Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten, (3 February 1830 – 17 February 1913) was an
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
law lord
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...
,
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
,
rower, and
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
-
Unionist politician.
Early life and rowing
Macnaghten was born in
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, the second son of
Sir Edmund Workman-Macnaghten, Bt., but grew up mainly at Roe Park,
Limavady
Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 11,279 people at the 2021 Census. In the 40 years between 1 ...
. He attended school in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
and university at
Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, graduating
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in 1852. At Cambridge, he was secretary of the
Pitt Club
The University Pitt Club, popularly referred to as the Pitt Club, the UPC, or merely as Club, is a private members' club of the University of Cambridge. It was formerly male-only, and has admitted women since 2017.
History
The Pitt Club was ...
.
Macnaghten was a rower at Cambridge. In 1851, he was runner up to
E. G. Peacock in the
Diamond Challenge Sculls
The Diamond Challenge Sculls is a Rowing (sport), rowing event for men's single sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. First run in 1844, it is open to male scullers from all eligible rowin ...
at
Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a Rowing (sport), rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It diffe ...
, but avenged this the following year with a win. Macnaghten rowed bow for
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
in the
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing (sport), rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eight (rowing), eights on the River Thames in London, Englan ...
in 1852 which was won by Oxford. Also in 1852, he turned the tables on Peacock to win the Diamond Challenge Sculls from him at Henley.
Legal and political career
After being
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 ...
by
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...
in 1857, Macnaghten built up a successful practice and became
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
in 1880. That same year he was elected to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...
as
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
Member of Parliament for
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...
, and then for
North Antrim when the county was divided in 1885. In 1912 he signed the
Ulster Covenant
Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant, commonly known as the Ulster Covenant, was signed by nearly 500,000 people on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year.
...
.
Having declined the offers of a judgeship from
Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party.
In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...
in 1883 and the
Home Secretaryship from the Conservatives in 1886, he was on 25 January 1887 appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary with a
life peerage
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
as Baron Macnaghten, ''of
Runkerry in the
County of Antrim''. No practising barrister who had been Queen's Counsel for less than seven years had ever before been promoted to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
.
He was a member of the British tribunal to
arbitrate the Chile-Argentina boundary dispute and helped to draft the final settlement in 1902. For his service to this project he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...
(GCMG) by King
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910.
The second child ...
on 18 December 1902.
Judgments
*''
British South Africa Co v Companhia de Moçambique''
893AC 602 – the House of Lords overturned a Court of Appeal decision and by so doing established the ''Mozambique rule'', a
common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
rule in
private international law
Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction."Conflict of Laws", ''Black's Law Dictio ...
that renders actions relating to title in foreign land, the right to possession of foreign land, and
trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person (see below), trespass to chattels, and trespass to land.
Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery ...
to foreign land non-
justiciable
Justiciability concerns the limits upon legal issues over which a court can exercise its judicial authority. It includes, but is not limited to, the legal concept of standing, which is used to determine if the party bringing the suit is a par ...
in common law jurisdictions.
Decorations
Lord Macnaghten was made a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1902 and a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior military officers or senior civil servants, and the monarch awards it on the advice of His ...
in the 1911
coronation
A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...
honours
Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valo ...
of
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
. He also succeeded his elder brother, Francis, as fourth Baronet in the latter year.
Legacy
Lord Macnaghten's most famous contribution to
English law
English law is the common law list of national legal systems, legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly English criminal law, criminal law and Civil law (common law), civil law, each branch having its own Courts of England and Wales, ...
was the determination of categories of
charitable trusts (in the case of ''
Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel
A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something).
In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...
''). He also sat in the
landmark decision
Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly ...
of ''
Salomon v A Salomon & Co Ltd
is a landmark UK company law case. The effect of the House of Lords' unanimous ruling was to uphold firmly the doctrine of corporate personality, as set out in the Companies Act 1862, so that creditors of an insolvent company could not sue the ...
''. In the case of ''Montgomery v Thompson'' (Eng.), AC 225 (1891), he held that a brewery opened in the town of
Stone in Staffordshire could not use the name "Stone Ale", as this would infringe the rights of an existing seller of a product named "Stone Ale". He famously remarked, "Thirsty folk want beer, not explanations."
He is famous for the elegance of his prose. An example is given in the case of ''Gluckstein v Barnes''
900
__NOTOC__
Year 900 ( CM) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Abbasid Caliphate
* Spring – Forces under the Transoxianian emir Isma'il ibn Ahmad are victorious at Balkh (Northern Afghan ...
