HERBERT, Henry Arthur (1756-1821), of Muckross, co. Kerry.

Herbert was returned for East Grinstead in place of his father-in-law, created Viscount Sackville; followed his lead in politics, voted with North in the five crucial divisions, 20 Feb.-15 Mar. 1782, and spoke against Conway’s motion to end the war, 27 Feb. 1782. On 8 Apr. 1782 he opposed a motion for Irish legislative independence.1Debrett, vii. 17. He voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, and spoke and voted against Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. In December 1783 Herbert was offered an appointment at the Admiralty Board by Pitt who hoped that Sackville, by allowing Herbert to accept, would show his ‘disposition in favour of the present Government’.2Pitt to Sackville, 29 Dec. 1783, HMC Stopford-Sackville, i. 81. Sackville explained that Lord Carmarthen’s appointment as secretary of state made him refuse, otherwise he would have been ‘happy in seeing Mr. Herbert at the Board of Admiralty as a mark of favour to him and attention to me’.3Sackville to Ld. Sydney, 30 Dec. 1783, ibid. 82. Nevertheless Herbert and Sackville supported Pitt’s Administration, and in 1785 Herbert, through the Duke of Dorset, approached Pitt about an Irish peerage, and apparently received a favourable reply.4H.A. Herbert to Pitt, 6 Sept. 1789, Chatham mss. Herbert resigned his seat in 1786; his reasons for doing so have not been ascertained. In 1789 he applied to Pitt directly about the peerage which he claimed had been promised him, but was unsuccessful.

He died 21 June 1821, aged 65.