Robert Henley, 2nd Baron Henley


Robert Henley Henley, 2nd Baron Henley, styled Hon. Robert Eden from 1799 to 1830, was a British lawyer, Member of Parliament, peer, and writer.

Early life and education

Robert Henley was born Robert Eden at Lambeth Palace, London, the second son of diplomat Morton Eden, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Lord Chancellor Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington, and eventual heiress to her brother, Robert Henley, 2nd Earl of Northington.
Robert's other uncles were Sir John Eden, 4th Baronet; Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland; and William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland.
His father was knighted in 1791 and in 1799 raised to the peerage as Baron Henley, of Chardstock, in the Peerage of Ireland, in honour of his wife's family. Her brother Robert, 2nd Earl of Northington, died unmarried in 1786, and the earldom and subsidiary title of Baron Henley in the Peerage of Great Britain had become extinct.
Robert was educated at Eton College, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1807, graduating B.A. 1811, and M.A. 1814.

Career and peerage

Henley served as a Master in Chancery from 1826 to 1840 and between 1826 and 1830 he also sat as member of parliament for Fowey.
In 1823, his elder brother, Hon. Frederick Eden, a barrister and heir to their father's barony, died unmarried at his chambers at Inner Temple. In 1830, he succeeded his father as second Baron Henley, but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords.
The following year, Lord Henley assumed by royal licence the surname of Henley in lieu of Eden. in commemoration of his maternal ancestors, and the same year he published a biography of his maternal grandfather, entitled Memoir of the Life of Robert Henley, Earl of Northington, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

Marriage and issue

Henley married Harriet Peel, daughter of Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet, and sister of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, in 1823. They had four sons, two of whom survived to adulthood:
After several months of illness, Lord Henley died in February 1841, aged 51, at his home at 19 Whitehall Place, Westminster, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest surviving son, Anthony. Lady Henley died in 1869.