Robert Westley Hall-Dare

Robert Westley Hall-Dare (3 March 1789 – 20 May 1836) was a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for South Essex from 1832, as a Tory, until his death in 1836. He was succeeded by George Palmer. Early life He was born Robert Westley Hall in Demerara in modern-day Guyana on 3 March 1789 to parents Robert Westley Hall and Maria Elizabeth De Codin. His parents owned the ‘Maria's Pleasure’ sugar plantation on Wakenaam Island in the Essequibo River, which passed to Robert on his father’s death. Hall was educated at Harrow from 1802 to 1809. He was a Captain in the 23rd Welsh Fusiliers, serving in the West Indies and the Peninsular War. He married Elizabeth Grafton on 8 November 1815. He changed his name by Royal sign-manual to Robert Westley Hall-Dare on 25 April 1823, taking the name Dare from his wife, daughter and heiress of Marmaduke Grafton Dare. One of his granddaughters was Mabel Virginia Anna Hall-Dare (Mabel Bent, 1847–1929), who in 1877 married the explorer James Theodore Bent (1852–1897).