HERON, Sir Robert, 2nd bt. (1765-1854), of 9 St. James’s Place, London and Stubton Hall, near Grantham, Lincolnshire

Heron, ‘a somewhat obscure, though ... abundantly zealous ... Whig’, was a ‘quirky Lincolnshire squire, eternally frustrated in his ambition to represent his county in Parliament’.1Quarterly Review (1852), clxxix. 205; HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 589. As member for Grimbsy and later Peterborough in the pre-Reform Parliament, in which he spoke only occasionally, he had supported the abolition of the slave trade, Catholic emancipation and retrenchment, and was committed ‘body and soul’ to parliamentary reform.2HP Commons, 1790-1820, iv. 191; HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 589-94; W.P. Courtney, ‘Heron, Sir Robert, second baronet (1765-1854)’, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. In his eclectic Notes, first published in 1850, his vehement opposition to Tory reaction was clear, though he also appeared to have little faith in Whig leaders, who in turn seemed to have taken little notice of him.3R. Heron, Notes by Sir Robert Heron, 2nd edn (1851).

At the 1832 general election Heron was returned unopposed for Peterborough through Lord Fitzwilliam’s interest. In the first reformed Parliament, which he described as ‘a very honest, but a very ignorant and a most disagreeable one’, he generally divided with Grey’s ministry, though he felt that Althorp, chancellor of the exchequer, had ‘not sufficient talents or vigour for his situation’.4Ibid., 203-4. He did, though, back Althorp’s amendment to Harvey’s motion to scrutinise the pensions lists, 18 Feb. 1834, a vote which ‘dissatisfied’ his constituents, and he divided against shorter parliaments, 15 May 1834. He welcomed Melbourne’s appointment as premier, believing that ‘his temper and discretion are particularly calculated to cement together the different, and not always accordant, parts of the administration’, and predicted ‘the greatest benefit to the country’ from the ministry’s poor law amendment bill.5Ibid., 210.

Heron, an occasional attender who generally retired to his Lincolnshire estates in early June, rarely contributed to debate.6Courtney, ‘Heron, Sir Robert’, Oxf. DNB, incorrectly states that he was a ‘constant speaker’. Believing that the time of the reformed House was ‘eternally wasted in the most futile and idle manner’, he was unimpressed by his fellow members, who were ‘almost all seized with the rage for speaking, and persevere in making all sorts of motions – many very absurd – to the interruption of the most important measures’.7Heron, Notes, 207-10. In his only known significant contribution in this period, he moved that members should no longer have to vacate seats on acceptance of office, arguing that ‘now that it was utterly impossible for any administration to continue in power without the confidence, or contrary to the nation’ it was ‘perfectly unnecessary’, and it ‘could have no other effect than to embarrass the just prerogatives of the Crown in the choice of its servants’, 1 May 1834. According to Heron, ‘Althorp was frightened’ by the motion, but sensing that ‘a very thin’ House was against him, he ‘complied with the wish of other ministers’ and withdrew the motion.8Ibid., 208-9.

At the 1835 general election Heron, who declared that he was ‘still prepared to fight the battles of the people against a Tory administration’, was re-elected in second place.9Parliamentary test book (1835), 81. He voted for Abercromby as speaker, 19 Feb. 1835, recording in his journal that the incumbent, Manners Sutton, had ‘slender abilities’, and for the Whig amendment to the address, 26 Feb. 1835.10Heron, Notes, 215. He divided for Irish Church appropriation, 2 Apr. 1835, and thereafter supported Melbourne’s second administration on most major issues. He paired off for Irish municipal reform, 28 Mar. 1836, and voted for the Irish tithes and church bill, 3 June 1836. Dismayed that the government’s Irish bills were ‘mutilated’ by the Lords, Heron appeared to equivocate over constitutional reform. Having initially intended to bring forward a measure to prevent bishops from sitting in the House of Lords in the 1834 session, he later cooled on ‘any organic change’, concluding that it was ‘far better to wait with patience till the Lords find themselves obliged to yield to every beneficial measure’.11Ibid., 222-3.

