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
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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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