HERBERT, Henry Arthur (1756-1821), of Muckross, co. Kerry.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

19 Feb. 1782 - Feb. 1786
1806 - 1812
1812 - June 1813

Family and Education

b. 1756, 1st s. of Thomas Herbert.  educ. ?Harrow 1774-6; St. John’s, Camb. 1774; M. Temple 1776.  m. 28 Oct. 1781, Elizabeth, da. of Lord George Germain, 2s. 1da.

Offices Held

Biography

Herbert was returned for East Grinstead in place of his father-in-law, created Viscount Sackville; followed his lead in politics, voted with North in the five crucial divisions, 20 Feb.-15 Mar. 1782, and spoke against Conway’s motion to end the war, 27 Feb. 1782. On 8 Apr. 1782 he opposed a motion for Irish legislative independence.1 He voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, and spoke and voted against Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. In December 1783 Herbert was offered an appointment at the Admiralty Board by Pitt who hoped that Sackville, by allowing Herbert to accept, would show his ‘disposition in favour of the present Government’.2 Sackville explained that Lord Carmarthen’s appointment as secretary of state made him refuse, otherwise he would have been ‘happy in seeing Mr. Herbert at the Board of Admiralty as a mark of favour to him and attention to me’.3 Nevertheless Herbert and Sackville supported Pitt’s Administration, and in 1785 Herbert, through the Duke of Dorset, approached Pitt about an Irish peerage, and apparently received a favourable reply.4 Herbert resigned his seat in 1786; his reasons for doing so have not been ascertained. In 1789 he applied to Pitt directly about the peerage which he claimed had been promised him, but was unsuccessful.

He died 21 June 1821, aged 65.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

  • 1. Debrett, vii. 17.
  • 2. Pitt to Sackville, 29 Dec. 1783, HMC Stopford-Sackville, i. 81.
  • 3. Sackville to Ld. Sydney, 30 Dec. 1783, ibid. 82.
  • 4. H.A. Herbert to Pitt, 6 Sept. 1789, Chatham mss.