James Hewitt, 1st Viscount Lifford (28 April 1712 – 28 April 1789) 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 ...

politician, lawyer and judge. He served as

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...

from 1767 to 1789.

Background

Hewitt was the son of a

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

, William Hewitt (1683–1747), who was born in Rockcliffe,

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, the son of James Hewitt and Mary Urwin. The judge's mother was Hannah Lewis. In a class-conscious age, his background was something of a handicap, and his "small-town" manners were the subject of unkind comments throughout his life. Hewitt used his influence with the first Rockingham ministry to secure office for his brother, William Hewitt (1719–1781), as a commissioner for the sale of ceded lands in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were the territories in the West Indies under British Empire, British rule, including Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Antigua and Barb ...

Career

Hewitt first worked as an attorney's

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

. By 1742, he had become a

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 ...

. Rising quickly through the legal profession, his career climaxed when he was made

in 1767, a post he held until his death in 1789.Ball (1926) p.157 He was raised to the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

as Baron Lifford, of

Lifford Lifford (, historically anglicised as ''Liffer'') is the county town of County Donegal, Ireland, the administrative centre of the county and the seat of Donegal County Council, although the town of Letterkenny is often mistaken as holding this ...

in the

County of Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small border with the rest of the Republic. It is ...

, in 1768, and was further honoured when he was made Viscount Lifford in 1781, also in the Irish peerage. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

for 1761 to 1766. He was not highly regarded as a Parliamentarian; his fellow MPs complained that his speeches were almost inaudible.

Character and Reputation

Lord Lifford made his reputation as

: until then he had the name of being a "dull, heavy lawyer", an uninspiring though "safe" MP, and a man of mediocre intelligence, who was painfully conscious of his rather humble origins. Even the Government which chose him, while praising him as a good lawyer and an honest man, was rather doubtful that he had the necessary strength of character to be an effective Lord Chancellor, while the English Bench reacted to his appointment with general ridicule. They were quickly proved wrong: within two years of his arrival in Ireland, Lord Lifford was earning the highest praises as a judge. As his colleague in the Irish Government John Hely-Hutchinson (not a man normally given to speaking well of others) wrote to a friend- "He does his business very ably and expeditiously and to the general satisfaction of suitors and practicers in this country, where he is much respected and a very popular character and is, in his public and private deportment, a most worthy, honest amiable man." His efficiency in doing business was such that it was said that virtually all equity litigation in his time was diverted to

Chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

(this may have been partly because the Court of Exchequer, which had a competing equity jurisdiction, was notoriously slow and inefficient; it had been described earlier in the century as being in a state of "confusion and disorder beyond remedy"). Barristers who practised in his court, like

John Philpot Curran John Philpot Curran (24 July 1750 – 14 October 1817) was an Irish orator, politician, and lawyer celebrated for his defence of civil and political liberty. He first won popular acclaim in 1780, as the only lawyer in his circuit willing to repr ...

, fondly recalled "the great Lord Lifford" after his death, and cited him as a model for other judges to follow.

Family

Lord Lifford married firstly Mary Rhys Williams, daughter of the Rev. Rhys (or Price) Williams of

Stapleford Abbotts Stapleford Abbotts is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, approximately SW of Ongar, N of Romford and SSE of Epping. The whole parish is within the M25 motorway. The village covers and had a population of 959 ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Archdeacon of Carmarthen An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of most ...

, in 1749, by whom he had four sons, including James, his heir, John,

Dean of Cloyne The Dean of Cloyne is based at the Cathedral Church of St Coleman in Cloyne in the Diocese of Cloyne within the united bishopric of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. The incumbent is Rev. Susan Green. List of deans of Cloyne (Church of Ireland) *1591 Jo ...

, and Joseph Hewitt (1754–1794), justice of the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) 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 King's Ben ...

. She died in 1765. His second wife was Ambrosia Bayley, daughter of the Rev. Charles Bayley of

Navestock Navestock is a civil parish in the Borough of Brentwood in south Essex, in the East of England region of the United Kingdom. It is located approximately northwest of the town of Brentwood and the M25 motorway cuts through the western edge of ...

and Elizabeth Beck, whom he married in 1766: her youth and beauty aroused much admiration in Ireland. By Ambrosia, he had one further son and two daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, James Hewitt, 2nd Viscount Lifford (1750–1830). Ambrosia died in 1807. He lived at Belvedere House, Drumcondra and later Stillorgan.

Arms

Sources

Citations

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Lifford, James Hewitt, 1st Viscount 1712 births 1789 deaths 18th-century Anglo-Irish people Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland Peers of Ireland created by George III Lord chancellors of Ireland Justices of the King's Bench Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1761–1768 Members of Parliament for Coventry People from Cumberland