John Scott, 1st Earl of Clonmell
PC (Ire) KC SL (8 June 1739 – 23 May 1798), known as The Lord Earlsfort between 1784 and 1789 and as The Viscount Clonmell between 1789 and 1793, was an Irish barrister and judge. Sometimes known as "Copperfaced Jack", he was
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland from 1784 to 1798.
Early life
Scott was the third son of Thomas Scott (died 1763) of Scottsborough (made up of the
townland
A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...
s of Mohubber, Modeshill and Urlings),
County Tipperary
County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...
, by his wife, Rachel (died 1784), daughter of Mark Prim (died 1745) of
Johnswell,
County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the City status in Ir ...
. His parents were cousins, being two of the grandchildren of
Nicholas Purcell, 13th Baron of Loughmoe. . His elder brother was the uncle of Bernard Phelan, who established
Château Phélan Ségur, and Dean John Scott, who first planted the gardens open to the public at Ballyin,
County Waterford
County Waterford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. ...
and was married to a niece of Clonmell's political ally,
Henry Grattan.
While at
Kilkenny College, John Scott stood up to the tormentor of a boy named Hugh Carleton, who grew up to be
Viscount Carleton of Clare, Scott's fellow Chief Justice. They became firm friends, and Carleton's father, who was known as the 'King of Cork', due to his wealth and influence, invited him to their home and became Scott's patron. In 1756, Mr Carleton sent both the young men off, with equal allowances, to study 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 then the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...
in London. On being called to the
Irish Bar in 1765, Scott's eloquence secured him a position that enabled him to pay £300 a year to his patron, Francis Carleton, who through a series of disappointments had at the same time as Scott's success been declared bankrupt. He continued to gratefully support his patron until Hugh Carleton was financially able to insist that he take up the payments to his father. Scott in later life turned against Hugh, describing him in his diary as a "worthless wretch".
Career
Admitted to
King's Inns in 1765, he was entitled to practice as 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 ...
. In 1769 he was elected as the Member of Parliament for
Mullingar, a seat he held until 1783. The following year he was made a K.C. In 1772 he was Counsel to the Board of Revenue, an extremely lucrative office: in return, he was expected to defend the Government's policy, which he did with great energy. In 1774 he was appointed
Solicitor-General (1774–1777) for Ireland. Three years later, he was elected a
Privy Councillor and
Attorney-General for Ireland
The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish and then, from 1801 under the Acts of Union 1800, United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on ...
(1774–1782). He was dismissed from the latter position in 1782 for refusing to acknowledge the right of England to legislate for Ireland. In 1775, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Law (LL.D.) by Trinity College, Dublin. He held the office of Prime
Serjeant-at-Law of Ireland between 1783 and 1784. He was Clerk of the Pleas of the
Court of Exchequer (Ireland) in 1783 and was elected Member of Parliament for
Portarlington between 1783 and 1784.
In 1784, Scott was created 1st
Baron Earlsfort of Lisson-Earl, County Tipperary, following his appointment to
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In 1789, he was created 1st Viscount Clonmell, of
Clonmel
Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Dro ...
, County Tipperary and in 1793 he was created 1st Earl of Clonmell. By the 1790s he had an annual income of £20,000. Due to heavy drinking and overeating, he became grossly overweight, and this no doubt contributed to his early death, although his diary shows that he made frequent good resolutions about living a more temperate life. He wrote that too many of his colleagues, including
Philip Tisdall, his predecessor as Attorney General, had died through failing to moderate their drinking as they grew older, but it seems that he could not take his own good advice. His heavy drinking is also thought to have been responsible for the red face which earned him the nickname "Copper-faced Jack" (which is commemorated in a famous Dublin nightclub,
Copper Face Jacks).
According to fencing author Captain Anthony Gordon, the idea for the invention of bayonet fencing in Ireland (and in all the British Isles) came from Scott, and was only later developed and propagated by Gordon. The Irish fencing treatise "A Few Mathematical and Critical Remarks on the Sword" (Dublin: 1781), is dedicated to Scott. In its opening pages, the author writes to him: "if I knew but one man in the kingdom, to have a sounder judgment and a finer imagination, a more humane and expanded heart, and a more spirited and judicious arm, I should have been still more presumptuous than I am, in prefixing YOUR NAME to so trifling a production". During his time as Attorney General, Scott publicly defended the custom of duelling, and encouraged legal tolerance towards duelists who had acted honourably and fought for a good cause. However, Scott acted unfavourably towards the notorious duelist
George Robert "Fighting" Fitzgerald, who published a poem while in prison lampooning and attacking Scott.
