Name Robert 1st | Role Politician | |
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Robert Henley-Ongley, 1st Baron Ongley (c. 1721 – 23 October 1785), was a British politician.
Born Robert Henley, the son of Robert Henley of London, he assumed the additional surname of Ongley as heir to the estate of his great-uncle, Sir Samuel Ongley, of Old Warden, Bedfordshire. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and studied law at the Middle Temple.
He was returned to Parliament for Bedford in 1754, a seat he held until 1761, and then sat as a Knight of the Shire for Bedfordshire between 1761 and 1780 and again between 1784 and 1785. In 1776 he was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Ongley, of Old Warden. (An Irish peerage did not oblige him to give up his seat in the House of Commons).
Lord Ongley married Frances Gosfright, daughter and co-heir of Richard Gosfright, of Langton Hall, Essex, in 1763. They had two sons and four daughters. He died in October 1785 and was eventually laid to rest in a mausoleum in Old Warden churchyard built at his request in 1787 by his widow. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Robert.
He is buried in the Ongley Family mausoleum in the churchyard of St Leonard's church in Old Warden in Bedfordshire.