John Stark (otherwise described as James Stark by Burke and others) (born 5 May 1798) was a Scottish lawyer who became the ninth Queen's Advocate of Ceylon.

Life

Born in

Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( ; sco, Kirkcoubrie; gd, Cille Chùithbeirt) is a town, parish and a Royal Burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The town lies southwest of ...

, he passed the Scottish bar examination in 1824 and served as a lawyer in Edinburgh, becoming the Ruling Elder of the city's Council and First Bailie of the city. On 10 December 1838, he was appointed Queen's Advocate of Ceylon to succeed

William Ogle Carr Sir William Ogle Carr (13 November 1802 – 24 April 1856) was the ninth Chief Justice of Ceylon and eighth King's Advocate of Ceylon The Attorney General of Sri Lanka is the Sri Lankan government's chief legal adviser, and its primary law ...

, a position by which he was also a member of the island's executive and legislative councils. He held the office until 1840, when he was raised to join Carr as a puisne judge of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Oliphant, being succeeded as Advocate by Arthur William Buller. Whilst in Ceylon he was the originator and founding President of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1845, based in Colombo. In addition to his published contributions to the society's journal he was also a contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica and other works.

Family

He married the daughter of Major James Gibson and had two sons, James Gibson Stark and William Stark.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, John 1798 births People from Kirkcudbright Scottish lawyers Attorneys General of British Ceylon Puisne Justices of the Supreme Court of Ceylon British Ceylon judges Year of death missing