Stephen de Vere
Sir Stephen Edward De Vere, 4th Baronet (26 July 1812 – 10 November 1904) was an Anglo-Irish Member of Parliament in the nineteenth century.
Life
He was the second son of Sir Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Baronet and Mary Spring Rice, and elder brother of the poet Aubrey Thomas de Vere. He had three sisters, although only one, Elinor, survived until adulthood. De Vere's other siblings were; Horatio, William and Vere Edmond.[1]
In 1847, he took passage in such one of the infamous "coffin ships" that transported Irish emigrants to the New World, wanting to see for himself the horrendous conditions that were leading to the deaths of so many of these passengers. He composed a withering report on his voyage now known as The Elgin-Grey Papers. When Colonial Secretary Earl Grey read this report, he forwarded it to Lord Elgin, Governor-General of Upper Canada and Lower Canada in the hope that these inhumane conditions could be improved.[2]
De Vere became a Roman Catholic in 1848, and defended the re-creation of the English Catholic hierarchy in 1851. He was a Liberal Party MP for Limerick County from 1854 to 1859, and was appointed High Sheriff of County Limerick in 1870. In 1880, he succeeded his brother Vere as 4th Baronet de Vere. His family estate was Curragh Chase in County Limerick, but in the 1850s he built a smaller house on Foynes Island in the River Shannon, where he wrote poems, political pamphlets and translated the works of Horace.
He built a Gothic church in Foynes, and is buried beside it.[3] On his death in 1904 the baronetcy became extinct.[4] He never married and his estate, together with that of his unmarried brother Aubrey, went to their nephew Aubrey Vere O'Brien, while the Foynes Island farm went to their other nephew, Robert Vere O'Brien.
References
- ↑ Wynne Jones, Joan (1998). The Abiding Enchantment of Curragh Chase. Cork. pp. 3–12.
- ↑ Moving Here, Staying Here: The Canadian Immigrant Experience at Library and Archives Canada
- ↑
Lee, Elizabeth (1912). "De Vere, Stephen Edward". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement. London: Smith, Elder & Co. - ↑ Elizabeth Lee, Rev. M. C. Curthoys,. "Vere, Sir Stephen Edward De, fourth baronet (1812–1904)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32798. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Stephen de Vere
- "House of Commons Constituencies, L (part 3)". Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
- Stephen de Vere in 'Writers - Non-Fiction' file at Limerick City Library, Ireland
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Wyndham Goold |
Member of Parliament for Limerick County 1854–1859 |
Succeeded by Samuel Auchmuty Dickson |
| Baronetage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Vere Edmond de Vere |
Baronet of Curragh, Limerick 1880–1904 |
Succeeded by extinct |
|