Hubert was the son of the 1st Marquess of Clanricarde and his wife, Harriet, daughter of British Prime Minister George Canning.

[4] Hubert de Burgh-Canning was unmourned in Ireland, where he had a reputation as one of the worst and most repressive absentee landlords in the country.

His estate centred on Portumna, County Galway, spanned a mainly agricultural 52,000 acres (210 km2) (81 sq mi) (about 3.5% of this second-largest county), yielding about an average of £25,000 (equivalent to £3,100,000 in 2023) during his lifetime yearly in rents paid by 1,900 largely poorly agriculturally equipped and housed tenants, and was a main target during the 1887 Plan of Campaign fought for fair rents by the Irish Parliamentary Party.

[8][3] At his death, his vast fortune devolved upon his sister's grandson, Henry, Viscount Lascelles, who in 1922 went on to marry Princess Mary.

[9] Upon his death, his peerages became extinct, save for the second creation of the Earldom of Clanricarde, which passed by special remainder to the 6th Marquess of Sligo.