ENNIS, John (1800-1865), of Ballynahown Court, Athlone, co. Westmeath and 9 Merrion Square East, Dublin and 36 Curzon Street, London

Ennis was one of the most successful and wealthy businessmen in Ireland and a large landed proprietor. A moderate Liberal, he held aloof from popular political movements, and it has been argued that he used his wealth ‘to forge a barefaced cash relationship with the electors, one in which national issues and interests played little part’.Freeman’s Journal, 9 Aug. 1878; J. Lenehan, Politics and Society in Athlone 1830-1885. A Rotten Borough (1999), 41. Indeed, after a string of electoral defeats he enjoyed a parliamentary career which rested largely upon his capacity to provide patronage to the small and corrupt borough of which he was representative.

Born in Dublin, where his family controlled large business interests, Ennis was the only son of ‘one of the prince merchants’ of the city, who in 1801 had purchased an estate at Griffinstown, county Westmeath, and later acquired a seat at Ballynahown, near Athlone.F. Boase, Modern English Biography, i. 993; K.T. Hoppen, ‘National Politics and Local Realities in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ireland’, in A. Cosgrove and D. McCartney (eds.), Studies in Irish History (1979), 190-227, at 203; Freeman’s Journal, 9 Aug. 1878; C.J. Woods, ‘Ennis, Sir John’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, iii. 628-9, at 628. He followed his father into business and in 1834 inherited 10,000 acres in Westmeath along with smaller plots of land in counties Roscommon, Meath and Dublin.J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain (4th edn., 1883), 152. That year he married the daughter of a civil engineer, and enjoyed enormous personal wealth to the end of his life.

Ennis’s father had for many years been treasurer to the O’Connell Tribute, but although the son had parliamentary aspirations he was not thought by the O’Connell’s to have ‘any great chance at Athlone’ at the 1835 general election.Freeman’s Journal, 4 Oct. 1876; M. O’Connell to D. O’Connell, 4 Dec. 1834, O’Connell Correspondence, ed. M.R. O’Connell, v. 216-7. Regarded as ‘a man sprung from, if not identified, with the people’, he became unpopular in Westmeath after carrying out evictions on his estates in June 1838, and his caretaker was murdered near Athlone that December.Freeman’s Journal, 12 June 1838; Morning Post, 20 Dec. 1838. By 1841, however, O’Connell believed that if Ennis were to ‘declare himself a Repealer, he would be a good man’ to replace his son, John, at Athlone.D. O’Connell to J. O’Connell, 28 May 1841, in J. O’Connell, Recollections and experiences during a parliamentary career from 1833 to 1848 (1849), ii. 16. He does not appear to have taken up this suggestion, and was subsequently rumoured to have provided security for a Conservative election petition which was presented against a Liberal rival for the borough in May 1843.Freeman’s Journal, 9 May 1843, quoting Athlone Sentinel.

Ennis regarded himself as ‘one of the pioneers of the railway system in Ireland’. He resigned from the board of the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1845 because he believed that the company had been mismanaged, but soon afterwards joined the Midland Great Western Railway as deputy chairman.Hansard, 7 Apr. 1865, vol. 163, c. 916; Freeman’s Journal, 20 Mar. 1845; Standard, 23 Aug. 1845. He oversaw the construction of a line from Mullingar to Athlone, and thence to Galway, becoming chairman of the company in 1847.Standard, 25 May 1846; Freeman’s Journal, 17 Mar. 1847. He led a deputation from the company to the chancellor of the exchequer in May 1849: Ibid., 18 May 1849. Viewed by this time as a Catholic Whig, he offered for County Westmeath at the 1847 general election, but, having refused to pledge himself to repeal, was not adopted as a candidate by the county Liberal Club.The Times, 17 July 1844, 26 May, 26 July 1847.

