Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten,GCB, GCMG, PC (3 February 1830 – 17 February 1913) was anAnglo-Irishlaw lord,barrister,rower, andConservative-Unionist politician.
Edward Macnaghten | |
|---|---|
 Macnaghten as depicted by "Spy" (Leslie Ward) inVanity Fair, 31 October 1895 | |
| Born | (1830-02-03)February 3, 1830 |
| Died | February 17, 1913(1913-02-17) (aged 83) Kensington, London |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 11 |
| Father | Edmund Workman-Macnaghten |
Macnaghten was born inBloomsbury,London, the second son ofSir Edmund Workman-Macnaghten, Bt., but grew up mainly at Roe Park,Limavady. He attended school inSunderland and university atTrinity College Dublin andTrinity College, Cambridge, graduatingBachelor of Arts in 1852.[1] At Cambridge, he was secretary of thePitt Club.[2]
Macnaghten was a rower at Cambridge. In 1851, he was runner up toE. G. Peacock in theDiamond Challenge Sculls atHenley Royal Regatta, but avenged this the following year with a win. Macnaghten rowed bow forCambridge in theOxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 1852 which was won by Oxford.[3] Also in 1852, he turned the tables on Peacock to win the Diamond Challenge Sculls from him at Henley.[4]
After beingcalled to the Bar byLincoln's Inn in 1857, Macnaghten built up a successful practice and becameQueen's Counsel in 1880. That same year he was elected to theHouse of Commons asConservativeMember of Parliament forCounty Antrim, and then forNorth Antrim when the county was divided in 1885. In 1912 he signed theUlster Covenant.
Having declined the offers of a judgeship fromGladstone in 1883 and theHome Secretaryship from the Conservatives in 1886, he was on 25 January 1887 appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary with alife peerage asBaron Macnaghten,ofRunkerry in theCounty of Antrim.[5] No practising barrister who had been Queen's Counsel for less than seven years had ever before been promoted to theHouse of Lords.
He was a member of the British tribunal toarbitrate 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 theOrder of St Michael and St George (GCMG) by KingEdward VII on 18 December 1902.[6][7]
Lord Macnaghten was made aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1902 and aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1911coronationhonours ofGeorge V. He also succeeded his elder brother, Francis, as fourth Baronet in the latter year.
Lord Macnaghten's most famous contribution toEnglish law was the determination of categories ofcharitable trusts (in the case ofCommissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel). He also sat in thelandmark decision ofSalomon v A Salomon & Co Ltd. In the case ofMontgomery v Thompson (Eng.), AC 225 (1891), he held that a brewery opened in the town ofStone 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 ofGluckstein v Barnes [1900] 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 inIllingworth v Houldsworth [1904] AC 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."
He married, in 1858, Frances Arabella (d. 1903), the only child ofSir 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:[9]
He died of pneumonia in 1913 at his home 198 Queen's Gate,Kensington,London, and was buried at Bushmills.[10]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forAntrim 1880–1885 With:James Chaine to May 1885 William Pirrie Sinclair from May 1885 | Constituency divided |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forNorth Antrim 1885–1887 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Baronet (ofBushmills House) 1911–1913 | Succeeded by |
