John Paget (1811–1898) was an English

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, police

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

and author.

Life

He was born on 14 May 1811 in Humberstone, Leicestershire, the second son of Thomas Paget, a banker in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. He was educated at home, and after some years as assistant in his father's bank, entered 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 ...

on 16 October 1835, 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 ...

on 2 November 1838.W. F. Rae, revised by Eric Metcalfe
"Paget, John (1811–1898)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 15 January 2108. As a young man Paget was a Whig, an activist for the

Great Reform Bill The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...

, and a member of the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club on the south side of Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it comprised an all-male membership for decades, but it was one of the first all-male cl ...

from its foundation in 1836. He was a member of the library committee there for 24 years, being chairman of it from 1861 to 1865. From 1850 till 1855, he was secretary first to Lord Chancellor Truro, and then to Lord Chancellor Cranworth. In 1864, Paget was appointed a magistrate at the Thames police court; he was transferred from it to the Hammersmith and Wandsworth courts On their separation he presided over the court in West London till his resignation in 1889. Paget died on 28 May 1898 at 28 The Boltons, West Brompton, London, leaving a widow and two daughters.

Works

In 1842 Paget published the ''Income Tax Act'', with an introduction, and in 1854 a ''Report of Dr. Radcliffe's Judgment in the Consistorial Court of Dublin'' with "observations on the practice of the ecclesiastical courts". He was a contributor to ''

Blackwood's Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine''. The first number appeared in April 1817 ...

'' between 1860 and 1888. His papers adversely criticizing

Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 184 ...

's views of Marlborough, the massacre of Glencoe, the highlands of Scotland, Claverhouse, and William Penn were reprinted in 1861 with the title of ''The New Examen''. Other articles, entitled "Vindication", and dealing with Nelson, Lady Hamilton, the Wigtown martyrs, and Lord Byron; "Judicial Puzzles", dealing with Elizabeth Canning, the Campden Wonder, the Annesley case, Eliza Fenning, and Spencer Cowper's case; and "Essays on Art", dealing with the elements of drawing, Rubens and Ruskin, George Cruikshank and John Leech, were included in a volume and called ''Paradoxes and Puzzles: Historical, Judicial, and Literary'', which appeared in 1874. Paget also provided illustrations to ''Bits and Bearing-reins'' (1875), by

Edward Fordham Flower Edward Fordham Flower (1805–1883) was an English brewer and author who campaigned for a Shakespeare memorial theatre and against cruelty to animals. Origins Born at Marden Hill in Hertfordshire on 31 January 1805, he was the younger surviving ...

Family

On 1 March 1839, Paget married Elizabeth, daughter of

William Rathbone V William Rathbone V (17 June 1787 – 1 February 1868) was an English merchant and politician, serving as Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Life The notability and prosperity of the Rathbone family of Liverpool was tied to the growth of that city as a ma ...

Greenbank House Greenbank House, is a Grade II*-listed building in Liverpool, England. It stands within the University of Liverpool's Greenbank Halls of Residence site, between Greenbank Road and Greenbank Lane. History Original house The original house was bu ...

, Liverpool. His estate was valued at £97,632 13s. 6d.Resworn probate, Feb 1899, CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1898), quoted in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2004

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paget, John 1811 births 1898 deaths English barristers English writers English illustrators People from Humberstone & Hamilton Members of the Middle Temple English male writers 19th-century English lawyers Stipendiary magistrates (England and Wales)