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 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 ...

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 (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

, 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, although it may have been built on an older Anglo-Sax ...

, Kent, Recorder of Newark, and educated at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

. 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 This is a list of High Sheriffs of Lincolnshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilit ...

for 1809–1810 and was then elected at the 1812 general election as a member of parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby. 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 City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

. 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 Stubton is a small village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish (including Fenton) at the 2011 census was 295. The village is situated north from Grantham and south-east ...

(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 zoo or zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, referring to ...

, and successfully bred a range of exotic animals including

llama The llama (; or ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with ...

alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. Traditionally, alpacas were kept in herds that grazed on the level heights of the Andes of Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Ecuador, and Northern Chile. More recentl ...

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

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

armadillo Armadillos () are New World placental mammals in the order (biology), order Cingulata. They form part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. 21 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are dis ...

s and

kangaroo Kangaroos are 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 gre ...

s. Sir Robert and his wife Amelia, daughter and coheir of Sir Horace Mann, 2nd Baronet; 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. 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 for English constituencies 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