John Edmund Wentworth Addison (5 November 1838 – 22 April 1907) was a British

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 ...

and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician.

Early life

Addison was born in 1838 in

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and was the third son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Robert Addison and his second wife, Grace Barton. Colonel Addison was born in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

of Irish ancestry and after retiring from the army wrote a number of musical plays and light operas. J.E.W Addison was educated at

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 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 ...

at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1862.

Career

He practised in the Northern circuit and in 1880 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 1873 he married Alice McKeand of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, who predeceased him in 1894. In 1874 he was appointed

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of Preston, a position he held for sixteen years. In 1889 Addison was the senior prosecuting counsel in the celebrated trial of

Florence Maybrick Florence Elizabeth Chandler Maybrick (3 September 1862 – 23 October 1941) was an American woman convicted in the United Kingdom of murdering her husband, cotton merchant James Maybrick. Early life Florence Maybrick was born Florence Elizabet ...

.''Obituary. Judge Addison K.C.'', The Times, 24 April 1907, p. 11 At the 1885 general election, he was elected as Conservative

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for

Ashton under Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manc ...

, defeating the sitting MP, Hugh Mason. At the ensuing general election in 1886 he drew with his

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opponent. He was elected by the

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of the borough's mayor as

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. He held the seat at the

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election before standing down from parliament in 1895. On leaving

the Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...

in 1895, Addison was appointed a

county court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

judge in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and

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. In 1897 he was transferred to the

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

County Court, where he presided until his retirement due to ill health in 1906. Judge Addison died at his residence at

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in April 1907, aged 68.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Addison, J E W 1838 births 1907 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 Members of the Inner Temple 20th-century English judges Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Ashton-under-Lyne County Court judges (England and Wales) 19th-century English judges