Sir Henry Hoare, 5th Baronet

Sir Henry Ainslie Hoare, 5th baronet DL (14 April 1824 – 7 July 1894) was an English banker and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1866 and 1874.

Life

Hoare was the son of Henry Charles Hoare, and his wife Anne Penelope Ainslie, daughter of General George Ainslie. He was educated at Eton College and St John's College, Cambridge before entering the family bank Messrs Hoare and Co. He succeeded his uncle Sir Hugh Richard Hoare, 4th Baronet in the baronetcy in 1857 and moved to Stourhead. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset and Wiltshire.

In 1865, Hoare was elected Member of Parliament for Windsor but was unseated in 1866. At the 1868 general election, he was elected MP for Chelsea. He held the seat until 1874.

Hoare had a restless temperament and expensive tastes, including hunting and horse racing, which left him short of money. In 1883, during the agricultural depression, he had to sell at auction many of Stourhead's treasures, including Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s collection of books on British history and a series of watercolour paintings by Turner.

Hoare left Stourhead and lived in France in his later years, where he fell ill in 1894. He returned to London and died at the age of 70 at 12, West Eaton Place, Pimlico, and was buried at Stourton.

Family

Hoare married Augusta Frances Clayton East, daughter of Sir East George Clayton East, in 1845. Their only son died in childhood, and the baronetcy passed to a cousin.