Henry Bruen (1789–1852)
ColonelHenry Bruen(3 October 1789 – 5 November 1852)[1]was anIrishTory Party(and laterConservative Party)politician.He wasMember of Parliament(MP) forCounty Carlowfor a total of about 36 years, in three separate periods between 1812 and 1852, taking his seat in theHouse of Commonsof what was then theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Life[edit]
Henry was the son ofHenry Bruen(1741–1795), and Dorothea Henrietta Knox.[2]His father originally came fromBoyle, County Roscommon,but had moved in 1775 toOak Parkestate, nearCarlowtown. The estate was inherited by Henry, and remained in the family until 1957.[3]
Bruen was educated atEton Collegeand then atChrist Church, Oxford.He became a colonel in the Carlow militia in 1816.[2]
In 1795, Bruen inherited the family estate ofOak Park.In 1828, Colonel Bruen supplied granite used in the construction of theCathedral of the Assumption, Carlowfrom his quarry in Graiguenaspidogue a few kilometres south of Carlow town. He also supplied the oak for its great-framed roof from nearby Oak Park.
Political career[edit]
Bruen was elected at the1812 general electionas MP for County Carlow,[4]and was then returned unopposed at the next three general elections. He won a contested election in1830,but did not stand at the1831 general election.[4]He stood again in1832,but did not win either of Carlow's two seats.[5]He regained a seat at thegeneral election in January 1835,[6]but the 1835 election in Carlow was overturned on petition, and Bruen lost his seat in the resultingby-electionon 15 June.[7]However, the by-election was itself the subject of a petition, and the result was overturned, with Bruen being returned toWestminster,along with his father-in-law, fellow ConservativeThomas Kavanagh.[7]
He did not win a seat in1837,[5]but returned to the House of Commons in 1840, when he won a by-election on 5 December after the death of the Liberal MPNicholas Aylward Vigors.[8]He was then re-elected at the next three general elections,[5]and died in office in November 1852 at the age of 63, five months after holding his seat at thegeneral election in July.
Marriage and issue[edit]
In 1822 he married Anne Wandesforde Kavanagh, daughter ofThomas Kavanagh, The MacMorroughand Lady Elizabeth Butler.[2](Anne's younger half-brother wasArthur MacMorrough Kavanagh(1831–1889), the severely disabled writer, politician and sportsman).[9]They had three daughters and one son,Henry(1828–1912), who was MP for County Carlow from 1857 to 1880.[10]
References[edit]
- ^"Historical list of MPs: House of Commons constituencies beginning with" C ", part 2".Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages.Archived from the original on 3 October 2018.Retrieved9 December2009.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^abcJupp, P.J., "Bruen, Henry (1789–1852)",History of Parliament
- ^"Oak Park Forest Park".Carlow County Museum.Archived fromthe originalon 6 December 2009.Retrieved10 December2009.
- ^abBrian M. Walker, ed. (1978).Parliamentary election results in Ireland 1801–1922.Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 200.ISBN0-901714-12-7.
- ^abcWalker, op., cit., page 256
- ^Walker, op., cit., page 56
- ^abWalker, op., cit., page 61
- ^Walker, op., cit., page 68
- ^Lundy, Darryl; ThePeerage."Thomas Kavanagh, The MacMorrough".Retrieved10 December2009.[unreliable source]
- ^Lundy, Darryl."Colonel Henry Bruen, died 1852".ThePeerage.Retrieved10 December2009.[unreliable source]
External links[edit]
- 1789 births
- 1852 deaths
- 19th-century Irish politicians
- People educated at Eton College
- Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
- Politicians from County Carlow
- Tory MPs (pre-1834)
- Irish Conservative Party MPs
- UK MPs 1812–1818
- UK MPs 1818–1820
- UK MPs 1820–1826
- UK MPs 1826–1830
- UK MPs 1830–1831
- UK MPs 1835–1837
- UK MPs 1837–1841
- UK MPs 1841–1847
- UK MPs 1847–1852
- UK MPs 1852–1857
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Carlow constituencies (1801–1922)
- British Militia officers