Henry Bankes

For his father, also a politician, seeHenry Bankes (died 1776).

For the racecar driver, seeHenry Banks.

Henry Bankes byPompeo Batoni,1779.

Henry Bankes(1757–1834) was an English politician and writer.

Kingston Lacy House - Seat of the Bankes family

Life

Bankes was the only surviving son ofHenry BankesMPand Margaret Wynne (1724–1822). Bankes was the great-great-grandson of SirJohn Bankes,Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the time ofCharles I.

Bankes was educated atWestminster SchoolandTrinity College, Cambridge,where he won the Chancellor's Classical Medal and graduatedB.A.as14th wranglerin 1778 (M.A.in 1781).He then spent three years (October 1778 to October 1781) on aGrand Tourof Europe, which included four months inVenice.

On his father's death in 1776, he inherited the family estate atKingston Lacy,including a lucrative lead mine in Cumberland.

He represented the close borough ofCorfe Castlefrom 1780 to 1826; in the latter year he was elected for the county ofDorset,and re-elected in the general election in the same year, but was rejected after a severe contest in 1830. In politics he was a conservative; he gave a general support to Prime MinisterPitt,but preserved his independence. He took an active but not a leading part in nearly every debate of his time, and closely attended to all parliamentary duties.

The 1784 Enclosure Act allowed Henry to create the current Kingston Lacy estate and parkland footprint. He demolished the hamlet of Kingston which was situated adjacent to the 16th-century Keeper's Lodge, diverted the Blandford road (now the B3082) and converted former agricultural land to parkland. He undertook further minor alterations in the 1820s.

He was a trustee of theBritish Museum,and acted as its organ in parliament.

Frances Woodley (1760–1823), Mrs Henry Bankes II, byGeorge Romney1780-81.

After his marriage, Henry altered Kingston Lacy. The revised layout included the creation of a new entrance on the east side of the building, a new dining room and a large ballroom. In December 1791, the Bankes family held a ball to commemorate the completion of the rooms. Frances Bankes was delighted with the evening. She wrote to her mother-in-law that: "I was perfectly satisfied from beginning to end, you know I am very difficult, but every Creature appeared in high good humour. "

When his maternal uncleWilliam Wynnedied unmarried in 1815, he leftSoughton Hallto John Bankes's son and heir,William John Bankes.

Bankes died atTregothnan,Cornwall,home of his eldest daughter on 17 December 1834, and was buried atWimborne Minster.William John Bankessucceeded him and took possession of Kingston Lacy.

Family

On 18 August 1784, Bankes married Frances (1760–1823), daughter of William Woodley,Governor of the Leeward Islands.They had the following children:

• Henry Bankes (1785–1806), drowned in the wrecking ofHMSAthenienne
• William John BankesMP(1786–1855)
• George BankesMP(1787–1856)
• Anne Frances Bankes (1789–1864), marriedEdward Boscawen, 1st Earl of Falmouth
• Maria Wynne Bankes (1791–1823), married Thomas Stapleton
• Edward Bankes (1794–1867), Canon of Gloucester and Bristol Cathedrals
• Frederick Woodley Banks (born 1799), believed to have died young, shortly after smallpox inoculation

Works

• A Civil and Constitutional History of Rome, from the Foundation to the Age of Augustus,2 vols. 1818.

References

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Stephen, Leslie,ed. (1885). "Bankes, Henry".Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.