HERON, Peter (1770-1848), of Moor Hall and Daresbury, Cheshire.

Heron’s grandfather, a cadet of the Herons of Chipchase, Northumberland, bought Daresbury near Warrington in about 1755, and by his father’s marriage the family added to it the nearby property of Moor Hall.1Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 733, 741. His army career was uneventful and he spent most of the war years on home service, including a period as brigadier general of Lancashire, an appointment obtained for him in 1804 by Peter Patten, Member for Newton.2PRO 30/8/120, f. 209. Heron’s uncle was one of the trustees of the property of the Leghs of Lyme, patrons of Newton, during the minority of Thomas Legh. He was distantly related to the Leghs through his great uncle, Peter Brooke of Mere, and was a first cousin once removed of Thomas Langford Brooke, who had sat briefly for Newton in 1797 before being unseated on petition in favour of Patten. In 1806, Heron replaced the latter as Member for the borough, but his political career was as unremarkable as his military one. He is not known to have spoken in the House and his only recorded votes were with the Perceval ministry on the Scheldt inquiry, 23 Feb. and 30 Mar. 1810, when the Whigs listed him under ‘Government’; and against Catholic relief, 24 May 1813. The Liverpool ministry numbered him among their supporters in 1812. He made way for Thomas Legh when he came of age in 1814.

Heron had a staff command in Sicily in 1811-12, but when a junior major-general with the same responsibilities was promoted over his head, he applied to Lord Liverpool for some ‘token’ or ‘appointment’ to eradicate any public impression that this incident ‘could be attributable to any demerit of my own’, but nothing seems to have been done for him.3Add. 38253, ff. 352, 364, 366. He was described in 1816 as ‘a smart little man, who seems to hold number one, and his teeth so well set, in proper respect’.4Lady Charlotte Bury, Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting, ii. 130. He died 15 Nov. 1848.