Robert Henley, 2nd Baron Henley
{{Short description|British lawyer and Member of Parliament (1789-1841)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable
| name = The Lord Henley
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Arms of Eden, Baron Henley.svg
| caption = Arms of the Baron Henley: Quarterly: 1st and 4th: Gules, on a chevron argent between three garbs or banded vert as many escallops sable (Eden); 2nd and 3rd: Azure, a lion rampant argent ducally crowned or a bordure of the second charged with eight torteaux (Henley)
| birth_name = Robert Henley Eden
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1789|9|3}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1841|2|3|1789|9|3}}
| death_place = Whitehall, Westminster, London
| resting_place =
| education = Eton College
| alma_mater = Christ Church, Oxford
| father = {{nowrap|Morton Eden, 1st Baron Henley}}
| mother = Lady Elizabeth Henley
| spouse = {{marriage|Harriet Peel|1823}}
| children =
| party = Tory
| relatives = Robert Henley {{small|(grandfather)}}
{{nowrap|Sir Robert Peel, 1st Bt. {{small|(father-in-law)}}
Anthony, 3rd Baron Henley {{small|(son)}}}}
| office = Member of Parliament for Fowey
| term_start = 1826
| term_end = 1830
| alongside =
| predecessor = Viscount Valletort
George Lucy
| successor = George Lucy
Lord Brudenell
}}
Robert Henley Henley, 2nd Baron Henley (né Eden, 3 September 1789 – 3 February 1841), styled Hon. Robert Eden from 1799 to 1830, was a British lawyer, Member of Parliament, peer, and writer.
Early life and education
Robert Henley was born Robert Eden at Lambeth Palace, London,{{cite news |title=Extract of a Letter from Plymouth |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003222/17890922/008/0002 |access-date=7 January 2025 |work=Chester Courant |date=22 September 1789 |page=2|url-access=subscription}} the second son of diplomat Morton Eden, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Lord Chancellor Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington (c. 1708–1772) and eventual heiress to her brother, Robert Henley, 2nd Earl of Northington.{{cite journal |title=Obituary: Lord Henley |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine 1841-04: Vol 15 |date=April 1841 |volume=15 |page=425 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_gentlemans-magazine_1841-04_15/page/425/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=7 January 2025 |publisher=Open Court Publishing Co |language=English}}
Robert's other uncles were Sir John Eden, 4th Baronet; Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland; and William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland.{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor-last= Mosley | editor-first = Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |page=1270 |pages= |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}
His father was knighted in 1791 and in 1799 raised to the peerage as Baron Henley, of Chardstock, in the Peerage of Ireland,{{London Gazette |date=29 June 1799 |issue= 15153| page= 655}} in honour of his wife's family. Her brother Robert, 2nd Earl of Northington, died unmarried in 1786, and the earldom and subsidiary title of Baron Henley in the Peerage of Great Britain had become extinct.{{sfn|Mosley|2003|p=1866|ps=none}}
Robert was educated at Eton College, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1807, graduating B.A. 1811, and M.A. 1814.{{cite ODNB|id=8456|first=V. Markham|last=Lester|title=Henley, Robert [formerly Robert Henley Eden], second Baron Henley (1789–1841)}}{{alox2|title=Eden, Robert Henley}}
Career and peerage
Henley served as a Master in Chancery from 1826 to 1840 and between 1826 and 1830 he also sat as member of parliament for Fowey.
In 1823, his elder brother, Hon. Frederick Eden, a barrister and heir to their father's barony, died unmarried at his chambers at Inner Temple.{{cite news |title=Deaths. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000266/18231115/026/0003 |access-date=6 January 2025 |work=Yorkshire Gazette |date=15 November 1823 |page=3|url-access=subscription}} In 1830, he succeeded his father as second Baron Henley, but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords.
The following year, Lord Henley assumed by royal licence the surname of Henley in lieu of Eden. in commemoration of his maternal ancestors, and the same year he published a biography of his maternal grandfather, entitled Memoir of the Life of Robert Henley, Earl of Northington, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
Marriage and issue
Henley married Harriet Peel, daughter of Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, and sister of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, in 1823. They had four sons, two of whom survived to adulthood:{{cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=Edmund |title=The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing: Arranged and Printed from the Personal Communications of the Nobility |date=1901 |publisher=Hurst and Blackett Limited |page=360 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLY4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA360 |access-date=7 January 2025 |language=en}}
- Hon. Anthony Henley (Eden) (1825–1898), succeeded as third earl
- Robert Henley Eden (13–18 July 1826), died in infancy
- Hon. Rev. Robert Henley (7 March 1831 – 7 August 1910), Vicar of Putney, Surrey, married in 1852 Emily Louisa Aldridge
- Hon. Morton Henley (5 November – 1 December 1832), died in infancy
After several months of illness, Lord Henley died in February 1841, aged 51, at his home at 19 Whitehall Place, Westminster, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest surviving son, Anthony. Lady Henley died in 1869.{{sfn|Mosley|2003|p=1867|ps=none}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef|before=Viscount Valletort|before2=George Lucy}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for Fowey|years=1826–1830}}
{{s-aft|after=George Lucy|after2=Lord Brudenell}}
{{s-reg|ie}}
{{s-bef|before=Morton Eden}}
{{s-ttl|title=Baron Henley|years=1830–1841}}
{{s-aft|after=Anthony Henley}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henley, Robert Henley, 2nd Baron}}
Category:19th-century British writers
Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Fowey