LENNARD, Sir Thomas Barrett (1762-1857), of 40 Bryanston Square, London and Bel Hus, Aveley, Essex

The oldest MP to enter the Commons for the first time in 1832, the septuagenarian Barrett Lennard claimed to have been ‘a friend to reform from his earliest youth’, but was probably better known for his dedication to the turf. Mocked for his ‘senility’ and being in his ‘second childhood’ by local Tories, he sat as a moderately active Whig for one parliament alongside his more prominent elder son and namesake, with whom he attracted criticism for inadequately supporting the agricultural interest.1Morning Chronicle, 10 Oct.; Essex Standard, 3 Nov. 1832.

‘Low in stature’ and ‘thickset’, Lennard, who until 1786 had been known as Thomas Thomas,2 London Gazette, 14-18 Mar. 1786. was the illegitimate son of the heirless 17th Lord Dacre (1717-1786).3The following paragraph is based on T. B. Lennard, An account of the families of Lennard and Barrett (1908), 610-38. His boyhood adoption by Dacre and his wife, to whom he had endeared himself by exclaiming ‘Oh, what a pretty lady’ at their first introduction, has been described as sounding ‘more like fable than fact, but, however that may be, Lady Dacre did act as a mother to the boy, and as an exceptionally good mother too’. He and his illegitimate younger sister received an ‘education and upbringing that would prepare them to assume the rank and status of the Barrett Lennard family’ and although there were difficulties, which included Lennard’s removal from Oxford after he ‘mispent his time’ and became ‘rather extravagant’, he and his sister seem to have been raised by the Dacres as if they were their own.

On Dacre’s death, Lennard had assumed the surnames of Barrett and Lennard in accordance with his father’s will, and inherited substantial estates in county Monaghan, Norfolk and Essex, leaving him ‘a rich man’.4Lennard, Families, 621; Essex Standard, 22 Dec. 1832. He was rewarded with a baronetcy for raising a corps of cavalry volunteers in Essex during the invasion crisis of 1798 and took over the Essex mansion of Bel Hus, where the dowager Lady Dacre had remained in residence, in 1804.5Lennard, Families, 630; HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 196. A ‘great patron’ of numerous races, Lennard was later credited with having established ‘one of the prettiest mile courses to be found in the kingdom’ at Wennington, Essex.6Morning Post, 13 Dec. 1831; Essex Standard, 16 Feb. 1833.

On the hustings in 1832 it was widely acknowledged that Lennard ‘had not in early life taken an interest in public affairs’.7Essex Standard, 22 Dec. 1832. Admitted to Brooks’s in his fifties, 11 May 1816, he only appears to have begun to stir himself after 1813, on behalf of his eldest son, whom he had earmarked for a political career and who was eventually returned for Ipswich in 1820.8HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 196. The following year, however, he briefly held ‘the peace of a nation ... in the balance’, when he left the coronation to get some air by a private door and ‘by his firmness’ foiled an attempt by Queen Caroline to gain entry, having promised to keep the door shut. According to the apocryphal account, the queen had arrived with her chamberlain Lord Hood and exclaimed:

“Sir Thomas Lennard, I have seen you at Southend; know me now as the Queen of England. As your Queen, then, I command you to afford me ingress to the church by that private door”.

“May it please your Majesty”, replied Sir Thomas, bowing at the same time very low, “though it is well known that I sympathize with your cause, the word of honour of an English gentleman ... must not be broken, all the royalty of Europe could not make me do so”.9G. F. Berkeley, My Life and Recollections (1866), iv. 173-5.

Lennard’s known political activities included attending an Essex county meeting to petition against agricultural distress, 8 May 1822, and chairing meetings in support of the Grey ministry’s reform bill during 1831.10HP Commons, 1820-32, ii. 371, 373; Times, 9 May 1822; Morning Post, 12 Dec. 1831. That September, responding to a begging letter from his son, Grey acknowledged Lennard’s ‘efficient support’ and agreed to put him ‘on the list’ for a peerage, which never materialised.11Essex RO, Lennard Papers D/DL C59, Grey to Thomas Barrett Lennard, 15 Sept. 1831.

