Benjamin Haughton

{{Short description|Irish businessman and politician (1855–1932)}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=February 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Benjamin Haughton.jpg | image_size = | caption = Haughton in 1922 | office = [[Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State)|Senator]] | term_start = 11 December 1922 | term_end = 12 December 1928 | party = [[Independent politician (Ireland)|Independent]] | birth_date = 1855 | birth_place = [[Cork (city)|Cork]], Ireland | death_date = {{death year and age|1932|1855}} | death_place = Cork, Ireland | spouse = Margaret Goodbody | children = 5 | education = | alma_mater = }} '''Benjamin Haughton''' (1855–1932)<ref>{{cite web |title=Lot 429/0301: A Corkman's Voyage to New York in the Year of the Titanic |url=https://fonsiemealy.ie/auctions/lot-4290301/ |website=Auction 0301: Rare Book Sale — December 5th, 2017 — Tara Towers Hotel, Dublin |date=2017 |publisher=Fonsie Mealy |access-date=5 November 2019}}</ref> was an Irish businessman from [[Cork (city)|Cork]] city, who was an [[Independent politician (Ireland)|independent]] member of [[Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State)|Seanad Éireann]] from 1922 to 1928.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Benjamin-Haughton.S.1922-06-12/|title=Benjamin Haughton|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=15 February 2013}}</ref> He was from the Cork branch of a [[Quaker]] family whose Carlow branch included social reformer [[James Haughton (reformer)|James Haughton]] and scientist [[Samuel Haughton]].<ref name="Carloviana"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jessop |first1=W. J. E. |title=Samuel Haughton: A Victorian polymath |journal=Hermathena |date=1973 |issue=116 |pages=3–26: 8 |url=https://www.tcd.ie/Secretary/FellowsScholars/discourses/discourses/1973_W.J.E.%20Jessop%20on%20S.%20Haughton.pdf#page=7 |jstor=23040464 |access-date=5 November 2019 |issn=0018-0750}}</ref> Benjamin was head of Haughton's timber and iron merchants in Cork and a supporter of the local [[YMCA]].<ref name="Murphy2011"/><ref name="Carloviana">{{cite journal |title=Haughton Family Tree |journal=Carloviana |date=2015 |issue=63 |pages=10–11: 11 |publisher=Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society |url=http://carlowhistorical.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Carloviana-No-63-2015.pdf#page=13}}</ref>

During the [[Irish War of Independence]] he was involved with the [[Irish White Cross]] and among a group of liberal [[Southern Irish unionism|Southern unionist]]s who sought conciliation with [[Sinn Féin]] in Cork in the lead-up to the 1921 truce.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/visit-and-learn/centenaries/seanad100/members-of-the-first-seanad/members-of-the-first-seanad-biographies/#Haughton |title=Members of the First Seanad: Biographies – Haughton, Benjamin|work=Houses of the Oireachtas|access-date=28 December 2023}}</ref><ref name="Murphy2011">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Gerard |title=The Year of Disappearances: Political Killings in Cork 1921–1922 |date=2011 |publisher=Gill & Macmillan Ltd |isbn=9780717151653 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNv4AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115 |access-date=5 November 2019 |language=en |chapter=The Cork YMCA}}</ref> Upon the coming into force of the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]] in 1922, [[W. T. Cosgrave]] as the [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]] nominated 30 of the initial 60 senators, including Haughton.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-12-06/9/|title=President's nominees for Seanad|publisher=Houses of the Oireachtas|date=6 December 1922|access-date=26 December 2023}}</ref> These were subsequently divided by lottery into two cohorts of 15, serving terms of six and twelve years respectively, with Haughton drawing a six-year term.<ref>{{cite web |title=Selection of Nominated Senators — To Hold Office for 12 Years |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1923-02-08/3/ |website=Seanad Éireann (1922 Seanad) debates |publisher=Oireachtas |access-date=5 November 2019 |language=en-ie |date=8 February 1923}}</ref> He lost his seat at the 1928 Seanad election.<ref name=oireachtas_db/>

He and his wife Margaret Elizabeth Goodbody had five children.<ref name="Carloviana"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haughton, Benjamin}} [[Category:1855 births]] [[Category:1932 deaths]] [[Category:Independent members of Seanad Éireann]] [[Category:Members of the 1922 Seanad]] [[Category:Members of the 1925 Seanad]] [[Category:19th-century Irish businesspeople]] [[Category:20th-century Irish businesspeople]] [[Category:Businesspeople from County Cork]] [[Category:19th-century Quakers]] [[Category:20th-century Quakers]] [[Category:Irish Quakers]] [[Category:Irish unionists]] [[Category:Politicians from County Cork]]