Gabriel Hanger, 1st Baron Coleraine

Who was Gabriel Hanger, 1st Baron Coleraine?

Gabriel Hanger, 1st Baron Coleraine was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1753 and 1768. He was honoured with a Peerage of Ireland.

Hanger was the son of Sir George Hanger of Driffield, Gloucestershire and his wife Ann Beale daughter of Sir John Beale of Farningham in Kent. His father, grandson of Sir Lewis Roberts, was knighted by William III "for his steady attachment to religion and the law."

Hanger inherited the estates at Driffield and also inherited via his brother his mother's estate at Farningham. In 1750 he was responsible for converting the church at Driffield into the Italianate style.

On 26 February 1762 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Coleraine. Hanger's uncle, John Hanger, was governor of the Bank of England 1719-1721 and his daughter, Anne, had married Henry 3rd and last Lord Coleraine. The peerage was extinct on cousin Henry's death without a legitimate heir in 1749 and its name was revived in 1762 for Gabriel Hanger.

Hanger sat as a Member of Parliament for Maidstone between 1753 and 1761. As his peerage was Irish he was able to continue to sit in the house of commons and was MP for Bridgwater between 1763 and 1768. He was described by his son as "one of those respectable, independent old English characters in the House of Commons called County Gentlemen".