Sir Andrew Marshall Porter, 1st Baronet PC, QC (27 June 1837 – 9 January 1919) was an Irish lawyer and judge.

Background and education

Porter was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

, the son of Reverend

John Scott Porter John Scott Porter (1801–1880) was an Irish biblical scholar and Unitarian minister. Life He was eldest son of William Porter (1774–1843), a Presbyterian minister, by his first wife, Mary, daughter of Charles Scott, born at Newtownlimavady, ...

and his wife Margaret Marshall. He was educated at the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

, and

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

Legal and judicial career

In 1860 Porter was called to the Bar and by 1872 had become

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

. He sat as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulste ...

from 1881 to 1884 and served under

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-con ...

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On r ...

from 1881 to 1882 and as

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

from 1882 to 1883: he was deeply involved in the trials following the

Phoenix Park murders The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland, on 6 May 1882. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland and Burke was the Permanent ...

. He was appointed

Master of the Rolls in Ireland The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was respon ...

in 1883 and served in that post until 1907. It was announced that he would receive a

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 for the (subsequently postponed) coronation of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second chil ...

, and on 24 July 1902, he was created a Baronet, of Merrion square, in the city and county of Dublin. A. M. Sullivan described him as "a fine lawyer of noble presence and true dignity" who did not tolerate any disturbance to the decorum of his Court. As a judge, Sullivan ranked him as one of the four greatest he had ever known, and perhaps the equal of the celebrated

Christopher Palles Christopher Palles (25 December 1831 – 14 February 1920) was an Irish barrister, Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and a judge for over 40 years. His biographer, Vincent Thomas Hyginus Delany, described him as "the greatest of the Irish judg ...

Family

Porter married Agnes Horsburgh and they had six children: * Helen Violet Porter (d. 1961), unmarried * Margaret Porter, married Capt. Cuthbert Avenal John Vernon *

Sir John Scott Horsburgh-Porter, 2nd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

(1871–1953), succeeded his father in the title * Alexander Porter (1872–1946) * Andrew Marshall Porter (1874–1900), a noted sportsman who was killed in the Second Boer War * William Francis Porter (1878–1903) While living in Dublin, Porter resided at 42

Merrion Square Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre. History The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand ...

East, as noted in Ulysses by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

Arms

References

* Plarr, Victor, ''Men and Women of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries'' (London, 1899), p. 872. * Gifford, Don, ''Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses'' (University of California Press, 1989), p. 182.

External links

* 1837 births 1919 deaths 19th-century Irish lawyers Attorneys-General for Ireland Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Londonderry constituencies (1801–1922) Lawyers from Belfast Solicitors-General for Ireland UK MPs 1880–1885 Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Masters of the Rolls in Ireland {{UK-baronet-stub