Background
Chaplin was born at Ryhall, Rutland. He was the secondson of the Rev. Henry Chaplin, of Blankney, Lincolnshire.
Chaplin was born at Ryhall, Rutland. He was the secondson of the Rev. Henry Chaplin, of Blankney, Lincolnshire.
Henry Chaplin was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a friend of the Prince of Wales. At the age of 21, he inherited substantial estates in Lincolnshire (including the family seat of Blankney Hall), Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. He was a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, and a leading member of the Turf.
Outside the House of Commons Henry Chaplin was a familiar figure on the Turf, winning the Derby with Hermit in 1867; and in politics from the first the " Squire of Blankney " took an active interest in agricultural questions, as a popular and typical representative of the English "country gentleman" class. Having filled the office of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in Lord Salisbury's short ministry of 1885-1886, he became president of the new Board of Agriculture in 1889, with a seat in the cabinet, and retained this post till 1892. In the Conservative cabinet of 1895-1900 he was president of the Local Government Board, and was responsible for the Agricultural Rates Act of 1896; but he was not included in the ministry after its reconstruction in 1900. Mr Chaplin had always been an advocate of protectionism, being in this respect the most prominent inheritor of the views of Lord George Bentinck; and when in 1903 the Tariff Reform movement began under Mr Chamberlain's leadership, he gave it his enthusiastic support, becoming a member of the Tariff Commission and one of the most strenuous advocates in the country of the new doctrines in opposition to free trade.
In the Conservative cabinet of 1895-1900 Henry Chaplin was president of the Local Government Board, and was responsible for the Agricultural Rates Act of 1896; but he was not included in the ministry after its reconstruction in 1900.
In 1876 Chaplin married Lady Florence. They had one son, Eric, and two daughters, Edith and Florence.
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