Wednesday 20 November 2013
323 Edward Schenley
Constituency : Dartmouth 1859
Though only briefly an MP Edward had quite a reputation in his time. He was an army captain and a serial eloper with young women most notably Pittsburgh heiress Mary Croghan in 1842 when he was 43 and she a tender 15. The Pittsburgh Dispatch described him as " a gentleman of diminished exchequer, traveling on his shape. He was 6 feet in height, of commanding presence , roving in his disposition". He was actually absent without leave from his post as a commissioner for the suppression of the slave trade in Guyana. Edward nonchalantly requested an extension of the leave he didn't have from Palmerston but was sent back to his post until driven out by a threat from the slave traders to infect him with leprosy. The couple remained married and alternated between living in England and the U.S.
Edward's election was overturned on petition and the Tories won the by-election. He died in 1878 aged 78.
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