Papers of Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton

Letters, notes, memoranda, etc. on British imperial affairs, including material relating to the colonial church, Jamaica, Prince Edward Island, New Zealand, Victoria (British Columbia), Trinidad and Malta, 1854-1858.

Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton (1798-1869) matriculated in 1816 at Christ Church, Oxford where, four years later, he took a first in classics. Although admitted as a member of Lincoln's Inn in 1917, he was never called to the bar. In 1924 he travelled with Stanley, Denison and Stuart Wortley (afterwards Lords Derby, Ossington and Wharncliffe) through Canada and the United States. From 1826 to 1858 he sat in the House of Commons as Whig MP for Michael Borough, then Taunton. During this time, he was appointed a lord of the Admiralty, 1832-1833, Master of the Mint, 1835-1841, Vice-President of the Board of Trade, 1835-1839, Undersecretary of War and the Colonies, 1839, President of the Board of Trade, 1839-1841, 1847-1852, Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, [1846-1847] and Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1855-1858. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1835. While in Parliament he drew attention to the abuses of the system of government in Canada, carried through the bill by which the Navigation Laws were repealed, and was instrumental in passing the Mercantile Marine Acts and the Seaman's Fund Act. In 1858 he was created Baron Taunton of Taunton. He served as one of the commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, and presided over the commission appointed in 1853 to investigate the state of the Corporation of the City of London and also a commission inquiring into schools. In 1840 he married Frances Baring, with whom he had three daughters. Frances died in 1850, and in 1852 he married Lady Mary Matilda Georgiana Howard, with whom he had no children. The barony of Taunton therefore became extinct upon his death.

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Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

Listed as no. 623 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).

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Letters from Sir George Henry Ward recording his administration as Governor of Ceylon, 1855-1858 (ref. MSS. Ind. Ocn. s. 126); letters from Sir William Reid as Governor of Malta, 1855-1858 (ref. MSS. Medit. s. 10); letter to Herman Merivale concerning proposed alterations to the New Zealand constitution, 1856 (ref. MSS. N.Z. s. 1, ff.4-13); letters from Sir Francis Hinks as Governor of Barbados, 1856-1857 (ref. MSS. W. Ind. s. 36).