Place Name
Henry Alexander (sometime around 1780 – January 1861) was born into a prominent Irish family of merchants and politicians that included the Earls of Caledon. After a period in the East India Company service and as a private merchant in Calcutta, he returned to Europe, eventually settling at Battle Abbey, which he rented from Sir Godfrey Webster in the 1820s. In 1826, he was elected as a director of the East India Company, a position he held for over 25 years. That same year, he entered Parliament for the borough of Barnstaple as an independent. During his four-year tenure, he maintained a generally conservative stance, frequently voting against Catholic relief and opposing parliamentary reform measures, such as the enfranchisement of industrial cities like Birmingham. Alexander retired from the Commons in 1830, citing unnamed distractions and a lack of return on his efforts. He spent his later years at Belmont Lodge (originally Mount Pleasant), East Barnet, where he died in January 1861, ‘deeply and deservedly lamented.’ His property was passed to his son, Henry Robert, who in turn, sold the estate to Charles Addington Hanbury. It subsequently became known as Belmont and then Heddon Court, but was demolished in the 1930s.
