Henley served as a Master in Chancery from 1826 to 1840 and between 1826 and 1830 he also sat as member of parliament for Fowey. In 1830 he succeeded his father as second Baron Henley, but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords. The following year, Lord Henley assumed by royal licence the surname of Henley in lieu of Eden. in commemoration of his maternal ancestors, and the same year he published a biography of his maternal grandfather, entitled Memoir of the Life of Robert Henley, Earl of Northington, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.