Henry Maxwell

Henry Maxwell PC(I) (1699 – 2 February 1730) was an Anglo-Irish Whig politician and political writer. He was one of the most influential and active figures in the Irish House of Commons during his lifetime, and was among the most prominent early eighteenth-century advocates of a union between England and Ireland. While he defended the principle of Poynings' Law in his writings, he was an occasional critic of its operation in parliament.

Early life Maxwell was born in Finnebrogue, County Down, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, Rev. Robert Maxwell, and Jane Chichester, daughter of the Rev. Robert Chichester of Belfast. His family were of Scottish and English descent. Maxwell's first major political tract was written in 1703, entitled An essay upon an union of Ireland with England. An essay upon an union of Ireland with England: most humbly offered to the consideration of the queen's most excellent majesty, and both houses of parliament (1703) Reasons offered for erecting a bank in Ireland: in a letter to H Rowley, esq. (1721) Mr Maxwell's second letter to Mr Rowley; wherein the objections against the bank are answered (1721)