BRUEN, Henry (1789-1852), of Oak Park, co. Carlow.

Bruen’s father, who came of a family settled in Ireland since the 17th century, made a fortune in the army commissariat in America, invested it in a county Carlow estate and was Member for the county.1Procs. R. Irish Acad. lix., sec. C no. 1 (1957), 19; H. Macdougal, Sketches of Irish Political Character (1799), 300. At the election of 1812, Bruen, ‘young, resident, very wealthy ... and lavish of his money’, contested the largely Catholic county as an opponent of Catholic relief and potential supporter of government, gaining the day with the help of a tactical blunder by Catholic voters.2Add. 51826, Skully to Holland, 19 Nov. 1812.

At Westminster he gave a steady support to government and expected due attention to his requests for patronage in return. Although Peel as chief secretary was usually able to comply with them and saw to it that he became a governor of the county and colonel of the militia in 1816, Bruen, who voted with ministers in May and June 1819, became dissatisfied, threatening in January 1821 to withdraw his support owing to ‘studied neglect’.3Add. 40191, f. 167; 40280, f. 146; 40290, f. 154; 40297; Dublin SPO, 582/535/2. This was denied and he was reconciled to government. No speech by him is known. After being reported as voting for the Catholic claims with the majority on 2 Mar. 1813 (though not in the chief secretary’s list), Bruen was subsequently in the hostile majority until he changed his mind in 1819. He died 5 Nov. 1852.