John Farley Leith, QC (5 May 1808 – 4 April 1887) was a

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lawyer and

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politician.

Life

He was the eldest son of James Urquhart Murray Leith, of Barrach, Aberdeenshire, killed in 1814 at the

Battle of Orthez The Battle of Orthez (27 February 1814) saw the Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese Army under Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington attack an Imperial French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult in southern France. The outnumbered Fr ...

with the 68th Regiment. He was educated at

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on long- ...

and

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

. He studied law at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

and 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 1830. Leith practised as a barrister in the

Calcutta High Court The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...

from 1832 to 1846 and was then Professor of Law at the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

from 1853 to 1857. He was made QC in 1872 and a bencher in 1874. He was elected MP for

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 ...

at a by-election in 1872 but stood down at the 1880 general election. Leith died in 1887.

Family

In 1832 Leith married Alicia Anne, the daughter of Samuel Tomkins (the elder) of London, a banker, with whom he had issue. Their daughter Mary Anne married

Sir William Miller, 1st Baronet Sir William Miller, 1st Baronet, of Manderston, Berwickshire (25 March 1809 – 10 October 1887) was a British Vice-Consul at Saint Petersburg in 1842–54, and a Member of Parliament for Leith Burghs in 1859–1868, for Berwickshire 1873/74, an ...

. Their sons included Edward Tyrrell Leith, law professor at the

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

, and the barrister William Gordon Ernest Leith.

References

External links

* 1808 births 1887 deaths People from Aberdeenshire Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Members of the Middle Temple British India judges Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Aberdeen constituencies Scottish Liberal Party MPs UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 Masters of Haileybury and Imperial Service College {{Liberal-UK-MP-stub