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 County Carlow 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

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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 County Carlow 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 the borough of Carlow 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] Another son, Edward Francis Bruen, was an admiral in the Royal Navy. In 1874 one of his daughters, Katharine Anne Bruen, married Thomas McClintock-Bunbury, 2nd Baron Rathdonnell.

Henry Bruen died at Oak Park in March 1912 aged 83.[8]

Coat of arms of Henry Bruen
Notes
Confirmed 19 October 1927 by Sir Nevile Rodwell Wilkinson, Ulster King of Arms.[9]
Crest
On a wreath of the colours a fisherman Proper holding in his dexter hand by the handle a landing net placed over the shoulders Or and in the sinister a fisherman's staff Gules.
Escutcheon
Sable a double-headed eagle displayed Or charged with a seimitan fessways Proper.
Motto
Fortitudine

References

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  1. ^ a b "Historical list of MPs: House of Commons constituencies beginning with "C", part 2". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^ a b 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. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ "Holdings:Bruen Papers". National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  5. ^ a b Lundy, Darryl. "Rt. Hon. Henry Bruen". ThePeerage.com. Retrieved 10 December 2009.[unreliable source]
  6. ^ "Oak Park Forest Park". Carlow County Museum. Archived from the original on 6 December 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
  7. ^ "p. 24974 § 249740". Retrieved 5 May 2011.[unreliable source]
  8. ^ "Carlow". The Irish Standard. 30 March 1912. p. 6. Retrieved 13 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Grants and Confirmations of Arms Volume M". National Library of Ireland. p. 216. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for County Carlow
18571880
With: William McClintock-Bunbury to 1862
Denis Pack-Beresford 1862–1868
Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh 1868–1880
Succeeded by