Life
1776-1842 [4th baronet and 1st Baron Congleton]; b. Laois (Queen’s Co.); ed. Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, leaving without degree; Irish MP Maryborough, 1797; opposed Union; MP Queen’s County (Laois), 1802, 1806-32; Portarlington, during 1802; Escheator of Munster, 1802-06; Commissioner of Treasury in Ireland, 1806-07; unsuccessfully sought enquiry into tithes, 1809-11; supported Catholic Emancipation; resigned as Sec. of War, 1831-32 and Privy-Councillor over Russo-Dutch War; first Paymaster General after consolidation of Navy and other forces, 1836; created Baron Congleton, 1841; published economic works; committed suicide during protracted illness (viz., depression); gr.-uncle of Charles Stewart Parnell; wrote History of the Penal Laws (1808) and Financial Reform (1830). ODNB DIH
Notes
Thomas Moore, in Captain Rock (London 1824), makes reference to Parnell in his account of the iniquitous Tithe system levied by Protestants on Catholics: ‘[...] a Citation for tithe of 18s 10d costs the defentant £2 10s’, with a footnote: ‘So stated by Sir Henry Parnell, July 5, 1820.’ (3rd Edn., 1824; p.312; See further citations from Sir Henry Parnell’s speech recorded in Cobbett’s Parliamentary Debates regard the number of tithe actions in 1807 - viz., 1,286 in 5 counties (p.297); see also further reference to Sir Henry Parnell’s motion on the subject of Tithes, at p.314.)
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