Sir Joseph Napier, 1st Baronet (26 December 1804 – 9 December 1882) was an Irish

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom Parliament. He was also a

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 ...

and judge, who served briefly as

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

Career

He was the son of William Napier and Rosetta MacNaghten of Ballyreagh House,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, and was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, Ireland, where his father was a prosperous

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

. The family had emigrated to

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

from

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

: they were descended from

John Napier John Napier of Merchiston (; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioann ...

, inventor of the

logarithm In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 o ...

. He attended the

Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

and

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

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...

in 1831. He had contemplated remaining at Trinity and seeking a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

, but his marriage in 1831 disqualified him, as Trinity required its fellows to be

celibate Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...

. He built up a very large practice, and acquired an impressive reputation for learning, especially in the area of

pleading In law as practiced in countries that follow the English models, a pleading is a formal written statement of a party's claims or defenses to another party's claims in a civil action. The parties' pleadings in a case define the issues to be adjudi ...

. He 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 1844. He was MP for

Dublin University The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dubl ...

from 1848 to 1858, after failing to be elected in 1847. He became

Attorney General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the es ...

from March to December 1852. He was also made a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

in 1852. He received a Doctorate in Civil Law in 1853. Napier was a staunch

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 ...

in politics, and exceptionally diligent in attending to his political duties.Ball p.295 He left the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

when he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1858, an office he held until 1859. His appointment caused some surprise since he had made his reputation in the

courts of common law A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

, although he also did some chancery work. Some embarrassment was caused by the revelation that a previous holder of the office,

Francis Blackburne Francis Blackburne PC (Ire) KS (11 November 1782 – 17 September 1867) was an Irish judge and eventually became Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Background Born at Great Footstown in County Meath, he was the son of Richard Blackburne of Great Foot ...

, had been offered it a second time, and after an initial refusal had been willing to accept; Blackburne took his rejection very badly. Napier was created a

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1867 and appointed to the

Privy Council of the United Kingdom The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of e ...

in 1868, which entitled him to sit on the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Augus ...

. Despite his obvious wish to return to office, he never became Chancellor again: even in the Tory party, his strong

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

views had made him enemies, while the Bar complained that his deafness made it impossible for him to conduct business efficiently. He accepted the position of

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

, but the reaction from the Bar was so unfavourable (his deafness rather than his religious beliefs seems to have been the issue here) that he withdrew his name. His publications include educational, mathematical and legal works. In 1880, following the death of his eldest son William, a blow from which he never recovered, he retired to

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origina ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and died there on 9 December 1882. He was buried in

Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

, Dublin with a tablet to his memory placed in

St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Saint Patrick's Cathedral ( ir, Ard-Eaglais Naomh Pádraig) in Dublin, Ireland, founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic cathedral, is currently the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland. Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland ca ...

Reputation

He was remembered as a learned jurist and a diligent Parliamentarian, but above all as a devout

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

with a deep devotion to the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

, whose

disestablishment The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...

he fiercely opposed. When young he was an extreme

, and strongly opposed to

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

, but it is said that his views mellowed as he grew older. His earlier religious views led to a clash with

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, who nicknamed him "Holy Joe". He was sometimes accused of hypocrisy, and certainly knew how to dissemble: candidates for office who were assured of his support sometimes found to their outrage that he had been blocking them all along.

Family

He married Charity (Cherry) Grace, daughter of John Grace of Dublin (from an old

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

family), on 20 August 1831. Described as "an impulsive love match", the marriage was a very happy one. They had 2 sons: William John Napier, who predeceased his parents, to their intense grief, and

Sir Joseph Napier, 2nd Baronet Sir Joseph Napier, 2nd Baronet (28 May 1841 – 13 November 1884) was an Irish Captain 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers. He was the son of Sir Joseph Napier, 1st Baronet and Charity (Cherry) Grace, and was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a leadi ...

, and 3 daughters: Grace, Rosetta and Cherry. Lady Napier died on 4 March 1901. One of his sisters, Rosetta Napier, married

James Whiteside James Whiteside (12 August 1804 – 25 November 1876) was an Irish politician and judge. Background and education Whiteside was born at Delgany, County Wicklow, the son of William Whiteside, a clergyman of the Church of Ireland. His father wa ...

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 ...

for Ireland and later

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge i ...

. The warm friendship between the two men ended in a bitter quarrel which was never made up. Another sister, Mary Napier, married Echlin Molyneux who later became a Professor of English Law at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

; she died young in 1831, leaving a son, James Henry. John Robinson, founder and proprietor of the Dublin Daily Express, was a cousin: this assured Napier of favourable press coverage in a wide-circulation Unionist newspaper.

References

Bibliography

* ''Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Vol. I 1832-1885'', edited by Michael Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976) * Andrew Shields, The Irish Conservative Party, 1852-1868: Land, Politics and Religion (Dublin, 2007)
Authorized Report of the Proceedings of the Church Congress
held at York, 1866. with speech from Napier * Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. 2003 * Copy of confirmation of arms to the descendants of Joseph Napier of St. Andrews, Co. Down and to his grandson, the Rt. Hon. Joseph Napier, M.P., Lord Chancellor of Ireland, son of William Napier of St. Andrews, 16 March 1867. Dublin: National Library of Ireland, Genealogical Office: Ms. 109, pp. 143–4 * Our portrait gallery - No. LXIX: The Rt. Hon. Joseph Napier, M. P. (With etching). The Dublin University magazine: a literary and political journal, Vol. XLI, pp. 300–314, March, 1853. National Library of Ireland. * * Ewald, Alexander Charles. ''The Life of Sir Joseph Napier, Bart., ex Lord Chancellor of Ireland: from his private correspondence''. Longmans, Green. London, 492pp. 188

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Napier, Joseph, 1st Baronet 1804 births 1882 deaths Lord chancellors of Ireland Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Lawyers from Belfast Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish Conservative Party MPs UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 Attorneys-General for Ireland Burials at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dublin University Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Politicians from Belfast