Charles Hare Hemphill, 1st Baron Hemphill,
PC QC (August 1822 – 4 March 1908), was an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
politician and
barrister.
Career
Hemphill was born in
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. He was the son of John and the novelist
Barbara Hemphill. He was made a
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 o ...
(QC) shortly before being appointed
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 ra ...
in 1892, a post he held until 1895. He then 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 bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
for
North Tyrone from 1895 to 1906, after which he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hemphill, of Rathkenny and of Cashel in the County of
Tipperary
Tipperary is the name of:
Places
*County Tipperary, a county in Ireland
**North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh
**South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel
*Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...
. While most Irish Law Officers could confidently look forward to promotion to the Bench, Hemphill's age apparently ruled him out of serious consideration.
As Solicitor-General, he is remembered mainly for the somewhat malicious "compliments" paid to him by the
Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...
,
Sir Peter O'Brien, in the celebrated 1894 case of ''R. (Bridgeman) v. Drury''. Hemphill, who appeared for
Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660-1661, even more sign ...
, had argued, apparently with a good deal of hyperbole, that the members of the corporation were entitled to charge the
ratepayers
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...
of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
for an especially lavish
picnic. The Lord Chief Justice paid ironic tribute to Hemphill's eloquence and persuasiveness, but added drily that he had entirely failed to persuade the Court that the members of the corporation would "starve" if they were unable to make the ratepayers foot the bill for fine
claret
Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...
,
whiskey
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...
and
cigars
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder le ...
, to say nothing of the broken wineglasses (although there were only four of them, which as the judge fairly noted, seemed quite moderate in the circumstances).
Family
Lord Hemphill married Augusta Mary, daughter of
Major the Hon. Sir Francis Charles Stanhope (son of the
3rd Earl of Harrington), in 1849. They had three sons and one daughter. He died in March 1908 and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son
Stanhope Charles John Hemphill (m. the Hon May Hamilton (1879-1970), daughter of James, 9th
Lord Belhaven and Stenton
Lord Belhaven and Stenton, of the County of Haddington, is a Lordship of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1647 for Sir John Hamilton, 2nd Baronet, with remainder to his heirs male.
History
This branch of the prominent ...
).
He had no son and on his death, the title passed to his brother
Fitzroy Hemphill, 3rd Baron Hemphill.
His daughter, Mary Hannah Augusta Hemphill, was the mother of the decorated
R.A.M.C. officer and surgeon, Lt. Col.
Herbert St Maur Carter, D.S.O., M.D.
Hemphill was a cousin of
John Hemphill, a
Chief Justice of the
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
Supreme Court, and a United States Senator, whose father was the
Rev. John Hemphill from
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...
.
Arms
Notes
References
*''New Dictionary of National Biography''
*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, -
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemphill, Charles, 1st Baron Hemphill
1822 births
1908 deaths
People from County Tyrone
Irish Liberal Party MPs
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Tyrone constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Solicitors-General for Ireland
UK MPs 1895–1900
UK MPs 1900–1906
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)
Peers created by Edward VII