Name Sir Gore-Booth, Role Politician | Died December 21, 1876 Education Westminster School | |
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Children Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet Grandchildren Constance Markievicz, Eva Gore-Booth | ||
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.
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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. 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.
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.
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.