Robert Clive (1789–1854)

The Hon. Robert Henry Clive (15 January 1789 – 20 January 1854)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician.

Biography

Clive was born in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square, London,[2] a younger son of Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis, son of Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive ("Clive of India"). His mother was Lady Henrietta, daughter of Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis. Edward Herbert (ne Clive), 2nd Earl of Powis, was his elder brother.[3] He was educated at Eton College and was at St John's College, Cambridge from 1807 to 1809, when he graduated M.A.. He was awarded an honorary LL.D. in 1835.[4]

Clive sat as Member of Parliament for Ludlow from 1818 to 1832[1] (alongside his brother, then known as Viscount Clive) and for Shropshire South from 1832 to 1854.[5][6]

An agricultural landowner in Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Wales, he was an advocate of the abolition of the Corn Laws during Sir Robert Peel's administration.[7] He was appointed to the commission investigating the Rebecca Riots in south Wales in October 1843.[3]

He was also a DL and JP for the county of Shropshire and JP for Worcestershire.[7]

Clive was commissioned Captain in the South Shropshire Militia in 1809.[3] He was later in the South Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry, commanding a troop at Bishop's Castle, from 1817 to 1828.[8] He was Colonel commanding the Worcestershire Yeomanry from 1833 until his death.[2]

A keen antiquary, he was author of Documents Concerned with the History of Ludlow and the Lords Marchers (1841), and president of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1852.[2]

Clive was deputy-chairman of two early railway companies in Shropshire, the Shrewsbury and Birmingham and the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. It was at a directors' meeting of the latter, on 30 December 1853, that he was fatally taken ill.[7]

Family

Clive married Lady Harriet, daughter of Other Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth, in 1819. They had several children, including Robert Windsor-Clive and George Windsor-Clive. After falling ill at a railway company directors' meeting, Clive died in Shrewsbury in January 1854, aged 65, at the nearby home of the Town Clerk. He was buried at Bromfield Parish Church, near his Oakley Park home near Ludlow.[7]

The following year the barony of Windsor, which had fallen into abeyance on his brother-in-law's death in 1833, was called out of abeyance in favour of his widow, Harriett, who became the thirteenth Baroness Windsor in her own right. She died in November 1869, aged 72, and was succeeded in the barony by her grandson, Robert Windsor-Clive, who was created Earl of Plymouth in 1905.

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4)
2. The Complete Peerage, Volume XII, Part II. St Catherine's Press, London. 1959. p. 801.
3. History of Parliament Online article.
4. "Clive, Robert Henry (CLV807RH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
5. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 448. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
6. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 3)
7. "Death of the Hon. R.H. Clive". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 27 January 1854. p. 4.
8. Gladstone, E.W. (1953). The Shropshire Yeomanry 1795-1945, The Story of a Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Whitethorn Press. pp. 20–25.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Robert Clive

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Viscount Clive Henry Clive	Member of Parliament for Ludlow 1818–1832 With: Viscount Clive	Succeeded by Viscount Clive Edward Romilly
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Shropshire South 1832–1854 With: The Earl of Darlington 1832–1842 Viscount Newport 1842–1854	Succeeded by Viscount Newport Hon. Robert Windsor-Clive