Sir Thomas Berry Cusack-Smith PC (1795 – 13 August 1866) was an Irish politician and judge. He was nicknamed "TBC Smith" or "Alphabet Smith".

Family and education

He was the younger son of

Sir William Cusack-Smith, 2nd Baronet Sir William Cusack-Smith, 2nd Baronet FRS (23 January 1766 – 21 August 1836) was an Irish baronet, politician, and judge. Background and education Cusack-Smith was the only surviving son of Sir Michael Smith, 1st Baronet, Master of the Rol ...

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...

and his wife Hester Berry, daughter of Major Thomas Berry (Irish Volunteers) of Eglish Castle, sole signatory of the Birr Declaration in 1782. He was grandson of Sir Michael Smith, 1st Baronet,

Master of the Rolls in Ireland The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was respons ...

from 1801 to 1806 and his first wife Maryanne Cusack. He 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 ...

. He entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1817 and was called to the Irish Bar in 1819.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol. 2 p.356-7 He married Louisa Smith-Barry, daughter of James Hugh Smith-Barry, of the well-known Smith-Barry family who owned

Fota Island Fota (statutory spelling Foaty; ga, Fóite) is an island in Cork Harbour, Ireland, just north of the larger island of Great Island. Fota Island is host to Ireland's only wildlife park – as well as the historical Fota House and gardens and go ...

, Cork. They had one son, William and five daughters, Hester, Marianne, Anne, Caroline and Frances.

Career

He was appointed

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On rar ...

briefly in 1842, and then

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 ...

from 1842 until 1846, in which role he prosecuted

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 ...

. His conduct of the trial attracted severe criticism, and the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

later quashed the guilty verdict due to gross irregularities in the proceedings.Geoghegan, Patrick M. ''Liberator- the life and death of Daniel O'Connell'' Gill and Macmillan Dublin 2010 pp.166-182 He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

from 1843 to 1846. He became

in 1846, holding that office until his death, which occurred at

Blairgowrie and Rattray Blairgowrie may refer to: * Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, a town in Scotland now part of the burgh of Blairgowrie and Rattray * Blairgowrie, Victoria, Australia * Blairgowrie, Gauteng Blairgowrie is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It i ...

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 ...

Character and appearance

Like his father he had a reputation for eccentricity and bad temper: during the trial of Daniel O'Connell he challenged one of the opposing counsel,

Gerald Fitzgibbon Gerald Fitzgibbon (8 October 1866 – 6 December 1942) was an Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1924 to 1938. He also served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin University constituency from 1921 to 1923. Family Fit ...

, to a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

, for having allegedly accused him of acting from "private and dishonourable motives". The judges, gravely embarrassed, strongly criticised Cusack-Smith for his actions and persuaded him to drop the matter. To the public, a particularly startling aspect of the matter was that Fitzgibbon's wife and daughter were present in Court throughout. Cussck-Smith's frequent outbursts of ill-temper were attributed by his friends to chronic

indigestion Indigestion, also known as dyspepsia or upset stomach, is a condition of impaired digestion. Symptoms may include upper abdominal fullness, heartburn, nausea, belching, or upper abdominal pain. People may also experience feeling full earlier t ...

. An admirer described him as having "a touch of genius" but admitted that he was rough and harsh in manner.

Charles Gavan Duffy Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KCMG, PC (12 April 1816 – 9 February 1903), was an Irish poet and journalist (editor of ''The Nation''), Young Irelander and tenant-rights activist. After emigrating to Australia in 1856 he entered the politics of ...

described him as "dignified" but so unhealthy and ghastly in appearance that he resembled "an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

in daylight". Daniel O'Connell called him "the

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

cruet".

References

Sources

*Concise Dictionary of National Biography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cusack-Smith, Thomas 1795 births 1866 deaths Solicitors-General for Ireland Attorneys-General for Ireland Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1841–1847 Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Younger sons of baronets Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of Lincoln's Inn Masters of the Rolls in Ireland