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Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood

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The Earl of Harewood

Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood DL (25 December 1767 – 24 November 1841), known as Viscount Lascelles from 1814 to 1820, was a British peer, Tory politician, planter and art collector.

Early life and politics

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Harewood was the second son of Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood, and Anne Chaloner. He was elected to the House of Commons for Yorkshire in 1796, a seat he held until the 1807 Yorkshire election and again from 1812 to 1818, and also represented Westbury from 1807 to 1812 and Northallerton from 1818 to 1820. The latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords. Between 1819 and 1841 he also served as Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire.

According to the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at University College London, Harewood was awarded remuneration as a former slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 via the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £1.8 billion in 2024[1]) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore, which was subsequently paid off by British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Harewood was associated with six different claims; he enslaved roughly 1,277 people in Barbados and Jamaica and received a payment of £26,307 at the time (worth £3.15 million in 2024[1]).[2]

Marriage and issue

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Lord Harewood married Henrietta Sebright (d. 15 February 1840), daughter of Sir John Sebright, 6th Baronet, on 3 September 1794. They had eleven children:

His wife is mentioned in Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen, in a letter from Mary Crawford to Fanny Price while Fanny is staying with her mother and father in Portsmouth: "I was there, two years ago, when Lady Lascelles had it, and I prefer it over any other house in London." (She is talking about a house in Wimpole Street.)

Notes

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  1. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood". University College London. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

References

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Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Yorkshire
1796–1800
With: William Wilberforce
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Member of Parliament for Yorkshire
1801–1806
With: William Wilberforce
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westbury
1807–1812
With: Glynn Wynn 1807–1809
Francis Whittle 1809–1810
John de Ponthieu 1810–1812
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Yorkshire
1812–1818
With: Viscount Milton
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Pontefract
1812
With: Robert Pemberton Milnes
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Northallerton
1818–1820
With: Henry Peirse
Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire
1819–1841
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Earl of Harewood
1820–1841
Succeeded by