Sir Jonah Barrington, K.C. (1756/57 – 8 April 1834), was an Irish lawyer, judge and politician. Jonah Barrington is most notable for his amusing and popular memoirs of life in late 18th-century Ireland; for his opposition to the Act of Union in 1800; and for his removal from the judiciary by both Houses of Parliament in 1830, still a unique event.

Barrington family

Barrington was the third son, one of thirteenW. N. Osborough, ‘Barrington, Sir Jonah (1756/7–1834)’ ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 or sixteen children; six at least, and probably seven, were sons; of John Barrington, an impoverished Protestant gentleman landowner in

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

and his wife Sibella French of Peterswell,

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

. He was raised and schooled by his grandparents in Dublin and entered

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 ...

in 1773, aged 16 but he left Trinity College without a degree. He joined the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...

and supported the Irish Patriots in the early 1780s. His father raised and commanded two Corps; the Cullenagh Rangers and the Ballyroan Light Infantry. Barrington's elder brother commanded both the Kilkenny Horse and the Durrow Light Dragoons. Through his correspondence with General Hunt Walsh, Barrington's father secured him a commission in Walsh's regiment. Upon learning that the regiment was to be sent to America to fight in the ongoing conflict, and fearful of dying on some foreign battlefield, Barrington wrote to Walsh asking him to present the commission to another candidate instead, claiming that he himself was too tender to be of any real use. Barrington's fears proved well founded when his replacement, the only child of one of Walsh's friends, was killed in his first engagement.

Career

Law and Parliament

He was called to the Irish bar in 1788 and in 1789 he married Catherine, daughter of Dublin mercer, Edward Grogan. They were to have seven children. The following year he entered by the purchase of the seat the pre-1801

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland () was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the Irish Hou ...

as MP for

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

. He accepted a

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...

post in 1793 at the Dublin customhouse worth £1,000 p.a. generally supporting

Henry Grattan Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 18 ...

and he took silk the same year. Barrington was a member of the Kildare Street Club in Dublin. Appointed an

Admiralty court Admiralty courts, also known as maritime courts, are courts exercising jurisdiction over all admiralty law, maritime contracts, torts, injuries, and offenses. United Kingdom England and Wales Scotland The Scottish court's earliest records, ...

judge in 1798 he re-entered parliament the same year as member for

Clogher Clogher (; , ) is a village and civil parish in the border area of south County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Blackwater, 5.8 miles from the border crossing to County Monaghan. It stands on the townlands of Clogher Demesne ...

and voted against the Act of Union in 1799–1800, rejecting Lord Clare's offer of the solicitor-generalship in 1799. In 1802 he unsuccessfully contested a seat for

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 ...

in the

UK parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

Political legacy

Barrington's comments on the Act of Union had a continuing resonance with the

Young Ireland Young Ireland (, ) was a political movement, political and cultural movement, cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation (Irish news ...

Fenian The word ''Fenian'' () served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood. They were secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...

and

Irish Parliamentary Party The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nati ...

movements, which hoped to re-establish " Grattan's Parliament" in some way. In particular, his ''Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation'' (1833) provided the basis for this romantic idealisation of Grattan's Parliament adopted by the Irish Parliamentary Party from the 1880s.

Admiralty Court

Appointed an

judge in 1798 at a salary of £500 he found there was little work to be done and his lack of a degree restricted other opportunities to support extravagant tastes. His award of a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1807 brought no increased income. His court ordered the sale of two derelict vessels and he gave instructions that the proceeds were to go to his own bank account. In 1810 or 1811 he took his wife and family to England and from that time on his work in Ireland was carried out by surrogates. Still retaining his judgeship and salary he moved to France in 1814 to escape his creditors and never returned to Ireland.

Bankruptcy and loss of office

In 1828, commissioners learnt of his financial irregularities. Barrington crossed the channel to London and protested that he was innocent but would not answer the charges based on the documentary evidence produced by the commissioners. In 1830, a parliamentary commission recommended that he be removed from office, finding misappropriations of court funds in 1805, 1806 and 1810. Pursuant to a provisionJudges' commissions are valid (during good behaviour) and if they do not behave themselves, they can be removed . . . This provision was the result of various monarchs influencing judges' decisions, and its purpose was to assure

judicial independence Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...

. of the

Act of Settlement The Act of Settlement ( 12 & 13 Will. 3. c. 2) is an act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Cathol ...

of 1701, which sought to protect the independence of the judiciary, both Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom voted for an Address to

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

praying for his removal, and the King duly dismissed Barrington from office. By then, Barrington's first 1827 volume of memoirs had sold successfully, and they were republished and expanded (see below). Barrington was the first judge removed from office under the

, and to this day, is the only judge in the United Kingdom to be so removed.

Duel with Richard Daly

According to one of his sometimes spurious personal memoirs, on 20 March 1780. Barrington travelled to Donnybrook to

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

with Richard Daly. Daly had fought 16 duels in three years - three with swords and thirteen with pistols. Remarkably, he, and his opponents, had always escaped serious injury. Barrington had no pistols so he and his second, Richard Crosbie, had spent the previous night constructing a pair 'from old locks, stocks and barrels'.J. Barrington (1918
"Recollections of Jonah Barrington, Dublin"
archive.org; accessed 20 March 2015. At Donnybrook, Daly's second, Jack Patterson, a nephew of the Chief Justice, approached Crosbie, explained that it was all a mistake and asked that the two shake hands. Barrington was in favour, but Crosbie would have none of it. Taking out a duelling handbook, he pointed to rule No.7 - 'No apology can be received after the parties meet, without a fire.' Taking up their positions Barrington lost no time in pressing the trigger and Daly staggered back, put his hand to his chest, and cried "I'm hit, Sir." The ball had not penetrated but had driven part of a brooch slightly into his breastbone. Barrington only then thought to inquire why the duel was even taking place. This time the rule book noted: "If a party challenged accepts the challenge without asking the reason for it, the challenger is never bound to divulge it afterwards".

