The only son of Sir John Parnell, 1st Baronet, Parnell was the great-grandfather of Charles Stewart Parnell, known as the uncrowned king of Ireland and was best known for opposing (with his son Henry)[REF] the Act of Union between the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.
Henry Grattan described Parnell as "an honest, straightforward, independent man, possessed of considerable ability and much public spirit; as Chancellor of the Exchequer he was not deficient, and he served his country by his plan to reduce the interest of money.