Sir James Stirling, FRS (3 May 1836 – 27 June 1916) was a British barrister, judge, and amateur scientist. In his youth he demonstrated exceptional ability in mathematics, becoming

Senior Wrangler The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." Specifically, it is the person who a ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1860, regarded at the time as "the highest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain". He was a High Court judge in the

Chancery Division 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 and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

from 1886 to 1900, and a

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

from 1900, when he was made a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...

, until his retirement in 1906. He continued to pursue his scientific and mathematical interests during his legal career, and after retiring from the bench became vice-president of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1909–1910.

Early life and education

James Stirling was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, the eldest son of James Stirling (1797/8 – 1871), a United Presbyterian church minister, and Sarah Hendry Stirling (''née'' Irvine, 1813–1875). He attended

Aberdeen Grammar School Aberdeen Grammar School is a state secondary school in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of thirteen secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department. It is the oldest school in the city and one of the oldest grammar school ...

from 1846 to 1851 and King's College at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

from 1851, where he graduated MA in 1855, showing an exceptional ability in mathematics. He entered

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1856, was awarded the Sheepshanks

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

in 1859, and became

and first Smith's prizeman in 1860.

Career

As he was not a member of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, he was ineligible for a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at Cambridge. Turning to the legal profession, he 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 ...

in January 1860, and was called to the bar in November 1862. He reported cases in the rolls court, first for the ''New Reports'', then for '' Law Reports'' until 1876. He was chosen in 1881 by the

attorney-general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, Sir Henry James as his "devil", or

Treasury Devil Devilling is the period of training, pupillage or junior work undertaken by a person wishing to become an advocate in one of the English-speaking common law systems of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, and Australia. Etymology While there ...

, a prestigious appointment which leads almost automatically to appointment to the High Court bench. In 1886, he became a judge in the Chancery Division of the High Court, and was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the same year; the following year he received an honorary LLD from his ''alma mater'', the University of Aberdeen. He was promoted to the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

on 27 October 1900, when Sir Archibald Smith became

Master of the Rolls The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Court of Appeal (England and Wales)#Civil Division, Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales a ...

. Stirling retired from the bench on 11 June 1906. In his early career he gained a high reputation as a draughtsman and conveyancer, but was diffident in recognising his own abilities. It was said that his opinion was "the best in Lincoln's Inn, if only one could get it". Later, as a judge, he demonstrated a degree of equanimity and clarity which made him popular with the bar. He was criticised for his slowness, but he was careful and painstaking, and his judgments were rarely reversed.

Other interests

In 1878 he was recorded as being a member of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

In 1898, a newspaper article noted that he still diligently studied mathematics and science. He became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1902, and was its vice-president in 1909–1910. He was also an amateur bryologist and member of the Moss Exchange Club, and owned a

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in ...

herbarium, which included about 6000 varieties of

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es and

liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ge ...

. After his death, the herbarium was donated to the

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

Museum.

Family life

Stirling married Elizabeth (Aby) Renton, daughter of John Thomson Renton, of Bradstone Brook,

Shalford, Surrey Shalford is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England on the A281 Horsham road immediately south of Guildford. It has a railway station which is between Guildford and Dorking on the Reading to Gatwick Airport line. It has one named locali ...

, who was of Scottish descent, on 12 May 1868. Elizabeth was 9 years younger than Stirling, and they had three children: James Irvine (1869–1951), Agnes Renton (born 1871) and John Gordon (1874–1902). The family lived in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

; in 1871 they were in Hanover Terrace, and by 1881 had moved to

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...

. The family were known to be living in Shalford in 1891, although they had leased

Finchcocks Finchcocks is an early Georgian manor house in Goudhurst, Kent. For 45 years it housed a large, visitor-friendly museum of historical keyboard instruments, displaying a collection of harpsichords, clavichords, fortepianos, square pianos, organs ...

, a Georgian manor house in

Goudhurst Goudhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies in the Weald, around south of Maidstone, on the crossroads of the A262 and B2079. The parish consists of three wards: Goudhurst, Kilndown and ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

from 1890, where Stirling spent most of his time after retirement. Stirling died at Finchcocks on 27 June 1916.

Notes

External links

*
Royal Society obituary notice
(behind paywall)
Coat of Arms
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stirling, James 1836 births 1916 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Bryologists Chancery Division judges Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Lords Justices of Appeal Members of Lincoln's Inn Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School People from Aberdeen Senior Wranglers