James Emerson Tennent
Sir James Emerson Tennent Colin Campbell | |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Torrington |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Emerson 7 April 1804 Trinity College, Dublin |
| Occupation | Colonial administrator, politician |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Sir James Emerson Tennent, 1st Baronet,
Early life
He was born in North Street,
Volunteer in Greek War of Independence
With his college friend, Robert James Tennent, he took up the cause of Greek independence.[3] At the beginning of 1824 he travelled to Greece, and when he arrived in Messolonghi, joined the artillery corps formed by Lord Byron. He was to remain at the side of the poet until his death in April. After a respite of some months in England, he returned to Greece in March 1825. Appointed a captain of artillery, some sources place him in the battle to break the Siege of the Acropolis in Athens.[4]
In 1826 he published in London his first book entitled Picture of Greece,[5] which contributed to the development of the philhellenic sentiment in Great Britain. It was followed by Letters from the Aegean (1829), and a History of Modern Greece (1830). He also authored a series of unsigned articles in the British press, supporting the Greek struggle.[4]
Called to the Bar, married
In 1831, with the support of Jeremy Bentham, he was called to the English bar at Lincoln's Inn.[6] That same year, he married his friend's cousin, Letitia, co-heiress to the mercantile fortune of her father, the Belfast merchant-patrician (and former United Irishman) William Tennent. After his father-in-law's death in 1832, by royal licence Emerson added Tennent to his family name.[7]
Enters Parliament for Belfast
Following the Reform Act of 1832, both he and Robert Tennent decided to contest the first open election for the two-seat Belfast constituency, previously in the "pocket" of the town's proprietor, Lord Donegall. Emerson choose to stand as an Independent Whig in the Donegall interest, while (consistent with both is father's and his uncle's democratic politics) stood as a Whig on a platform of further reform.[8] Emerson Tennent and a Tory candidate prevailed in a victory that Protestant loyalists celebrated with an attack on the central Catholic district (Hercules Street) and with an attempt to ransack Robert Tennent's house.[9]
Once in Parliament, Emerson Tennent took the Tory whip. He supported Sir Robert Peel in his first ministry (1834–35), but broke with his "liberal Conservatives" over the repeal of the Corn Laws in his second (1841–46). He joined the moderate Conservative followers of Edward Smith-Stanley, the Earl of Derby.
Replying to Daniel O'Connell in the 1834 Commons debate on Repeal of the Union, Emerson Tennent sought to eschew the Protestant sectionalism and fear of Catholicism, generally assumed to be the central elements of unionist thought.[10] Instead, he raised issues close to O'Connell heart as a campaigning abolitionist.[11] Reflecting on the recent vote to suppress slavery in the British Empire, he remarked:[10]
I shall never fail to regard it as a proud distinction that I have myself been enabled, during the course of the last twelve months, to contribute my own humble vote, to extend the blessings of freedom from the confines of India to the remotest shores of the Atlantic; to liberate the Hindoo, and to strike off the fetters of the African. These are the triumphs beyond the reach of a 'Local Legislature'...toward which the highest ambition of an Irish Parliament could never soar; these are the honours which enable our birth-place as Irishmen, to add to our distinctions the glory of being Britons.
At the end of 1845, his promising parliamentary career (in 1841 he had been made Secretary to the Board of Control) came, temporarily, to end when he realised that his strong support for Catholic civil and political equality in Ireland had compromised his chances of re-election from Belfast.[12] Following apparent defeat in the August 1837 general election, he was only seated on petition. In the July 1841 general election his victory was disputed, and a new writ issued; he regained the seat in the ensuing by-election (August 1842).[1]
Colonial administrator, Ceylon
In 1845 Emerson Tennent was knighted and appointed
Emerson Teennet's reflections on his residence in Ceylon appeared in Christianity in Ceylon (1850) and
Last years
On his return to the United Kingdom, he became member for
.Emerson Tennent died in London on 6 March 1869. His family consisted of two daughters and a son, Sir William Emerson Tennent, who was an official in the Board of Trade, and at whose death the baronetcy became extinct.[17]
Besides the books above mentioned, Emerson Tennent wrote Belgium in 1840 (1841), and Wine: its Duties and Taxation (1855), Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon (1861), The Wild Elephant and The Method Of Capturing It in Ceylon (1867), and was a contributor to magazines and a frequent correspondent of Notes and Queries.[17] He was a friend of both Charles Dickens and it was to Emerson Tennent that Dickens dedicated his last completed novel Our Mutual Friend (1865).[18]
James Emerson Tennent is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Sri Lankan lizard,
References
- ^ a b White, Lawrence William; March, Jessica (2009). "Tennent, Sir James Emerson | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
- ^ "The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-78138-777-1.
- ^ a b Admin (12 March 2020). "Sir James Emerson Tennent (1804-1869): Great British philhellene who participated in the Greek Revolution, close friend of Lord Byron, writer and politician". Εταιρεία για τον Ελληνισμό και τον Φιλελληνισμό. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- ^ Tennent, Sir James Emerson (1826). A Picture of Greece in 1825: As Exhibited in the Personal Narratives of James Emerson, Esq., Count Pecchio, and W. H. Humphreys, Esq., Comprising a Detailed Account of the Events of the Late Campaign, and Sketches of the Principal Military, Naval, and Political Chiefs ... H. Colburn.
- ^ JSTOR 23731547.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 618.
- ^ "Belfast | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ISBN 0856402729.
- ^ a b Bew, John (2003). "Ulster Unionism and a sense of history". History & Policy. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
- ISBN 9781851966332. Archivedfrom the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- ^ De Silva (1996), p. 14.
- ^ "No. 20496". The London Gazette. 12 August 1845. p. 2426.
- ^ "Past Presidents". Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka. 18 November 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ "No. 23216". The London Gazette. 5 February 1867. p. 633.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 618–619.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 619.
- ^ Dickens Journal Online. "James Emerson Tennent". www.djo.org.uk. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Tennent", p. 263).
External links
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Tennent, Sir James Emerson". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 618–619.
- Boase, George Clement (1898). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27136. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Tyronne Fernando, PC, 154th Death Anniversary of Veera Puran Appu. Retrieved 5 December 2005.
- William E. A. Axon (ed), The Annals of Manchester: A chronological record from the earliest times to the end of 1885, 1886.
- Works by James Emerson Tennent at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about James Emerson Tennent at Internet Archive
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