John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst, (21 May 1772 – 12 October 1863) was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
.
Background and education
Lyndhurst was born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts, the son of painter
John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. Afte ...
and his wife Susanna Farnham (née Clarke), granddaughter of silversmith
Edward Winslow. His father left America to live in London in 1774, and his wife and son followed a year later. Copley was educated at a private school and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, where he graduated as second
wrangler.
Political and legal career
Called to the bar at
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 1804, he gained a considerable practice. He was appointed a
serjeant-at-law on 6 July 1813. In 1817, he was one of the counsel for Dr J. Watson, tried for his share in the
Spa Fields riots
The Spa Fields riots were incidents of public disorder arising out of the second of two mass meetings at Spa Fields, Islington, England on 15 November and 2 December 1816.
The meetings had been planned by a small group of revolutionary Spenceans ...
. Lyndhurst's performance attracted the attention of
Lord Castlereagh and other
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
leaders, and he entered parliament as member for
Yarmouth
Yarmouth may refer to:
Places Canada
*Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia
**Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
**Municipality of the District of Yarmouth
**Yarmouth (provincial electoral district)
**Yarmouth (electoral district)
* Yarmouth Township, Ontario
*New ...
in the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
. He afterwards sat for Ashburton (1818–1826) and for
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 ...
(1826–1827).
In December 1818, Copley was made
King's Serjeant
A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...
and
Chief Justice of Chester
The Justice of Chester was the chief judicial authority for the county palatine of Chester, from the establishment of the county until the abolition of the Great Sessions in Wales and the palatine judicature in 1830.
Within the County Palatine (w ...
. He became
Solicitor General on 24 July 1819 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 October, became
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 ...
in 1824,
Master of the Rolls in 1826 and
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
in 1827. On his appointment to the latter post he was raised to the
peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
as Baron Lyndhurst, of
Lyndhurst in the
County of Southampton. As solicitor-general he took a prominent part in the trial of
Queen Caroline and was opposed to the Liberal measures which marked the end of the reign of
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
and the beginning of that of
William IV. He was
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer
The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who pre ...
from 1831 to 1834. During the
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
government from 1835 to 1841 he figured conspicuously as an obstructionist in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. His former adversary
Lord Brougham
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, (; 19 September 1778 – 7 May 1868) was a British statesman who became Lord High Chancellor and played a prominent role in passing the 1832 Reform Act and 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. ...
, disgusted at his treatment by the Whig leaders, soon became his most powerful ally in opposition. Lyndhurst held the chancellorship from 1827 to 1830, 1834–1835, and 1841–1846. As he was in regard to Catholic emancipation, so in the agitation against the
Corn Laws, he opposed reform until Peel, his chief, gave the signal for concession. In 1837 he was
Rector of Marischal College (later Aberdeen University).
After 1846 and the disintegration of the Tory party over Peel's adoption of free trade, Lord Lyndhurst did not attend parliament sessions as often, but he continued to take a lively interest in public affairs and to make speeches. His address to the House of Lords on 19 June 1854, on the war with Russia, made a sensation in Europe, and throughout the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
he was a strong advocate of the energetic prosecution of hostilities. In 1859 he denounced
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
. His last speech was delivered in the House of Lords at the age of eighty-nine.
Family
In 1819 Lord Lyndhurst married Sarah, a daughter of Charles Brunsden and widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Thomas, who was killed at Waterloo. She died in 1834, and three years later, in August 1837, he married secondly Georgiana Goldsmith (1807–1901), daughter of writer
Lewis Goldsmith
Lewis Goldsmith (c. 1763 – 6 January 1846) was an Anglo-French publicist of Portuguese-Jewish extraction. He is thought to have been born in Richmond, Surrey.
Allied with Napoleon
In 1801, Goldsmith published ''The Crimes of Cabinets, or a ...
, of Paris. They had one daughter, Georgiana Susan Copley, who married
Sir Charles Du Cane, Governor of Tasmania.
Since his second wife came from a family of Jewish origins, it may be her influence which led Lyndhurst to support the Jewish Emancipation of 1858, when the law which had restricted the Parliamentary oath of office to Christians was changed, leading to the admission of Jews into parliament. Lyndhurst also advocated women's rights in questions of divorce.
He died in London on 12 October 1863 and was buried in
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
;
as he left no son, his
peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
became extinct. Lady Lyndhurst died in London 22 December 1901, aged 94.
[
]
Arms
References
*
Further reading
*Dennis Lee: ''Lord Lyndhurst: The Flexible Tory'' – , 318 pages – 1994 Niwot (Colorado): University Press of Colorado.
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyndhurst, John Copley, 1st Baron
Lord chancellors of Great Britain
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