Memoirs

Barrington is most notable today for his memoirs which included scathing but humorous thumbnail portraits of contemporary Irish lawyers, judges and politicians during the last years of the

Protestant Ascendancy The Protestant Ascendancy (also known as the Ascendancy) was the sociopolitical and economical domination of Ireland between the 17th and early 20th centuries by a small Anglicanism, Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of landowners, ...

. ''Personal sketches'' also includes vignettes on Irish people from every background. His works were reprinted with frequent additions and renamings as: * ''Historic Anecdotes and Secret Memoirs of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland'' (London: G. Robinson 1809); :republished with a 2nd volume as: ''Historic Memoirs, Comprising Secret Records of the National Convention, the Rebellion, and the Union, with Delineations of the Principal Characters Connected with These Transactions'', 2 vols. (London: R. Bentley & H. Colburn 1833 809–33 ::3rd edn: ''..with memoir of the author, an essay on Irish wit and humour, and notes and corrections by Townsend Young''; 2 vols. (London: G. Routledge & Sons 1869) :::4th edn. in 2 vols, (Glasgow & London: Cameron & Ferguson 1876); * ''Personal Sketches of his Own Times'' (3 vols. 1827–32): Vols. 1 & 2 (London: Henry Colburn 1827); Vol. 3 (London: Henry Colburn & R. Bentley 1832) :reissued as (George Birmingham, intro.): ''Recollections of Jonah Barrington'' (Dublin: Talbot; London: T. Fisher Unwin 1918); * ''Historic Memoirs of Ireland'', 2 vols. (London: R. Bentley & H. Colburn 1833) * ''The Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation'' (Paris: G. G. Bennis 1833) :2nd edn. (Dublin: James Duffy 1853)

Criticism and literary resonance

Since his death Barrington's work has been quoted by a wide selection of editors, primarily following two themes; the political drama surrounding the Act of Union and the colourful nature of life in 1700s Ireland. *

Frank O'Connor Frank O'Connor (born Michael Francis O'Donovan; 17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966) was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry (original and translations from Irish), dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on as ...

, ed., ''Book of Ireland'' (London: Fontana 1959 & edns.), was impressed by: "Merry Christmas, 1778" ''uninterrupted match of hard-going till the weather should break up ... hogshead of superior claret’ ... ‘the pipers plied their chants ... I shall never forget the attraction this novelty had for my youthful mind'' (p. 139); ''Sir

Boyle Roche Sir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet (October 1736, as cited in Some sources, including earlier versions of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', give the date as 1743. However, since the later date would make Roche rather young to have served wit ...

... the most celebrated and entertaining anti-grammarian in the Irish Parliament'' (p. 183); on duelling ''Ough, thunder! ... how many holes did the villain want drilled in to his carcass?'' (p. 262); Crow Street theatre: ''immediately ... on being struck, he reeled, staggered, and fell very naturally, considering that it was his first death'' (p. 278). * Roy Foster: ''the racy Personal Sketches...confirmed him as the chief historian of the "half-mounted gentlemen" of Ireland''. *

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

: Mrs French, in the first section of Yeats's poem ''The Tower'', is a character from Barrington's Recollections, where it is used to illustrate ''mutual attachment between the Irish peasantry and their landlords''. *

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

: Tom Kernan makes reference to Barrington's Reminiscences (''recte'' Recollections) in Ulysses: ''Must ask Ned Lambert to lend me those reminiscences of sir Jonah Barrington.'' *

John Mitchel John Mitchel (; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalism, Irish nationalist writer and journalist chiefly renowned for his indictment of British policy in Ireland during the years of the Great Famine (Ireland), Great Famin ...

quoted Barrington in his ''History of Ireland'', concerning the approach to the 1798 rebellion: ''Mr Pitt counted on the expertness of the Irish Government to effect a premature explosion. Free quarters were now ordered, to irritate the Irish population; slow tortures were inflicted, under the pretence of forcing confessions; the people were goaded and driven to madness'' (p. 264). * A Dictionary of Irish Writers (1985), ed. Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, lists his ''Historic Anecdotes and Secret Memoirs of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland (1809)''. * A book of selections was published for the American market in 1967.Hugh Staples, ed., ''The Ireland of Sir Jonah Barrington: Selections from His Personal Sketches'' (Washington: Catholic UP, 1967)

Notes

References

External links

* *
''Personal Sketches'' online; accessed June 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrington, Jonah 1750s births 1834 deaths People from Abbeyleix Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish MPs 1790–1797 Irish MPs 1798–1800 Irish knights 18th-century Irish lawyers 19th-century Irish memoirists Irish political writers Irish King's Counsel Irish admiralty judges Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Galway constituencies Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Tyrone constituencies Lawyers from County Laois Lawyers from County Dublin 19th-century Irish judges Lawyers awarded knighthoods