Heron endured a difficult canvass at the 1837 general election, when his support for the poor law was severely criticised by his Conservative opponent, but, championing the good work he did as a guardian for the Newark Union, he was re-elected in second place.12A copy of the poll book taken at the election for the city of Peterborough, 26 July 1837 (1837), 6. The third claimant on compensations awarded to the slave-owner John Alexander Hankey, who held estates in Grenada,13Information provided by Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ Heron, who had voted for the abolition of the slave trade in the pre-Reform parliament, opposed the immediate emancipation of apprentices in the Caribbean, 28 May 1838. This outraged many of his constituents, to whom he subsequently wrote explaining his reasons for his vote, though he did not enumerate them in his Notes.14Heron, Notes, 236-7. He could, though, be responsive to his constituents’ concerns, and following a public meeting in Peterborough in support of the ballot, he came out in its favour.15Leicester Chronicle, 25 Nov. 1837. He served on the 1837-8 select committee on the Ipswich borough election committee, in which an amendment to make him chairman was defeated 5-4.16PP 1837-38 (173), x. 341. Dismayed by the experience, he warned the House that the tendency for partisan and ‘opposite decisions’ of election committees must be altered, 27 Feb. 1838. Afflicted by illness, he rarely troubled the division lobbies before the dissolution in 1841.17Heron, Notes, 236.

At the 1841 general election Heron was once again returned in second place. He had little time for Peel’s ministry, describing the premier as a man of ‘no talents’ who sought ‘neither to disguise his despotism, nor conciliate his supporters’.18Ibid., 265, 277. He divided for Russell’s motion to consider the state of Ireland, 23 Feb. 1844, and was scathing of Peel’s Irish policy, writing that ‘I do not think there was ever the slightest danger of a collision; yet he pours in an enormous army to insult and provoke them’.19Ibid., 277. Initially supportive of a permanent duty on corn, Heron adjusted his position after ‘seeing the increasing disposition abroad to impede our commerce and rival our manufacture’, and he divided for Villiers’s amendment to end all duties on corn, 24 Feb. 1842.20Ibid., 241. He voted for repeal, 15 May 1843 and 15 May 1846. His attendance was generally sparse during Peel’s ministry, though he was present to promote the Peterborough to Blisworth railway bill in June 1843.21Ibid., 275. He sat on the 1844 and 1845 select committees on poor relief (Gilbert Unions), but ‘finding the opponents determined to waste time and prevent a report’, he returned to Lincolnshire.22PP 1844 (543), x. 2; PP 1845 (409), xiii. 2; Heron, Notes, 281-2. He welcomed the appointment of Russell to the premiership, 30 June 1846, noting that he ‘formed a good cabinet’, but ‘in great distress’ from his wife’s declining health, Heron retired at the dissolution in 1847.23Heron, Notes, 299, 308.

Looking back on his parliamentary career, Heron boasted:

I can reflect on my conduct, both public and private, with honest satisfaction; and as in nearly forty years spent in the House of Commons, I have neither received nor asked any favour from any administration, I think the merit of disinterestedness cannot be refused me.24Ibid., 344.

His Notes were an eclectic mix of political and social commentary punctuated by rather prosaic observations on his ‘menagerie’ of exotic animals kept on his Stubton estate, near Grantham. John Wilson Croker, whom Heron had described as ‘one of the most determined jobbers’, savaged the work in the Quarterly Review, describing it as a ‘farrago of nonsense and libel’ written by a ‘crazy simpleton’.25Quarterly Review (1852), clxxix. 225. The historian Thomas Macaulay, meanwhile, hoped that he was ‘a better zoologist than politician’.26The letters of Thomas Babington Macaulay, ed. T. Pinney (1981), v. 159.

Heron died suddenly in his library at Stubton in May 1854. His effects were valued under £7,000. He devised the estate to one George Neville, his residuary legatee, and directed his executors to sell the rest of his real estate.27HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 593-4. Heron’s correspondence is held at the Lincolnshire archives.28Lincs. Arch., Stubton I-VIII.