21 Facts About Henry Flood

Henry Flood was an Irish statesman and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland.

Henry Flood was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became proficient in the classics.

Henry Flood was a leading Irish politician, and a friend of Henry Grattan, the leader of the Irish Patriot Party.

Henry Flood became an object of public interest in 1770, when he was put on trial for murder, after killing a political rival in a duel.

Henry Flood was married to Lady Frances Beresford, daughter of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and Lady Catherine Power, who brought him a large fortune.

The chief objects for which Henry Flood strove were the shortening of the duration of parliament which had then no legal limit in Ireland except that of the reigning sovereign's life, the reduction of the scandalously heavy pension list, the establishment of a national militia, and, above all, the complete legislative independence of the Irish parliament.

The success which had thus far attended Henry Flood's efforts had placed him in a position such as no Irish politician had previously attained.

Henry Flood represented Callan between 1762 and 1776, where he had a bitter feud with the Agar family, whose effective head James Agar he killed in a duel, and Longford Borough between 1768 and 1769.

Henry Flood was instrumental in obtaining bounties on the export of Irish corn to foreign, countries and other commercial concessions.

Henry Flood, who had taken an active though not a leading part in this movement, now at last resigned his office to rejoin his old party.

Henry Flood found to his chagrin that his former services had been to a great extent forgotten and that he was eclipsed by Grattan.

When in a debate on the constitutional question in 1779 Henry Flood complained of the small consideration shown him in relation to a subject which he had been the first to agitate, he was reminded that by the civil law if a man should separate from his wife and abandon her for seven years, another might then take her and give her his protection.

In 1783, Henry Flood was again returned to the house, this time for Kilbeggan.

Henry Flood's view prevailed for a Renunciation Act such as he advocated was ungrudgingly passed by the English parliament of the same year and for a time he regained popularity at the expense of his rival.

Henry Flood next introduced a reform bill, after first submitting it to the Volunteer Convention.

The bill, which contained no provision for giving the franchise to Roman Catholics, which Henry Flood always opposed, was rejected, ostensibly on the ground that the attitude of the volunteers threatened the freedom of parliament.

The convention then dissolved, but Henry Flood had desired, in opposition to Grattan, to continue it as a means of putting pressure on parliament for the purpose of obtaining reform.

In 1776, Henry Flood had made an attempt to enter the British House of Commons.

Henry Flood purchased a seat for Winchester from the duke of Chandos, and for the next seven years he was a member at the same time of both the British and Irish parliaments.

Henry Flood reintroduced, but without success, his reform bill in the Irish House in 1784; supported the movement for protecting Irish industries; but short-sightedly opposed Pitt's commercial propositions in 1785.

Henry Flood remained a firm opponent of Roman Catholic emancipation, even defending the penal laws on the ground that after the Revolution, they were not laws of persecution but of political necessity; but after 1786, he does not appear to have attended the parliament in Dublin.