1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hampden, Henry Bouverie William Brand, 1st Viscount

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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 12
Hampden, Henry Bouverie William Brand, 1st Viscount
21799641911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 12 — Hampden, Henry Bouverie William Brand, 1st Viscount

HAMPDEN, HENRY BOUVERIE WILLIAM BRAND, 1st Viscount[1] (1812–1892), speaker of the House of Commons, was the second son of the 21st Baron Dacre, and descended from John Hampden, the patriot, in the female line; the barony of Dacre devolved on him in 1890, after he had been created Viscount Hampden in 1884. He entered parliament as a Liberal in 1852, and for some time was chief whip of his party. In 1872 he was elected speaker, and retained this post till February 1884. It fell to him to deal with the systematic obstruction of the Irish Nationalist party, and his speakership is memorable for his action on the 2nd of February 1881 in refusing further debate on W. E. Forster’s Coercion Bill—a step which led to the formal introduction of the closure into parliamentary procedure. He died on the 14th of March 1892, being succeeded as 2nd viscount by his son (b. 1841), who was governor of New South Wales, 1895–1899.

  1. An earlier viscountcy was bestowed in 1776 on Robert Hampden-Trevor, 4th Baron Trevor (1706–1783), a great-grandson of the daughter of John Hampden, the patriot; it became extinct in 1824 by the death of the 3rd viscount.