Ennis had been fiercely opposed to the repeal of the corn laws and in 1850 joined a committee to establish an Irish Protectionist Society.The Times, 14 Feb. 1850. When he offered for County Westmeath as a Liberal Protectionist in 1852, however, he repudiated the imposition of ‘a tax upon the food of the people’, but was persuaded by his committee to retire.The Times, 14 May 1852. Eager to defend his independence, he subsequently vowed to resist any further attempt ‘to regulate his political conduct’ for ‘mere party considerations’, and spoke in favour of Alderman John Reynolds during the general election at Dublin.Freeman’s Journal, 29 June 1852; The Times, 21 July 1852. He offered for Athlone in January 1853, but retired and put his weight behind an attempt to oust the Independent party’s apostate leader, William Keogh.The Times, 18 Jan., 18 Apr. 1853.

Despite being described as ‘an ardent votary’ of the Catholic Church, Ennis did not enjoy the confidence of the Liberal party in Ireland, and declined to take on Keogh at Athlone when the newly appointed Irish attorney-general stood for re-election in March 1855.The Times, 21 July 1852; Morning Chronicle, 7 Mar. 1855. By then Ennis was one of the richest men in Ireland and in 1856 became only the second Catholic to hold the position of governor of the Bank of Ireland.The Times, 5 Apr. 1856; Woods, ‘Ennis, Sir John’, 628. However, although he was the second largest landlord in the county, he could not overhaul the Castlemaine influence at Athlone and was defeated by a junior member of that family at a by-election in April 1856.Freeman’s Journal, 4 Oct. 1876; Freeman’s Journal, 14 Apr. 1856. His personal unpopularity with local Liberals notwithstanding, at the 1857 general election he succeeded in attracting enough Catholic voters away from the Conservatives to secure his return for the borough, after which three petitions against him were presented, but subsequently allowed to lapse.Lenehan, Politics and Society in Athlone, 39-40; Morning Post, 12 May 1857; CJ, cxii. 130, 305.

Ennis supported the Liberal ministry on religious issues affecting Ireland, such as the ministers’ money bill, 19 May 1857, and routinely divided in favour of the abolition of church rates and against anti-Maynooth motions. He was in the minority that backed Deasy’s amendment to the oaths bill, calling for a uniform parliamentary oath, and voted with the majority against Thesiger’s subsequent attempt to exclude Jews from parliament, 15 June.Like most Irish Liberals, he abstained from the third reading of the oaths bill, 25 June: Freeman’s Journal, 27 June 1857. In May he sat on the select committee on the Bank Acts, and voted against the property qualification bill, 10 June 1857.PP 1857 session 2 (220) (220-I), x Pt. I. 1, x Pt. II. 1. A year later the committee briefly examined Ennis in his capacity as the governor of the Bank of Ireland: PP 1857-58 (381), v. 1 [417]. He backed Lord Palmerston’s government of India bill, 18 Feb. 1858, and voted for the second reading of the conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. In that year Ennis’s daughter Maria married Daniel O’Donoghue (‘The O’Donoghue’) the Independent Liberal MP for Tipperary. Like his son-in-law, Ennis provided the Conservatives with general support during 1858-9 in return for a number of reforms, such as the provision of greater access to Catholic chaplains in prisons, workhouses and the army. He voted for the second readings of the Irish tenant compensation bill, 9 June 1858, and the county franchise bill, 10 June 1858.

Having openly promised railway patronage to voters, Ennis was re-elected for Athlone in 1859 and, as was revealed some years later, secured numerous votes by providing loans to electors, which were not redeemed provided that they voted appropriately.Belfast News-letter, 2 May 1859; Lenehan, Politics and Society in Athlone, 40-1. When his return was challenged unsuccessfully on petition, the speaker had 125 warrants served on his supporters (out of an electorate of only 225 voters), which was described as ‘an amount of evidence almost incredible and unparalleled in parliamentary records’.Daily News, 6 July 1859. Although he had voted against the Conservative reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859, Ennis was still considered by Lord Derby to be one of the Irish independents who could be most counted upon to support his government.J.H. Whyte, The Independent Irish Party, 1850-9 (1958), 182; A. Hawkins, Parliament, Party and the Art of Politics in Britain, 1855-59 (1987), 255. Shortly after his re-election Disraeli even assured Lord Naas that Ennis could ‘be managed’, after it was intimated that he would bring the Derbyites ‘three votes and support on critical divisions in the next session’ in return for a baronetcy.B. Disraeli to Lord Naas, 12 May 1859: Letters of Benjamin Disraeli (2004), vii. 376-8 (3348). It appears, however, that no such offer was forthcoming and Ennis voted against Derby’s ministry in the confidence motion, 10 June 1859.

