Strachey died on 12 February 1824.
References
Attribution:
*
External links
*
*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
*
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strachey, Sir Henry, 1st Baronet
1736 births
1810 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Masters of the Household
Strachey, Henry, 1st Baronet
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Saltash
British MPs 1768–1774
British MPs 1774–1780
British MPs 1780–1784
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
UK MPs 1801–1802
UK MPs 1802–1806
UK MPs 1806–1807