Anthony Henley, 3rd Baron Henley


Anthony Henley Henley, 3rd Baron Henley, 1st Baron Northington was a British peer and Liberal Member of Parliament.

Early life and education

Henley was born Anthony Eden, the son of Hon. Robert Eden and Harriet Peel, daughter of Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, and sister of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet. Lord Chancellor Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington, was his great-grandfather. His grandfather Morton Eden, 1st Baron Henley, was raised to the peerage in 1799. His father succeeded as the second baron in 1831 and the next year changed the family surname to Henley, as eventual heir to his uncle, Robert Henley, 2nd Earl of Northington, who died unmarried in 1786.
He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.

Career

At age 15, Henley succeeded his father as third Baron Henley in 1841 but as this was an Irish peerage, it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords.
He was instead elected to the House of Commons for Northampton in 1859, a seat he held until 1874. In 1885 the Northington title held by his great-grandfather was revived when he was created Baron Northington, of Watford in the County of Northampton, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This title gave him and the later Barons an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1854.

Marriages and issue

Lord Henley married, firstly, Julia Emily Augusta, daughter of the Very Rev. John Peel, Dean of Worcester, in 1846. They had six children:
Lady Henley died in 1862. In 1870, he married, secondly, Clara Campbell Lucy, daughter of Joseph Henry Storie Jekyll. They had three children:
He died in November 1898, aged 73, and was succeeded in his titles by his first-, second-, and fourth-born sons, respectively. Lady Henley died in 1922.