Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet

For Sir Robert Newcomen Gore-Booth, 3rd Baronet (died 1814), see Booth baronets.

Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet (25 August 1805 21 December 1876) was an Anglo-Irish politician and landowner, who built Lissadell House, located in County Sligo.

Background and education

Born at Bath, Somerset, he was the son of Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 3rd Baronet and his wife Hannah, the daughter of Henry Irwin.[1] In 1814, aged only nine, he succeeded his father as baronet. He was educated at Westminster School and went then to Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a Master of Arts in 1826.[1][2]

Career

During the period of the Great Irish famine, he was accused of evicting his starving tenant farmers and of packing them into coffin ships to emigrate. Contradictory reports state that he mortgaged his estates and assisted his tenants by both providing them with food and refusing to accept any rents during the famine.

He was appointed High Sheriff of Sligo for 1830. In 1850 he was elected MP for Sligo County in the British House of Commons, representing the constituency for twenty-six years until his death. Having been a Deputy Lieutenant from 1841, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Sligo in 1868.

Caroline Susan Goold

Family

In 1827, Gore-Booth married firstly Caroline, the second daughter of Robert King, 1st Viscount Lorton. She died a year later, and after another two years as widower, he remarried Caroline Susan, second daughter of Thomas Goold. His second wife died in 1855 and Gore-Booth survived her until his death in 1876 aged 71. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his second son Henry.

References

  1. 1 2 Dod (1860), p. 125
  2. "Booth or Gore-Booth, Sir Robert Gore, Bart (BT823RG)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

Bibliography

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Ormsby-Gore
John Ffolliott
Member of Parliament for County Sligo
1850 1876
With: William Ormsby-Gore 18501852
Richard Swift 18521857
Edward Joshua Cooper 18571859
Charles Cooper 18591865
Edward Henry Cooper 18651868
Denis O'Conor 18681876
Succeeded by
Denis O'Conor
Edward King-Harman
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Sir Francis Knox-Gore, Bt
Lord Lieutenant of Sligo
1868 1876
Succeeded by
Edward Henry Cooper
Baronetage of Ireland
Preceded by
Robert Gore-Booth
Baronet
(of Artarman)
1814 1876
Succeeded by
Henry William Gore-Booth
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