PEEL, SIR ROBERT, 2ND BARONET

born Feb. 5, 1788, Bury, Lancashire, Eng. died July 2, 1850, London Peel, detail of an oil painting by John Linnell, 1838; in the National Portrait Gallery, London British prime minister (183435, 184146) and founder of the Conservative Party, who was responsible for the repeal (1846) of the Corn Laws that had restricted imports. Additional reading C.S. Parker (ed.), Sir Robert Peel from His Private Correspondence, 3 vol. (189199), essential documentary material; Lord Mahon and E. Cardwell (eds.), Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Peel, 2 vol. (185657), Peel's own account of the three political crises of his career; George Peel (ed.), The Private Letters of Sir Robert Peel (1920), revealing letters to his wife; Norman Gash, Mr. Secretary Peel: The Life of Sir Robert Peel to 1830 (1961) and Sir Robert Peel (1972), a full-length biography based on original sources.