For the rest of his time in parliament Ennis largely supported Palmerston’s ministry. He was opposed to triennial parliaments, and had divided against Henry Berkeley’s ballot motions in 1857-8. However, he backed the measure, 20 Mar. 1860, but abstained from voting on the matter thereafter. On 4 June 1860, during the committee stage of the representation of the people bill, Ennis gave notice of a motion instructing that ‘one uniform Oath should be administered to all Members on taking their Seats in this House; and that such Oath shall be in future that of allegiance and fidelity to the succession only’, only for the motion to be ruled out of order by the speaker.Hansard, 4 June 1860, vol. 158, c. 1988.

Ennis had been an early financial backer and vocal supporter of John Orrell Lever’s plan to provide a direct mail service between Ireland and America via Galway, and had been instrumental in securing the support of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce for the scheme.Morning Post, 26 July, 13 Oct. 1858; PP 1860 (407) (407-I) xiv. 525, 605; PP 1860 (328) xiv. 1. However, he was one of 15 Irish Liberals who helped to keep the Whigs in power after they had indicated that they would withdraw the government subsidy from Lever’s steam packet company.T.A. Jenkins (ed.), The parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, 1858-1865 (1990), 175. After voting with the government, 30 May 1861, he was the only Irish member to express confidence in the parliamentary inquiry into the issue, arguing that the scheme ought to have remained one of free enterprise, and thus attracted criticism for having betrayed Irish interests.Belfast News-letter, 18 June 1861; Hansard, 14 June 1861, vol. 163, cc. 1133-6. He also backed ministers over the repeal of paper duty, and voted consistently for the abolition of university tests. In April 1865 he spoke in support of a parliamentary inquiry into Irish railways, arguing that their commercial failure was not due to mismanagement but to the ‘wretched state of the country’, and the following month sat on the select committee on referees on private bills.Hansard, 7 Apr. 1865, vol. 178, cc. 915-7; PP 1865 (393) (393-I), vii. 7, 191.

Ennis’s record in parliament did not accord with the wishes of many of his constituents, and was condemned by the local Catholic bishop as ‘selfish, uncatholic, and unpatriotic’. He was easily beaten at the 1865 general election by a London-based estate agent, who, it was said, had been advised by Ennis’s wife to seek a seat at Galway, but had decided to contest her husband’s constituency instead.Lenehan, Politics and Society in Athlone, 42; HP Commons, 1832-1868: ‘Athlone’. His defeat was considered ‘a sad loss to the Government, as the Ministerial “whip” could always reckon upon his vote’.Belfast News-letter, 3 Oct. 1865. At the same time, his business career suffered a downturn. Autocratic and unpopular with his workforce, Ennis had had his powers as chairman of the Midland Railway curtailed by shareholders in 1858, and in September 1865 he failed to secure re-election to the post after ‘great dissatisfaction’ had been expressed with his management of the company. As a consequence he also resigned his position as a director.Woods, ‘Ennis, Sir John’, 628; Morning Post, 28 Sept. 1865. He was, however, finally rewarded with a baronetcy by the outgoing Liberal administration in July 1866.Caledonian Mercury, 13 July 1866.

His son having secured the seat at Athlone in 1868, Ennis offered for County Westmeath in June 1871, but retired from an apparently hopeless contest against a Nationalist candidate. He then quit parliamentary politics and devoted himself to his business affairs and the running of his estates, dying intestate at his residence in Merrion Square, Dublin, in August 1878. Morning Post, 12 Aug. 1878. His personal wealth in England and Ireland was sworn under £50,000 that October, and he was succeeded by his only son, Sir John James Ennis (1842-84), who sat as a Liberal for Athlone, 1868-1874, and from 1880 until his death in May 1884, when the baronetcy became extinct.Freeman’s Journal, 25 Oct. 1878; Stenton, Who’s Who of British MPs, i. 129; Woods, ‘Ennis, Sir John’, 629.