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Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne (4 September 1837 – 22 May 1913), was an
Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...
lawyer and
Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...
.


Background and education

Born at 22
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 f ...
,
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 ...
, Gibson was the son of William Gibson J.P. (1808–1872), of Rockforest,
County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after ...
, and
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 f ...
, Dublin, by his first wife, Louisa, daughter of Joseph Grant, barrister of Dublin. He was the elder brother of John George Gibson, who was also a distinguished lawyer and judge of the High Court. He was educated at
Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...
, graduating BA in 1858, winning the gold medal in History, English Literature and Political Science. He was also an Auditor and a Gold Medallist of the
College Historical Society The College Historical Society (CHS) – popularly referred to as The Hist – is a debating society at Trinity College Dublin. It was established within the college in 1770 and was inspired by the club formed by the philosopher Edmund ...
, and became its president in 1883.


Legal and judicial career

Having been called to the Irish
bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...
in 1860, Gibson was made an Irish
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 ...
in 1872 and three years later was elected
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
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
Dublin University The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Du ...
after unsuccessfully contesting
Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...
. Enjoying the patronage of
Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation ...
,
Sir Stafford Northcote Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (27 October 1818 – 12 January 1887), known as Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt from 1851 to 1885, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 1 ...
and
Lord Randolph Churchill Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British statesman. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term ' Tory democracy'. He inspired a generation of party managers, created the National Union ...
, he was appointed
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 ...
in 1877, before being admitted to the
Irish Privy Council His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal execu ...
, and then appointed
Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...
in 1885, becoming a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...
that same year. On his appointment as Lord Chancellor, Gibson was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashbourne, of Ashbourne in the
County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
of Meath in 1885. He was almost single-handedly responsible for the drafting of the
Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 ( 48 & 49 Vict. c.73), commonly known as the Ashbourne Act is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed by a Conservative Party government under Lord Salisbury. It extended the terms that had ...
which was commonly known as the Ashbourne Act. He resigned the Lord Chancellor's office in February 1886 on the return of the Liberals to power, but was reappointed by Lord Salisbury in August of that year. For the next twenty years (with a short interval of three years when
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-cons ...
returned to power in 1892), Lord Ashbourne held office as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, finally retiring at the age of 68. He was highly regarded as a judge even at a time when the Irish Bench boasted such outstanding judges as Gerald FitzGibbon,
Hugh Holmes Hugh Holmes QC (17 February 1840 – 19 April 1916) was an Irish Conservative Party, then after 1886 a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom Parliament and subsequently a Judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal in I ...
and
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 judge ...
. It was in part at least due to his presidency that the
Irish Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal in Ireland was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 as the final appellate court within Ireland, then under British rule. A ...
gained a reputation as the strongest court ever to sit in Ireland. In 1900,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
's agent Gerald Christie secured Ashbourne's services to take the chair and introduce the journalist /politician's Dublin lecture on his South African Adventures.


Family

Lord Ashbourne married Frances Maria Adelaide Colles (1849–1926), daughter of barrister Henry Jonathan Cope Colles and his wife Elizabeth Mary, daughter of John Mayne of Dublin, in 1868. Lady Ashbourne was a niece of John Dawson Mayne and granddaughter of
Abraham Colles Abraham Colles (23 July 1773 – 16 November 1843) was Professor of Anatomy, Surgery and Physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and the President of RCSI in 1802 and 1830. A prestigious Colles Medal & Travelling Fellowsh ...
; her sister Anna married another eminent judge Sir
Edmund Thomas Bewley Sir Edmund Thomas Bewley (1837–1908), Irish lawyer and genealogist, born in Dublin on 11 January 1837, was son of Edward Bewley (1806–1876), licentiate of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians, Ireland, by his wife Mary, daughter of ...
They lived in
Fitzwilliam Square Fitzwilliam Square ( ga, Cearnóg Mhic Liam) is a Georgian garden square in the south of central Dublin, Ireland. It was the last of the five Georgian squares in Dublin to be built, and is the smallest. The middle of the square is composed of a ...
and produced four sons, the eldest son and heir being William Gibson, 2nd Baron Ashbourne, and four daughters. One of their daughters,
Violet Gibson Violet Albina Gibson (31 August 1876 – 2 May 1956) was an Irish woman who attempted to assassinate Benito Mussolini in 1926. She was released without charge but spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital in England. She was the daug ...
, made an attempt to assassinate
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...
in 1926. Lord Ashburne died in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1913 and was cremated at
Golders Green crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...
, his ashes being placed in
Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...
, Dublin. In
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 ...
, he was a member of the
Kildare Street Club The Kildare Street Club is a historical member's club in Dublin, Ireland, at the heart of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy. The Club remained in Kildare Street between 1782 and 1977, when it merged with the Dublin University Club to become ...
.Thomas Hay Sweet Escott, ''Club Makers and Club Members'' (1913)
pp. 329–333
/ref>


Arms


References


External links

*
Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Edward Gibson (1837-1913), 1st Baron Ashbourne, of Ashbourne, County Meath
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashbourne, Edward Gibson, 1st Baron 1837 births 1913 deaths Lord chancellors of Ireland Lawyers from Dublin (city) Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Auditors of the College Historical Society Gibson, Edward Gibson, Edward Gibson, Edward Gibson, Edward Gibson, Edward Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 1 Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria