HARE, Henry, 2nd Baron Coleraine [I] (1636-1708), of Longford Castle, Wilts. and Bruce Castle, Tottenham, Mdx.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1679

Family and Education

bap. 21 Apr. 1636, 1st s. of Hugh, 1st Baron Coleraine [I], of Totteridge, Herts. and Longford Castle by Lady Lucy Montagu, da. of Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester. m. (1) Constantia, da. of Sir Richard Lucy, 1st Bt., of Broxbourne, Herts., 2s. d.v.p. 1da.; (2) lic. 17 July 1682, Sarah (d. 2 Nov. 1692), da. and coh. of Sir Edward Alston, FRCP, of Great St. Helens, London, wid. of George Grimston of Gorhambury, Herts., and of Lord John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset, s.p.; (3) 4 Aug. 1696, Elizabeth, da. of John Portman, Goldsmith, of the Unicorn, Lombard St., London, wid. of Robert Reade of Cheshunt, Herts., s.p. suc. fa. 2 Oct. 1667.1

Offices Held

J.p. Herts. ?1667-80, Mdx. and Wilts. by 1680-?d.; dep. lt. Wilts. 1668-June 1688, Oct. 1688-d., Herts. by 1670-80, Mdx. 1697-d.; commr. for assessment, Wilts. 1673-80, 1689, Mdx. 1689-90; freeman, Salisbury 1683.2

Gent. of privy chamber 1668-85.3

Biography

Lord Coleraine was descended from a younger brother of the family of Sir Ralph Hare, but his branch, enriched by the fortune accumulated in the court of wards by John Hare, was probably the wealthier. His father bought Longford Castle from the father of Richard Gorges just before the Civil War, in which he played no active part, though forced to contribute £2,000 to the committee for the advance of money. Coleraine had antiquarian tastes, like many of his family, and does not seem to have played any part in politics before the exclusion crisis. His Wiltshire residence lies some six miles from Old Sarum, which his first wife’s father had represented from 1647 to 1653. He replaced the country Member John Young in the second Exclusion Parliament, in which he was a moderately active Member, with seven committees. The most important were to consider the proceedings of the judges in Westminster Hall, the disbandment accounts and the repeal of the Corporations Act. He probably opposed exclusion, as he held local office at least until the summer of 1688, when the lord lieutenant of Wiltshire reported him absent from the county when he was due to give his answers on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws. Coleraine contested Wiltshire in 1690, but his petition was unsuccessful. He died on 4 July 1708 and was buried at Tottenham. His grandson, the third lord, sat for Boston from 1730 to 1734 as a Tory.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. Foster, London Mar. Lic. 1121; London Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. xcii), 112.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1667-8, p. 608; 1697, p. 22; Hoare, Wilts. Salisbury, 478.
  • 3. Carlisle, Privy Chamber, 181.
  • 4. Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 243-4; Wilts. Arch. Mag. lii. 1-3; VCH Wilts. v. 198.