Henry Labouchere of Taunton

Henry Labouchere came from an immigrant Huguenot family, which was connected, through his mother, to the powerful Baring banking family. He was born in St Marylebone on 5 August 1798, and educated at Winchester and Oxford. Though a member of Lincoln’s Inn, he never became a barrister. His travels across North America in 1824-5 gave him a liking for matters American and Canadian.

The patronage of his uncle, Alexander Baring, who was MP for Taunton for 20 years from 1806, gave Henry his first entry into Parliament, when he was returned unopposed as a Whig in a by-election for Mitchell (or St Michael)in Cornwall in April 1826, and again unopposed at the general election two months later. The first record of a Commons speech by him was in May 1828 on the government of Canada.

In August 1830, again with the aid of Baring, he became MP for Taunton, comfortably topping the poll. In his published victory address, he promised the electors that they would “find me at all times most anxious to promote, by every means in my power, the local prosperity of your Borough.” He held the seat for the next 29 years, usually without difficulty, save when he had to stand for re-election in April 1835, following his appointment as Master of the Mint, and was unsuccessfully challenged by a young Benjamin Disraeli (as described in this article).

He had a long and varied ministerial career in Whig/Liberal governments between 1832 and 1858. Two letters encapsulate this, and highlight the tone of that era. The Heritage Centre at Taunton has a good archive of Labouchere material, including a letter in November 1855 from the then Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, asking him to join his Government: “We are very anxious to get your assistance as Secretary of State for the Colonies and it would be a great pleasure and satisfaction to me and my colleagues if you would undertake the duties of that important office.”

Labouchere held that post for over two years, but it was not all plain sailing, as a 14 May 1856 letter from Queen Victoria attests. He had nominated James Wilson (Walter Bagehot’s father-in-law, founder of The Economist, and a senior politician) as Governor of the Australian colony of Victoria, but the Queen was not pleased. Mr Wilson, she wrote, “would not be at all a proper person to be Governor of so large and important a colony as Victoria. It ought to be a man of higher position and standing…” She then proceed to “advise” Labouchere in great detail how to go about deciding future nominations, especially so as not to put the Queen in the delicate position of having to reject them!

In 1857 he built Quantock Lodge, near Over Stowey. The Heritage Centre holds a November 1868 memo by him in, detailing the estate and its contents. After it was sold by the family in 1919, it had a number of uses, such as a sanatorium and a school. The Lodge is now a Grade II listed building, and currently operates as an events venue.

After he was made Baron Taunton in 1859, he held a number of prestigious public offices, including a trustee of the British Museum, and the chair of an important commission of inquiry into schools.

Labouchere died in his London home, 27 Belgrave Square, on 13 July 1869. In its obituary, the Western Gazette concluded that “in whatever capacity he appeared he increased the reputation he had early gained as a scholar, as a gentleman, and as a zealous and able servant of the public.”

He was buried at Over Stowey Church a week later, where, on 9 August, a memorial service was held. There are many memorials to the Labouchere family at the Church, which is well worth a visit.