CONGLETON, RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY BROOKE PAR NELL, LORD, was born 3rd of July 1776, and was the second son of the Right Honourable Sir John Parnell, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer ; his mother was Letitia Charlotte, second daughter and co-heir of Sir Arthur Brooke, of Colebrooke, in the county of Ferma nagh, Bart. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and after leaving the university he spent some time abroad. His elder brother having bees born a.cripple, and incapable of articulating, tho estates bad, in 1759, been settled by act of parliament upon Henry, and he earn. into possession of them upon the death of his father Ia 1801.1 The baronetcy, an Irish one, fell to him upon the death of his brother, in 1512.
On the 17th of February ISOI, Mr. Paruell married Lady Caroline Elizabeth Dawson, eldest daughter of John, first Earl of Portarlington, and granddaughter of the Earl of Bute, George Il 1. a prime minister; and at the general election In 1802 he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Portarlington, of which his father-in-law was the political patron. But a few weeks after the opening of the session he resigned his seat to make way for Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Tyrwhitt; and he remained out of parliament till March 1806, when he was again returned as one of the members for Queen's County. This seat was commanded by the conjoint influence of his own pro perty, of that of Lord Portarlington, and of that of Lord De \'escl, who was also his near relation. Sir Henry sat in every succeeding parliament u one of the members for Queen's County till the general election in 1832, when he declined a contest with the Repeal of the Union party, and Mr. Later was cieoted in his place. In April 1833, he was returned for Duodve; and be was elected again for the same place in 1835 and 1S37. In August 1841 he was removed to the Tipper House by being created Baron Congleton, of Congleton. in the county of Chester, from which county the Parnell family originally Came.
Sir Henry Parnell's political course was throughout that of an adherent to the most liberal section of the Whig party. Upon the
accession of the Whig ministry io 1S06 he was made a Lord of the Treasury in Ireland. He made the motion on the civil list which dissolved the ministry of the Duke of Wellington in the end of 1830 ; and on the accession of his friends to power, which followed, he was made Secretary at War. In 1832 however a difference with his col leagues on some financial points led to his resignation ; and he remained out of office till the formation of Lord Melbourne's adminis tration in 1835, when he was made paymaster of the forces, and treasurer of the ordnance and the navy, both which offices he retained till the breaking op of the ministry to which he belonged in August 1841. He had also served as chairman of the finance committee appointed by the House of Commons in 1823. In 1833 he was made a member of the government commission appointed to inqnire into the excise; and he was also chairman of the Holyhead Road com minden. In each of these investigations he took a loading part. Lord Congleton had been for some mouths in a state of health which made it necessary that he should be carefully watched ; but on the morning of the 8th of June 1842, having been left fur a few minutes alone, he put an end to his life. He left two eons and three daughters.
Besides corrected reports of five speeches which he delivered in the House of Commons, Sir Henry Parnell pnblialied the following tree tiers and pamphlets Observations on the Currency of Ireland, and upon the Course of Exchange between London and Dublin,' 1804 ; The Principles of Currency and Exchange, illustrated by Observe tions on the State of Iretaud,' 1805; An historical Apology for the Irish Catholics,' 1807; 'A History of the Penal Laws against the Irish Catholics, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union,' 1808; 'Treatise on the Cora Trade and Agriculture,' 1809; 'Observations on the Irish Butter Acts.' 1825; 'Observations on Paper Money, Banking, and Overtrading,' 1827; 'On Financial Reform, 1830 (his principal work, several times reprinted); and 'A Treatise on Roads,' 1833, reprinted 1831.