John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell (1848-1913)

John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell PC (16 May 1848 – 22 April 1913), was a British

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Biography

Gorell was the eldest son of Henry Barnes, a shipowner of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and was educated at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

. where he took his degree in 1868. He began work as a solicitor, but 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 ...

in 1876 and became a

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 ...

in 1888. He was well known as an expert in Admiralty cases, and in 1892 was made a Judge of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...

, where he acted as president during the illness of Sir Francis Jeune in late 1902. When Jeune retired in 1905, Gorell was appointed president of the division from 1905 until 1909. He was admitted to 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 ...

in 1905 and in 1909 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Gorell, of Brampton in the County of Derby. He died in April 1913, aged 64, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Henry Gorell Barnes.

Family

Lord Gorell married Mary, daughter of Thomas Mitchell, in 1881.

Arms

Notes

References

*De Montmorency, James Edward Geoffrey,
John Gorell Barnes, First Lord Gorell (1848-1913), A Memoir
, London: John Murray, 1920. *Kidd, Charles; Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, * ;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, John 1st Baron Gorell Gorell, John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell, John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell, John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell, John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell, John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron English King's Counsel 19th-century King's Counsel Gorell, John Gorel Barnes, 1st Baron Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division judges Knights Bachelor Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 20th-century English judges Peers created by Edward VII Presidents of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division