AC 240, where he refused to order that fraudulent company promoters should be entitled to contribution from other participants of the fraud. He said, "In these two matters Mr. Gluckstein has been in my opinion extremely fortunate. But he complains that he may have a difficulty in recovering from his co-directors their share of the spoil, and he asks that the official liquidator may proceed against his associates before calling upon him to make good the whole amount with which he has been charged. My Lords, there may be occasions in which that would be a proper course to take. But I cannot think that this is a case in which any indulgence ought to be shewn to Mr. Gluckstein. He may or may not be able to recover a contribution from those who joined with him in defrauding the company. He can bring an action at law if he likes. If he hesitates to take that course or takes it and fails, then his only remedy lies in an appeal to that sense of honour which is popularly supposed to exist among robbers of a humbler type."
He also gave an eloquent description of a floating charge in ''
Illingworth v Houldsworth
''Illingworth v Houldsworth'' 904AC 355 (known as or ''Re Yorkshire Woolcombers Association'' in the Court of Appeal) is a UK insolvency law case, concerning the taking of a security interest over a company's assets with a floating charge. In th ...
''
904AC 335, where he said, "A specific charge, I think, is one that without more fastens on ascertained and definite property or property capable of being ascertained and defined; a floating charge, on the other hand, is ambulatory and shifting in its nature, hovering over and so to speak floating with the property which it is intended to affect until some event occurs or some act is done which causes it to settle and fasten on the subject of the charge within its reach and grasp."
Personal life
He married, in 1858, Frances Arabella (d. 1903), the only child of
Sir Samuel Martin, a baron of the exchequer; they had five sons and six daughters. His daughters remained living at Runkerry until c. 1950.
Their children were:
*
Sir Edward Charles Macnaghten, 5th Baronet (9 October 1859 – 31 December 1914), married firstly in 1888 the Hon. Gwen Elca Violett Abbot (d.1891), daughter of
Charles Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden with whom he had one son, Hugh Macnaghten, who died young. He married secondly in 1894 Edith Minnie Powell, and they had two sons (the future
6th and
7th Baronets, who were both killed in
WWI), and one daughter.
*Hon. Frances Helen Macnaghten (1860 – 12 March 1950). Unmarried.
*Hon. Beatrice Mary Macnaghten (1862 – 12 March 1950). Unmarried.
*Sir Francis Alexander Macnaghten, 8th Baronet (18 May 1863 – 1 November 1951), who married 1905 Beatrice Ritchie, daughter of
Sir William Johnstone Ritchie, 2nd Chief Justice of Canada. They had no issue.
*Hon. Florence Mary Macnaghten (1864 – 26 January 1941). Unmarried.
*Sir Frederic Fergus Macnaghten, 9th Baronet (16 May 1867 – 18 November 1955), who married 1915 Ada Webster. No issue.
*Hon. Edith Arabella Mary Macnaghten (12 December 1865 – 16 January 1866)
*
Rt. Hon. Sir Malcolm Martin Macnaghten (12 January 1869 – 24 January 1955), who married in 1899 Antonia Mary Booth, daughter of
Charles Booth. They had four children, including the 10th and further baronets.
*Hon. Octavia Mary Macnaghten (1870 – 8 August 1946). Unmarried.
*Hon. Anne Julia Mary Macnaghten (1872 – 7 March 1949). Unmarried.
*Hon. Ethel Mary Macnaghten (1876 – 18 May 1951). Unmarried. A member of the Trade Board for Ireland.
*Capt. Hon. Maurice Patrick Macnaghten (2 March 1874 – 5 May 1914), who married 1912 Sybil Torbock Graham, daughter of Col. Henry Graham of the
16th Lancers. Had no issue.
He died of pneumonia in 1913 at his home 198 Queen's Gate,
Kensington
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, and was buried at Bushmills.
See also
*
List of Cambridge University Boat Race crews
This is a list of the Cambridge University crews who have competed in The Boat Race since its inception in 1829.
Rowers are listed left to right in boat position from bow to stroke. The number following the rower indicates the rower's weight ...
References
*
The Rowers of Vanity Fair – E Macnaghten
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnaghten, Edward Baron Macnaghten
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Antrim constituencies (1801–1922)
Irish Conservative Party MPs
Macnaghten, Edward Macnaghten, Baron
Macnaghten, Edward Macnaghten, Baron
Law lords
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Cambridge University Boat Club rowers
Edward
Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...
English male rowers
UK MPs 1880–1885
UK MPs 1885–1886
UK MPs 1886–1892
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
104
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
English King's Counsel
19th-century King's Counsel
Irish Unionist Party MPs
Life peers created by Queen Victoria