Stephen De Vere

Sir Stephen Edward De Vere, 4th Baronet (26 July 1812 – 10 November 1904) was an Irish Member of Parliament in the nineteenth century, elder brother to the poet Aubrey Thomas de Vere. 
In 1847, he took passage in such one of the infamous "coffin ships" that transported Irish emigrants to the New World, wanting to see for himself the horrendous conditions that were leading to the deaths of so many of these passengers. He composed a withering report on his voyage now known as The Elgin-Grey Papers. When Colonial Secretary Earl Grey read this report, he forwarded it to Lord Elgin, Governor-General of Upper Canada and Lower Canada in the hope that these inhumane conditions could be improved.Moving Here, Staying Here: The Canadian Immigrant Experience at Library and Archives Canada
De Vere became a Roman Catholic in 1848, and defended the recreation of the English Catholic hierarchy in 1851. He was a Liberal Party MP for Limerick County from 1854 to 1859. In 1880, he succeeded his brother Vere as 4th baronet De Vere. The baronetcy became extinct at his death.Elizabeth Lee, ‘Vere, Sir Stephen Edward De, fourth baronet (1812–1904)’, rev. M. C. Curthoys, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
==References==
Category:1812 births
Category:1904 deaths
Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Ireland
Category:Liberal MPs (UK)
Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for Irish constituencies (1801-1922)
Category:People from County Limerick
Category:UK MPs 1852-1857
Category:UK MPs 1857-1859
Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism