Henry Bruen (1828–1912)

Henry Bruen PC, DL (16 June 1828 – 8 March 1912)[1] was an Irish Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Carlow County from 1857 to 1880, taking his seat in the House of Commons of what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the third (and last) in a line of Henry Bruens to represent County Carlow.

Bruen was elected unopposed at 1857 general election,[2] taking a seat previously held by his father Henry Bruen (1789–1852).[1] He was returned unopposed at the next the general elections, but at the 1880 general election, Carlow's two Conservative MPs were both defeated by Home Rule League candidates.[2] On 26 April 1880, shortly after his electoral defeat, he was sworn as a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.[3]

In addition to his Parliamentary seat, Bruen held a number of other appointments. He was High Sheriff of Carlow in 1855,[4] and High Sheriff of Wexford in 1883, and was at some unspecified time a Justice of the Peace in both counties. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of County Carlow.[5]

Family

Bruen was the youngest child, and only son, of Henry Bruen (1789–1852) and his wife Anne Wandesforde Kavanagh (died 1850).[5] His father had been an MP for Carlow County for most of the period from 1812 until death; his grandfather Henry Bruen (1741–1795) had been a member of the pre-Act of Union Parliament of Ireland; and his uncle Francis Bruen was an MP for Carlow Borough in the 1830s.

Henry Bruen lived at Coolbawn, County Wexford, and at Oak Park, an estate near Carlow town which his grandfather had acquired in 1775, and which remained in the family until 1957.[6]

He married Mary Margaret Conolly, daughter of Edward Michael Conolly on 6 June 1854; they had 11 children. The estates were inherited by his eldest son, Henry (1856–1927), a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery.[7]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Historical list of MPs: House of Commons constituencies beginning with "C", part 2". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Brian M. Walker, ed. (1978). Parliamentary election results in Ireland 1801–1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. p. 257. ISBN 0-901714-12-7.
  3. "Privy Counsellors - Ireland". Leigh Rayment's peerage page s. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
  4. "Holdings:Bruen Papers". National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Lundy, Darryl. "Rt. Hon. Henry Bruen". ThePeerage.com. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
  6. "Oak Park Forest Park". Carlow County Museum. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
  7. "p. 24974 § 249740". Retrieved 2011-05-05.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William McClintock-Bunbury
John Ball
Member of Parliament for Carlow County
18571880
With: William McClintock-Bunbury to 1862
Denis Beresford 1862–1868
Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh 1868–1880
Succeeded by
Edmund Dwyer Gray
Donald Horne Macfarlane