He regarded most of his judicial colleagues with suspicion and dislike, which extended even to former friends like Hugh Carleton. Of his junior colleagues in the
Court of King's Bench (Ireland), he admired
Samuel Bradstreet, but dismissed
William Henn (with some justification) as a fool, while
John Bennett, a man noted for independence of mind, he marked down as an enemy. After 1792, following the death of Bennett and the retirement of Henn, Scott finally became complete master in his own court. His rival
William Downes, 1st Baron Downes, who became Lord Chief Justice in 1803, he described as "cunning and vain, and one who wishes me ill".
In Court his manner was arrogant, and he often treated barristers with a complete lack of courtesy. His rudeness to one barrister called Hackett led to the Bar passing a resolution that no barrister would appear in his Court until he apologised. Clonmell had no choice but to submit.
In 1797, in the last conversation he would have with his wife's cousin,
Valentine Lawless, 2nd Baron Cloncurry, he exclaimed: 'My dear Val, I have been a fortunate man in life. I am a Chief Justice and an Earl; but, believe me, I would rather be beginning the world as a young (chimney) sweep'. He died the following year on 23 May 1798.
Legacy
Scott lived at Clonmell House, 17
Harcourt Street, Dublin. He also kept a country residence, Temple Hill House, in Blackrock.
County Dublin
County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...
which later became an orphanage and is now a private residence known as Neptune house. Clonmell Street in
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
is named in his honour, as is
Earlsfort Terrace, also in Dublin. He had also gained a reputation for being an experienced
duellist.
In 1768, he married the widowed Mrs Catherine Anna Maria Roe (died 1771), daughter of Thomas Mathew, of Thomastown Castle,
County Tipperary
County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...
and sister of
Francis Mathew, 1st Earl Landaff. In 1779, he remarried Margaret Lawless (1763–1829), daughter and eventual heiress of Patrick Lawless, of Dublin, a banker. He left a son and heir, Thomas, and a daughter, Charlotte, by his second marriage. Charlotte married
John Lygon, 3rd Earl Beauchamp in 1814 but had no children.
Character
Many of Scott's contemporaries viewed him harshly: one verdict was that "it is hard to believe that the office of Lord Chief Justice could be attained by a man most superficially read in the law... (whose character was) wholly at variance with truth and justice". Elrington Ball described him as "an extraordinarily able man and an equally ambitious one. As he has revealed to us in his diary he had from the first no misgiving as to the object of his life being personal success, and although he wore out his mind and body in reaching his goal he made it against desperate odds."
[Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.2 p.171]
M. J. Craig said of Scott's diary – 'Parts of the diary are extremely funny, but too long to quote here; and other reasons forbid.' Its publication did considerable damage to his reputation: the public were shocked by the savage attacks on his judicial colleagues, including some, like Hugh Carleton, who had always regarded him as a friend.
Scott was a prominent figure in
Jonah Barrington's Memoirs, and the butt of many of
John Philpot Currans jokes. He was also the subject of a play by John (Purcell) O'Donovan, ''Copperfaced Jack'' (1963).
Copper Face Jacks, founded in 1996, is a popular Dublin nightclub on Harcourt Street (part of the Jackson Court Hotel).
References
;Attribution
External links
Portrait of the Earl of ClonmellPortrait of Scott, by Gilbert Charles Stuart
*
Journal of the Waterford & the South East of Ireland Archeological Society, Page 199'
* https://www.flickr.com/photos/cpaireland/3234487826/in/set-72157616208439747/
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clonmell, John Scott, 1st Earl of
1739 births
1798 deaths
Scott, John
Earls in the Peerage of Ireland
Peers of Ireland created by George III
Irish barristers
People educated at Kilkenny College
Scott, John
Scott, John
Scott, John
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Soctt, John
Lords chief justice of Ireland
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for Portarlington
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Westmeath constituencies
Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)