Lot Essay
Colonel Henry John Clements (1781-1843) was the eldest son of Robert Clements, 1st Earl of Leitrim's brother, The Rt. Hon. Henry Theophilus Clements, and married in 1811 Louisa Stewart, daughter of James and the Hon. Mrs Elizabeth Stewart of Killymoon. He was Member of Parliament for Co. Leitrim (1804-1818) and for Co. Cavan (1840-1843), Colonel of the Leitrim Militia (1807-1816) and a Lord of the Irish Treasury (1812-1817). All his life, he was dogged by financial difficulties, many of them inherited from his father. For a time, it looked as if Clements and his brother-in-law, Colonel William Stewart of Killymoon, were neck-and-neck in the bankruptcy stakes. But Clements pulled back, and took his family and himself abroad between 1829 and 1840 in order to economise. On his return, he was elected Tory Member of Parliament for Co. Cavan, on the ground that his 'unflinching support of Protestant principles calls on all true Protestants to support you'. Clements was a popular country gentleman - as witness the fact that he represented two different counties without being a considerable landowner in either of them. Cregan's portrait captures much of the affability and good nature of the man.