Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton
Encyclopedia
- For the writer and publisher, see Henry LabouchèreHenry LabouchereHenry Du Pré Labouchère was an English politician, writer, publisher and theatre owner in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. He married the actress Henrietta Hodson....
Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton PC (15 August 1798 – 13 July 1869) was a prominent British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Whig and Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician of the mid-19th century.
Background and education
Labouchere (icon) was born in Over StoweyOver Stowey
Over Stowey is a small village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, South West England. It sits in the foothills of the Quantock Hills, just below Nether Stowey and north-west of Bridgwater...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, into a Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
merchant family. His father was Peter Caesar Labouchere and his mother Dorothy Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet. He took his B.A. (1821) and his M.A. (1828) at Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
Political career
In 1826, Labouchere became MPMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for St Michael
Mitchell (UK Parliament constituency)
Mitchell, or St Michael was a rotten borough consisting of the town of Mitchell, Cornwall. From the first Parliament of Edward VI, in 1547, it elected two members to the Unreformed House of Commons.-History:The borough encompassed parts of two parishes, Newlyn East and St Enoder...
, as a Whig. In 1830, he moved to the Taunton
Taunton (UK Parliament constituency)
Taunton was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors from 1295 to 2010, taking its name from the town of Taunton in Somerset...
seat, which he held until 1859. In 1835 he was opposed by Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Starting from comparatively humble origins, he served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
for the Taunton seat, and defeated him by 452 votes to 282. Labouchere was first appointed to office by Lord Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...
in 1832, serving as Civil Lord of the Admiralty. After beginning the second Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...
ministry as Master of the Mint
Master of the Mint
Master of the Mint was an important office in the governments of Scotland and England, and later Great Britain, between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Master was the highest officer in the Royal Mint. Until 1699, appointment was usually for life. Its holder occasionally sat in the cabinet...
, Privy Counsellor
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, and Vice-President of the Board of Trade
Vice-President of the Board of Trade
The office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade was a junior ministerial position in the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created in 1786 and abolished in 1867. From 1848 onwards the office was held concurrently with that of Paymaster-General...
(and, later, Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
The Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies....
), Labouchere was raised to a cabinet post, President of the Board of Trade, which he held from 1839 until the Melbourne government fell in 1841.
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
, returned to office in 1846, Labouchere returned to the cabinet, this time as Chief Secretary for Ireland
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...
. The following year, he once again became President of the Board of Trade, and stayed in that post until Russell's government fell in 1852. From 1853 to 1854 he sat on the Royal Commission on the City of London
Royal Commission on the City of London
The Royal Commission on the Corporation of the City of London was a Royal Commission, established in 1853, which considered the local government arrangements of the City of London and the surrounding metropolitan area....
.
Labouchere's final cabinet posting came during the first Palmerston ministry, for which he served as Secretary of State for the Colonies
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
from 1855 to 1858. In 1859, Labouchere was raised to the peerage as Baron Taunton, of Taunton in the County of Somerset.
Family
Lord Taunton married firstly his first cousin Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet, in 1840. They had three daughters. After her death in 1850, aged 36, he married secondly Lady Mary, daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of CarlisleGeorge Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle
George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle KG, PC, FRS , styled Viscount Morpeth until 1825, was a British statesman...
, in 1852. There were no children from this marriage. Lord Taunton died in July 1869, aged 70, at his home, Quantock Lodge
Quantock Lodge
] Quantock Lodge is a green-grey nineteenth-century mansion built by Henry Clutton from Cockercombe tuff and is located near the hamlet of Aley, near the village of Over Stowey in the English county of Somerset. It was the family home of Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton, and in the 1960s was...
in Over Stowey. As he had no sons the barony became extinct on his death. His nephew, also Henry Labouchere
Henry Labouchere
Henry Du Pré Labouchère was an English politician, writer, publisher and theatre owner in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. He married the actress Henrietta Hodson....
, inherited part of Labouchere's fortune, and was later to become a well-known newspaper editor and politician. Lady Taunton died in September 1892.