He was promoted to brevetlieutenant-colonel on 27 April 1812, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel 26th Cameronians on 3 September 1812, and transferred as captain and lieutenant-colonel to the Coldstream Guards on 25 July 1814, from which he retired on half-pay in 1817.[2][3]
Pakenham was a member of Parliament, representing Westmeath from 27 February 1808 to 1826. He sat for his brother, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Longford and placed votes intermittently between 1821 and 1825. Initially he was against Catholic Relief, but later came to favour it, citing his need representation of the change in opinion among his Protestant constituents.[3][6]
Pakenham won the 1826 general election for Westmeath, but did not accept due to rumors that his favoring of Protestant interests resulted in his brother "discarding" him. The Catholic press reported that he was "the victim of the vote he gave ... in favour of emancipation."[3]
He received £2,929 in compensation during the abolition of slavery, related to 217 slaves on the Blizard Estate in Antigua.
When he was a captain, Pakenham was mentioned in Lady Morgan's Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence:
We have had Captain Pakenham here some days; he has just gone to Lifford, but is to return on Wednesday. He is a very pleasant young man; I wish he had been here when you were, that your recollection of Baron’s Court might have been more lively.
On 25 December 1817, Pakenham married the Hon. Emily Stapleton (c. 1795–1875), the fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Stapleton, 6th Baronet, 12th Baron le Despencer and the former Elizabeth Eliot. Together, they were the parents of six sons and three daughters, including:[2][3]
The "Sir Hercules Pakenham Scholarship" and "Emily Lady Pakenham Scholarship" were founded in 1876,[9] by their eldest surviving son, the Rev. Arthur Hercules Pakenham in their memory for students of Queen's College, Belfast.[18][19]
One of the 42 stalls in the Domus Dei in Portsmouth was dedicated to him.[20]
Notes
^Langford Lodge, which had been owned by the Rowley family, came into the Pakenham family through Hercule's mother Catherine Rowley Pakenham. It was passed on to Edward Michael Pakenham (died 1818). Upon Edward's death, the lodge was inherited by Hercules.[17]
^Hercules Robert Pakenham (1 January 1825). Colonel Pakenham's speech on the second reading of the Catholic Relief Bill: In the House of Commons, on Tuesday, the 19th of April, 1825. W.E. Andrews. ASINB0008AZ548.
