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ST. PAUL, Henry Heneage (1777-1820), of Ewart Park, Belford, Northumb.
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Biography Detail
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Family and Education
b. 16 Mar. 1777, 2nd s. of Horace St. Paul of Ewart Park, Count St. Paul of the Austrian Empire, by Anne, da. of Henry Weston of Chertsey and West Horsley Place, Surr.; bro. of Horace David Cholwell St. Paul*. educ. Eton 1793. unm.
Offices Held
Ensign, 60 Ft. 1802; lt. 96 Ft. 1803, half pay 1803; lt. 78 Ft. 1804, capt. 1805, half pay 1806; capt. 3 Drag. Gds. 1807, half pay 1807-d.
Maj. Cheviot Legion 1799, lt.-col. 1801, 1803; lt.-col. commdt. Northumb. militia 1808-d.
Biography
After acting as private secretary to his father’s friend Sylvester Douglas* when chief secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, St. Paul followed his father and brothers into the army, but made no career for himself. He lived instead the life of a country gentleman, acting the part of an officer only at the territorial level and assisting his father and elder brother in the management of their estates.1
With the backing of the Duke of Northumberland he was elected for the open borough of Berwick in 1812. Classed ‘Government’ by the Treasury he spoke in support of Castlereagh’s motion for adjournment, 20 Dec. 1813, delivering a panegyric on the foreign policy of government and castigating the Whigs for their ‘finical opposition’. His reference to the ‘provident and comprehensive mind’ of the Prince Regent was greeted with laughter. His tone was considered intemperate for a maiden speech and drew from Whitbread the jibe that ‘from his manner of expressing his feelings [he] must have felt very strongly when silent’.2 No further speech is known. He supported Protheroe’s motion for the third reading of the corn bill in six months, 10 Mar. 1815, supported government on the additional grant to the Duke of Cumberland, 29 June and 3 July, but opposed the continuation of the property tax, 18 Mar. 1816. Thereafter he is not known to have opposed ministers.
He supported Christian missions to India and opposed Catholic relief and parliamentary reform.3 Elected again at Berwick in 1818, he cast no known vote in the ensuing Parliament. He took leaves of absence for illness on 4 Mar. and 22 Apr. 1819 and was still absent ill at the end of May.4 He died 1 Nov. 1820.
