HEARD, John Isaac (1787-1862), of Ballydaly, Kinsale, co. Cork

Heard was ‘a resident gentleman of the borough’ of Kinsale, whose ancestors had arrived in county Cork from Wiltshire with Sir Walter Raleigh in 1579 and then settled in Bandon.1PP 1847-48 (138), xiii. 12, 145; Burke’s Landed Gentry (1871), i. 606; M.C. O’Laughlin, The Book of Irish Families: Great & Small (2nd edn., 1997), 142; T. Cadogan & J. Falvey, A Biographical Dictionary of Cork (2006), 127. He was the great-grandson of John Heard, a Kinsale shoemaker, and was locally known as John Isaac to distinguish him from his uncle John Edward, who had been captain of the Kinsale Volunteers in 1780. A Protestant, he married in Cambridge in 1808, while attending Peterhouse.2Monthly Magazine, vol. xxv, pt. I (1808), 372. A burgess of Kinsale corporation, he was seven times sovereign between 1817 and 1830.3P. McSwiney, ‘Georgian Kinsale: garrison and townfolk’, Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, 2nd ser., 44:160 (1939), 94-116 [116]. A grand juror of County Cork, he was a member of the jury for the last of the Doneraile conspiracy trials at which Daniel O’Connell had played so prominent a part in the previous year.4Freeman’s Journal, 1 Apr. 1830. Heard owned about 2,000 acres of land near Kinsale and purchased in 1834 the urban estate of Lord de Clifford, the borough’s pre-reform absentee patron, which comprised about half of the area of the town.5Cadogan & Flavey, Biographical Dictionary of Cork, 127. He was also a trustee of Lord Riversdale’s estate at the time of its sale in 1840: Freeman’s Journal, 19 Oct. 1840. As the town’s most prominent figure, he chaired the joint inquiry of the commissioner of public works and the inspector of fisheries into the Irish fishery industry, held at Kinsale in October 1842.6Freeman’s Journal, 6 Oct. 1842.

For many years Heard exercised ‘considerable influence’ over the parliamentary elections for Kinsale, where many of the electors were his tenants. He presented himself as a force for moderation, announcing in 1837, ‘much as I detest toryism I detest radicalism more’.7Freeman’s Journal, 13 Mar. 1848, 31 Oct. 1851; Daily News, 6 Sept. 1862; I. d’Alton, Protestant Society and Politics in Cork 1812-1844 (1980), 218-9. In 1832, he had nominated Thomas Cuthbert, the anti-reform candidate, but in 1837 lent his support to the Liberal Pierce Mahony. Having signalled his intention to stand in Mahony’s place in 1840, he nevertheless supported William Watson for the seat in 1841 and 1847, and proposed Benjamin Hawes in 1848.8Daniel O’Connell to Pierce Mahony, 14 July 1837, O’Connell Correspondence, ed. M.R. O’Connell, vi, 64; PP 1847-48 (138), xiii. 12, 145; The Times, 3 Feb. 1840; Freeman’s Journal, 13 Mar. 1848. As ‘one of the few of the gentry’ in Ireland to have ‘withstood the crash’, Heard was retained a large degree of political influence and, at the age of 65, he was returned unopposed as an ‘independent member’ without pledges in a by-election in February 1852 brought about by the retirement of the deputy secretary of war, Benjamin Hawes. He was returned unopposed at the next two general elections.9Adams’s Parliamentary Handbook (3rd edn., 1854), 191. Variously described as ‘a Whig of the old school’ and ‘a Moderate Reformer and free trader’ Heard was, through his ‘position and connections’, able to count upon a large amount of Conservative support within the borough.10Freeman’s Journal, 31 Oct. 1851; Morning Chronicle, 3 Nov. 1851. This dependence may, however, have circumscribed his freedom of action in parliament. While he voted for the second reading of Sharman Crawford’s tenant right bill that May, he also supported Disraeli’s budget and then divided in favour of the Derby ministry at its fall in December.11Freeman’s Journal, 8 May 1852; Belfast News-letter, 20 Dec. 1852. Thereafter, although he was to be observed sitting below the gangway of the opposition benches, with men such as George Moore, David Urqhuart, and Frederick Lucas, he showed little commitment to the policy of independence and divided against the Irish party on a number of occasions over the Conservative land bills of 1852-3.12Nation, 19 Feb. 1853; J.H. Whyte, The Independent Irish Party, 1850-9 (1958), 83, 181-3; Freeman’s Journal, 5 Oct. 1853. Though he participated in only 68 out of 189 divisions in the 1853 session, he voted for Gladstone’s budget in May 1853, yet supported a subsequent opposition motion for an inquiry into Irish contributions to imperial revenues.13Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; Adams’s Parliamentary Companion (1854), 293-301. He was present at 54 of 198 divisions in 1856: J.P. Gassiot & J.A. Roebuck, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions in the House of Commons during the last session of parliament (1857), 29. Absent from the division which led to the fall of the Aberdeen ministry in January 1855, Heard thereafter lent general support to Palmerston’s administration, supporting it in confidence motions over the fall of Kars in April 1856 and against Cobden’s motion of censure over its China policy in March 1857.

He is only known to have sat on one committee, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway bill in May 1854, although the following year he gave evidence to the inquiry into postal arrangements in Waterford and Cork.14PP 1854-55 (485) xliv. 31; PP 1854-55 (445) xi. 297. He subsequently claimed the right to be excused sitting on election committees, being over 60 years of age.15Freeman’s Journal, 1 June 1857. His only contribution to debate was to endorse the compromise offered by the government over the Protestant ministers’ money bill, his constituency being one of the eight Irish towns subject to the recovery of this levy.16Hansard, 18 Mar. 1857, vol. 144, c. 2426.

Heard retired at the 1859 general election, soon after the politically controversial bridge over the River Bandon had been completed at a cost to himself of £6,200.17M. Mulcahy, Ceann Saile. A Short History of Kinsale (1966), 47. Though he subsequently took part in local affairs, he did not feature as prominently as formerly. He died in September 1862 and was buried in St. Multrose’s Church.18Daily News, 6 Sept. 1862, and see Cork Examiner, 2 Sept. 1862. There is a commemorative plaque in the church: Cadogan & Flavey, Biographical Dictionary of Cork, 128. He was succeeded by his only son, Robert, a militia officer and high sheriff of co. Cork (1870), who married Charlotte, the daughter of John B. Warren of Warren’s Grove, 9 Feb. 1848. Although there was speculation that Robert would follow his father as MP for Kinsale, he did not enter politics. Heard’s second daughter, Mary, married another Cork landowner, Achilles Daunt of Tracton Abbey.19Freeman’s Journal, 17 Feb. 1848; Freeman’s Journal, 31 Oct. 1851; Burke’s Irish Family Records (1976), 343.