Robert Tennant


Robert Tennant of Chapel House in the parish of Conistone, Yorkshire, England, was the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Leeds, Yorkshire, from 1874 to 1880. He served as a Captain in the Yorkshire Hussars and as a Justice of the Peace for Yorkshire and for Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland in Scotland.

Origins

He was born in 1828, the youngest son of John Tennant Tennant, JP, Capt. 3rd West Yorkshire Militia, a son of Jonathan Stansfield of Idle, Yorks, by his wife Miss Barcroft, a daughter of John Barcroft of Foulridge, Lancashire, by his wife Jane Tennant, a daughter of John Tennant of Chapel House, Yorkshire. John Tennant Stansfield inherited the Chapel House estate from his childless great-uncle Robert Tennant, and adopted the surname and arms of Tennant in compliance with the bequest. Chapel House, on the site of an ancient chapel belonging to Kilnsey Grange, a possession of Fountains Abbey, was purchased by the Tennant family in 1572. The Tennant Arms public house in Kilnsey commemorates the family. His mother was Anne Catherine Shaw, a daughter of James Shaw of Otley.

Inheritance

In 1894 he inherited Chapel House from his childless elder half-brother John Robert Tennant, JP, DL, Capt. 3rd West Yorkshire Militia, also of Kildwick Hall, whose diaries 1847–73 survive in the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society.

Career

He was educated at the Leeds Grammar School for the legal profession, but chose a career in business, and became a junior partner in a firm of flax spinners in Leeds. For many years he was closely identified with the commercial and industrial life of West Riding of Yorkshire, and he owned extensive estates. He was chairman of several coal and iron companies, and Director of the Great Northern Railway.
In politics, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Leeds in the 1874 general election, but served only one term as the constituency adopted the former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone as their candidate in 1880. Tennant was unsuccessful when he tried to contest Peterborough that year.

Marriage and children

In 1850 he married Harriete Garnett, a daughter of the newspaper proprietor Jeremiah Garnett, of Mount Broughton, Manchester, by whom he had 7 sons and 4 daughters, to all of whom a mural monument survives in St Mary's Church, Conistone, as follows:
He died at Roffey in Sussex in his 72nd year, on 5 March 1900. His white marble inscribed memorial tablet survives in St Mary's Church, Conistone.