Hedges Eyre Chatterton (5 July 1819 – 30 August 1910) was an Irish

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom Parliament and subsequently

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of Ireland.

Biography

He was born in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, the eldest son of Abraham Chatterton, a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, and Jane Tisdall of

Kenmare Kenmare () is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of ''Ceann Mara'', meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay. Location Kenmare is located at the head of Kenmare ...

.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.2 p.367 He attended

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 ...

, before being called to the Irish Bar in 1843. He 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 ...

(QC) in 1858. Chatterton was

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 rar ...

1866–1867 and

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 es ...

in 1867. He was made a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland 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 executi ...

on 30 March 1867. He was elected MP 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 Dubl ...

in 1867. Chatterton left the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

on his appointment to the newly created judicial office of

of Ireland in 1867, an office which was abolished when he retired in 1904. He married firstly Mary Halloran of

Cloyne Cloyne () is a small town to the southeast of Midleton in eastern County Cork. It is also a see city of the Anglican (Church of Ireland) Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, while also giving its name to a Roman Catholic diocese. St Colman's Cath ...

in 1845; she died in 1901. In the year of his retirement, he remarried Florence Henrietta Gore, widow of Edward Croker. He had no children.

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

remarks in ''

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'' that his second marriage at the age of 85 infuriated his nephew, who had been waiting patiently for years to inherit his money.

Reputation

Despite his many years of service on the Bench, Chatterton does not seem to have been highly regarded as a judge. On his retirement the Bar paid tribute to his good qualities but added several qualifications: "there might have been on the Bench lawyers more profound, reasoners more acute..." In his first decade on the Bench he had to endure the continual denigration of

Jonathan Christian Jonathan Christian, SL, QC, PC (I) (17 February 1808 in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary – 29 October 1887 in Dublin), was an Irish judge. He served as Solicitor-General for Ireland from 1856 to 1858. He was a judge of the Court of Common P ...

, the

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

. Christian was notoriously bitter-tongued, and while he despised most of his colleagues, he seems to have had a particular dislike of Chatterton. He regularly voted on appeal to overturn his judgments, and frequently added personal insults. Nor did he confine his attacks to the courtroom: there was controversy in 1870 when remarks of Christian that Chatterton was "lazy, stupid, conceited and so incompetent that he ought to be pensioned off" found their way into the

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

. The hint about pensioning off Chatterton was not taken up, no doubt because he enjoyed the confidence of the

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 ...

Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan, KP, PC (Ire), QC (29 May 18121 February 1885), was an Irish lawyer and judge. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1868 to 1874 and again from 1880 to 1881. Background and education O'Hagan was bo ...

, who was also on bad terms with Christian. In an appeal from Chatterton in 1873 the two appeal judges clashed publicly, with O'Hagan reprimanding Christian for insulting a judge who was not there to defend himself.

Renaming Sackville Street

Chatterton became involved in controversy in 1885, over the first attempt to rename Sackville Street as

O'Connell Street O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections ...

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 ...

voted for the name change, but it aroused considerable objections from local residents, one of whom sought an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

. Chatterton granted the injunction on the ground that the corporation had exceeded its statutory powers; rather unwisely, he also attacked the merits of the decision, accusing the Corporation of "sentimental notions".''Anderson v. Dublin Corporation'' (1885) 15 L.R.Ir. 450 The corporation was angered by both the decision and the criticisms: while it may have been a coincidence, the fact that Temple Street was briefly renamed Chatterton Street was interpreted by some as an insult to the judge, since the street was much frequented by

prostitutes Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

. The controversy was short-lived: the corporation was granted the necessary statutory powers in 1890, and the new name became official in 1924, by which time it had gained popular acceptance.

References

* ''Who's Who of British members of parliament: Vol. I 1832–1885'', edited by Michael Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976) * ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterton, Hedges Eyre 1819 births 1910 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Politicians from County Cork Irish Conservative Party MPs Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Solicitors-General for Ireland Attorneys-General for Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dublin University UK MPs 1865–1868 19th-century Irish judges British King's Counsel 19th-century King's Counsel