Edward King Harman : Short Biography

The Rt. Hon. Edward King-Harman (1838-88) inherited the King estate of Rockingham near Boyle, Co. Roscommon, and the Harman estate of Newcastle (Ballymahon, County Longford) from his father, the Hon. Lawrence Harman King-Harman who died in 1875.

DEATH OF COLONEL KING-HARMAN     [Salisbury and Winchester Journal - Saturday 16 June 1888]

—Col King. Harman, M.P., Under Secretary for Ireland, died on Sunday at his residence, Rockingham, Boyle, county of Roscommon, after an intermittent illness of several months, during which he resolutely stuck to his poet until peremptorily ordered by his medical advisers to take rest and change. Accordingly, he proceeded on a voyage to the Cape, whence be returned home very recently. After a day or two spent in London, he proceeded to his residence in Ireland. On Monday week he was seized with a serious attack of failure of the heart's action, but he rallied from Tuesday until Saturday, and on Sunday morning he expressed himself as feeling much better. While sitting up in bed talking to some members of his family, he suddenly fell back on the pillow with a moan, became unconscious, and died in a few minutes from heart disease.

Mr. King-Harman was the son of the Hon. Lawrence King Harman, who was son of the first Viscount Lorton, a brother of the sixth Earl of Kingston. His mother was Mary Cecilia, daughter of Mr. James Raymond Johnstone, of Alva, Stirlingshire.

He was educated at Eton, and was foremost in athletic contests and manly exercises. In his early manhood he served in the 60th Rifles. He was a magistrate for the counties of Longford, Sligo, and West Meath, where his property is situated, and he was lieutenant and custos rostulorum of the county Roscommon.

Personally, Mr. King-Harman was very popular in his own county and the West of Ireland generally. He sat for the county of Sligo from January 1887 to March 1880, but owing to his strong antagonism to the policy of the National League he found it hopeless to contest the constituency again. He, however, contested Dublin county in 1883, against Mr. Edward McMahon, a Nationalist, whom he detested, and he represented the county until 1885. In that year he was elected for the Isle of Thanet, Kent, and was re-elected in the following year. His later parliamentary career is familiar to the public.

There can be no doubt that the strain of the work imposed on him as Under Secretary for Ireland told severely on his constitution, and his health and strength gradually gave way. Mr. King-Harman was born in 1838 and married in August 1861, Emma Frances, youngest daughter of Sir William Worsley, Bart.

His only son, Lawrence William, Lieutenant 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers, born in 1863, died about a year ago. He is succeeded in the Rockingham estate by his brother, Col. Wilfred King Harman, who is commandant of the Enfield Small Arms Factory.

YOUR ANCESTRAL LANDLORD?

The King-Harman family kept and preserved extensive records of the management of their estate, which they transferred to a number of libraries and archives for research purposes. Their collections include some potentially useful records of their many tenants:

National Archives of Ireland

National Library of Ireland

Public Record Office, Northern Ireland

Sligo County Library