Anthony Hardolph Eyre

Anthony Hardolph Eyre JP was a British landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons.

Early life

Anthony was the eldest son of Judith Letitia Bury and Anthony Eyre of Grove Hall, who served as MP for Boroughbridge. Through his mother, the family acquired the manor and estate at Headon, Nottinghamshire. In 1762 he purchased the manor and estate of Grove in Nottinghamshire, adjacent to his other properties at Rampton, Treswell and Headon. His younger siblings included John Eyre, the Archdeacon of Nottingham, Vice-Admiral of the Red Sir George Eyre, an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and Julia Eyre, the first wife of Robert Hay-Drummond, 10th Earl of Kinnoull.
He was educated at Harrow School.

Eyre was commissioned as an Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards in 1776, quickly rising to Captain in 1778, and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1787. Following the death of his father in 1788, he succeeded to the family estates before retiring from the British Army in 1790.
In 1794, he served as was Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry in 1794, and Captain Commandant of the Retford Volunteers in 1803. Also in 1803, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire, serving alongside his future son-in-law, Charles Pierrepont.
After retiring from Parliament in 1812, he devoted himself to county affairs, serving as a Justice of the Peace for many years.

In 1783, Eyre married Francisca Alicia Bootle, third daughter of Richard Wilbraham-Bootle and Mary Bootle. Together, they were the parents of:

Gervase Anthony Eyre, who served with the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards and was killed at the Battle of Barossa during the Peninsular War.
Mary Laetitia Eyre who married Charles Pierrepont, 2nd Earl Manvers in 1804.
Frances Julia Eyre, in 1814.
Henrietta Eyre, who married her first cousin, John Hardolph Eyre, son of John Eyre and Charlotte Armytage. After his death in 1817, she married amateur poet Henry Gally Knight, MP for Aldborough, Malton, and North Nottinghamshire.

As his only son died in 1811, his estates were divided between his younger daughters Frances, and Henrietta after his death in 1836.

Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Charles Evelyn Pierrepont, Viscount Newark ; Sydney Pierrepont, 3rd Earl Manvers; Lady Mary Frances Pierrepont ; and Lady Annora Charlotte Pierrepont.
Through his daughter Frances, he was a grandfather of Granville Harcourt-Vernon, MP for Newark.