Sir George Mellish, PC (19 December 1814 – 15 June 1877) was an English

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, judge of the

Court of Appeal in Chancery The Court of Appeal in Chancery was created in 1851 to hear appeals of decisions and decrees made in the Court of Chancery, Chancery Court. The appeals in the court were heard by the Lord Chancellor alone, or as a tripartite panel (supplemented by ...

, and member of the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Augus ...

Early life

Born at

East Tuddenham East Tuddenham is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located south-west of Dereham and north-west of Norwich and is bisected by the A47 between Birmingham and Lowestoft. History East Tuddenham's name is of Anglo-Saxon ...

, Norfolk, Mellish was the second son of the Very Rev. Edward Mellish, DD, Rector of the parish, who afterwards became

Dean of Hereford The Dean of Hereford is the head (''primus inter pares'' – first among equals) and chair of the chapter of canons, the ruling body of Hereford Cathedral. The dean and chapter are based at the ''Cathedral Church of Blessed Virgin Mary and St Eth ...

, by his marriage to Elizabeth Jane Leigh, the daughter of the Rev. William Leigh, an earlier Dean of Hereford. His mother was a cousin of

George Canning George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Unit ...

, who stood as godfather to Mellish.''The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year 1877'', Volume 119, Part II (London: Rivingtons, 1878), p. 150 His paternal grandfather was William Mellish, of Blyth Hall and

Hodsock Priory Hodsock Priory is an English country house in Hodsock, Nottinghamshire, north of Worksop, England, and south of Blyth. Despite its name, it is not and never has been a priory. Hodsock is renowned for its snowdrops in early spring. It is also a ...

, Nottinghamshire.Biography of William Leigh Mellish (1813-1864)
at nottingham.ac.uk, accessed 16 November 2011. Mellish attended

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

, where he fagged for William Gladstone, participated in the Debating Society and was a "wet bob", a sculler on the river. He then went up to

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

, where he was a debater in the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

. In 1836, he earned a BA with a second class in classical honours.

Legal career

After Oxford, Mellish joined

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

and served his

pupillage A pupillage, in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Hong Kong, is the final, vocational stage of training for those wishing to become practising barristers. Pupillage is similar to an apprenticeship, during which bar ...

to a variety of notable lawyers. He practised as a

special pleader A special pleader was a historical legal occupation. The practitioner, or "special pleader" in English law specialised in drafting "pleadings", in modern terminology statements of case. History Up to the 19th century, there were many rules, tech ...

for several years. In 1848, he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

and began practising on the

Northern Circuit {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The Northern Circuit is a court circuit in England. It dates from 1176 when Henry II sent his judges on circuit to do justice in his name. The Circuit encompassed the whole of the North of England but in 1876 i ...

. In 1860 he was appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

. On 4 August 1870, Mellish was appointed as Lord Justice of the

. The appointment was recommended by Prime Minister Gladstone, who had been Mellish's fag-master at Eton, although Gladstone had apparently forgotten the connection by the time of the appointment. Mellish's appointment to the Chancery Court of Appeal was somewhat unusual, as he had practised almost entirely in the common law courts, not in equity.''The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year 1877'', Volume 119, Part II (London: Rivingtons, 1878), p. 151 On 12 August 1870, he was sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

and was afterwards knighted. His appointment to the Privy Council entitled him to sit as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the

court of last resort A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

for the British Empire beyond the seas. He was one of the judges in the 1877 case

Parker v South Eastern Rly Co ''Parker v South Eastern Railway'' 8772 CPD 416 is a famous English contract law A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A con ...

Illness and death

Mellish was a lifelong sufferer from serious

gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...

. One of the judges before whom he appeared later wrote "I have seen him arguing a difficult case before us while he was absolutely writhing with pain". The illness compelled him on occasion to take absences from the bench. Mellish died at his residence in

Lowndes Square Lowndes Square is a residential garden square at the north-west end of Belgravia, London, SW1. It is formed of archetypal grand terraces of light stucco houses, cream or white. The length of the central rectangular garden is parallel with Sloane ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, on 15 June 1877, aged 62. There is a memorial to him in the parish church of St Mary and St Martin,

Blyth, Nottinghamshire Blyth is a village and civil parish in the Bassetlaw district of the county of Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands, north west of East Retford, on the River Ryton. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census is 1,233. It sits at ...

.Memorial to Sir George Mellish
illustrated at nottingham.ac.uk, accessed 16 November 2011 He had outlived his elder brother, William Leigh Mellish (1813–1864), who became a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer and retired as

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

of the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to f ...

, having married Margaret Ann, a daughter of Sir Samuel Cunard, Bart.Blyth St Mary and St Martin Monuments and Memorials
at nottingham.ac.uk, accessed 16 November 2011

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mellish, George 1814 births 1877 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of University College, Oxford Members of Lincoln's Inn English King's Counsel 19th-century English judges Lords Justices of Appeal Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor People from Breckland District