 Prime Minister George Canning and the diplomat Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, were his first cousins.He was elected to the House of Commons for Sligo Borough in 1806, a seat he held until 1812, and then represented Petersfield from 1812 to 1820.On 1 February 1810 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and on 28 October 1818 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Garvagh, of Garvagh in the County of Londonderry.