Requested to come forward for the newly created division of Essex South by a clique of local reformers in 1832, Lennard’s claims to have served the cause of reform ‘all his life’ raised eyebrows, not least because at the 1830 county election he had nominated John Tyssen Tyrell, who had subsequently opposed reform.12Morning Chronicle, 10 Oct. 1832. It was his age, however, which attracted the most comment, most of it adverse. As one local critic put it:

Old age is not only remarkable for its garrulity, but its vanity, and painful it is to see a man entering upon the arena of political contention, at a time of life when his physical infirmities ought not to aspire beyond an easy chair and night cap.13Essex Standard, 3 Nov. 1832.

With his supporters insisting that he had no infirmities ‘either bodily or mental’ and that Tyrell had hoodwinked him on the issue of reform, Lennard agreed to stand, but refused to coalesce with a Whig colleague, fearing that to solicit ‘two votes’ would damage both candidates’ chances. In his address he backed reform of the church, the abolition of tithes, a reduction of all taxes, the abolition of slavery, and promised to protect the farming interest, to which he belonged. Returned in second place behind a Conservative after a two day poll, at the declaration he explained that it had not been his ‘intention’ to enter Parliament ‘so late in life’, but that he had ‘unwillingly submitted’ to the call, ‘hoping that some younger or more efficient man might offer’.14Essex Standard, 8 Sept., 22 Dec.; Morning Chronicle, 10 Oct., 17 Dec. 1832.

A fairly steady attender, Lennard divided with the Whig ministry on most major issues, usually alongside his son. An opponent of most radical initiatives, including the ballot, he was nevertheless in the minority to abolish military flogging, 2 Apr. 1833, 17 Mar. 1834. He is not known to have spoken in debate, but presented a number of constituency petitions, most notably against slavery, 22 Feb., 19 Apr., 6, 8 May 1833. Having voted for a reduction of the malt tax, 26 Apr., he turned tail and rallied behind ministers for its continuance after they made it an issue, 30 Apr. 1833.15Morning Post, 3 May 1833. Criticised for this, he was then absent from Chandos’s motion on agricultural relief, 21 Feb. 1834, and by an ‘odd accident’ he and his son managed to miss the next division on the repeal of the malt tax, 27 Feb., after the son went ‘looking for his father’.16Essex Standard, 8 Mar. 1834. The pair were duly drubbed by the local Tory press for their failure to support the agricultural interest, despite finding their way into the lobbies against revision of the corn laws, 7 Mar. 1834.17Essex Standard, 22 Mar. 1834. Lennard was in the majority against inquiry into naval impressment, 4 Mar. 1834, and divided steadily in support of the admission of dissenters to universities. Charged with being an absentee Irish landlord in the press that September, his Monaghan agent published a letter vindicating his conduct.18Morning Post, 6 Sept. 1834.

At the 1835 general election Lennard retired from Essex South, ‘a contested election, not having for him any charms’, as the Tory press noted.19Essex Standard, 2 Jan. 1835. He remained active locally, however, chairing meetings in support of subsequent Liberal candidates, and casting a plumper for the solitary Liberal in 1841.20Morning Chronicle, 27 July 1837; Morning Post, 15 July 1841. Thereafter he presided at dinners of the newly formed South Essex Reform Association, of which he became the first president.21Essex RO, Lennard papers D/DL 044/1; Essex Standard, 1 July 1842. It is also possible that he considered standing for county Monaghan in 1840.22See Examiner, 20 Aug. 1840. An account exists of how, in ‘extreme age’, he used to tease his eldest son and heir by saying, ‘Really Tom, it is too bad of me to live so long!’, to which Tom would reply, ‘I beg sir, you will not mention it’.23Lennard, Families, 638.

Lennard died the ‘oldest living baronet in the kingdom’, aged 95, in June 1857.24Examiner, 27 June; Essex Standard, 1 July 1857. His son having predeceased him the previous year, the baronetcy and family estates passed to his grandson Thomas (1826-1919), another nonagenarian. The family papers, which include some of Lennard’s diaries, are divided between Essex Record Office (D/DL) and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (D1232 and MIC 170).