The Lord Ashbourne | |
|---|---|
 Lord Ashbourne, by Dickinson. | |
| Lord Chancellor of Ireland | |
| In office 1885–1886 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | John Naish |
| Succeeded by | John Naish |
| In office 1886–1892 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | John Naish |
| Succeeded by | Samuel Walker |
| In office 1895–1905 | |
| Monarchs | Victoria Edward VII |
| Preceded by | Samuel Walker |
| Succeeded by | Samuel Walker |
| Attorney-General for Ireland | |
| In office 1877–1880 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | George Augustus Chichester May |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Law |
| Member of Parliament forDublin University alongsideDavid Robert Plunket | |
| In office 1875–1885 | |
| Preceded by | John Thomas Bell |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Holmes |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1837-09-04)4 September 1837 |
| Died | 22 May 1913(1913-05-22) (aged 75) |
| Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
Edward Gibson, 1st Baron AshbournePC KC (4 September 1837 – 22 May 1913), was anAnglo-Irish lawyer andLord Chancellor of Ireland.
Born at 22Merrion Square,Dublin, Gibson was the son of William GibsonJ.P. (1808–1872), of Rockforest,County Tipperary, andMerrion Square, Dublin, by his first wife, Louisa, daughter of Joseph Grant, barrister of Dublin.[1] He was the elder brother ofJohn George Gibson, who was also a distinguished lawyer and judge of the High Court. He was educated atTrinity College Dublin, graduatingBA in 1858, winning the gold medal in History, English Literature and Political Science. He was also an Auditor and a Gold Medallist of theCollege Historical Society, and became its president in 1883.
Having been called to the Irishbar in 1860, Gibson was made an IrishQueen's Counsel in 1872 and three years later was electedConservativeMember of Parliament forDublin University after unsuccessfully contestingWaterford. Enjoying the patronage ofBenjamin Disraeli,Sir Stafford Northcote andLord Randolph Churchill, he was appointedAttorney-General for Ireland in 1877, before being admitted to theIrish Privy Council, and then appointedLord Chancellor of Ireland in 1885, becoming aBritishPrivy Counsellor that same year.
On his appointment as Lord Chancellor, Gibson was raised to the peerage asBaron Ashbourne, ofAshbourne in theCounty ofMeath, in 1885.[2] He was almost single-handedly responsible for the drafting of thePurchase of Land (Ireland) Act 1885 which was commonly known as the Ashbourne Act.[3]
He resigned the Lord Chancellor's office in February 1886 on the return of theLiberals to power, but was reappointed byLord Salisbury in August of that year. For the next twenty years (with a short interval of three years whenGladstone returned to power in 1892), Lord Ashbourne held office as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, finally retiring at the age of 68. He was highly regarded as a judge even at a time when the Irish Bench boasted such outstanding judges asGerald FitzGibbon,Hugh Holmes andChristopher Palles.[4] It was in part at least due to his presidency that theIrish Court of Appeal gained a reputation as the strongest court ever to sit in Ireland.[5]
In 1900,Winston Churchill's agent Gerald Christie secured Ashbourne's services to take the chair and introduce the journalist /politician's Dublin lecture on his South African Adventures.[6]
Lord Ashbourne married Frances Maria Adelaide Colles (1849–1926), daughter of barrister Henry Jonathan Cope Colles and his wife Elizabeth Mary, daughter of John Mayne of Dublin, in 1868. Lady Ashbourne was a niece ofJohn Dawson Mayne and granddaughter ofAbraham Colles; her sister Anna married another eminent judge SirEdmund Thomas Bewley
They lived inFitzwilliam Square and produced four sons, the eldest son and heir beingWilliam Gibson, 2nd Baron Ashbourne, and four daughters. One of their daughters,Violet Gibson, made an attempt to assassinateBenito Mussolini in 1926. Lord Ashburne died inLondon in 1913 and was cremated atGolders Green crematorium, his ashes being placed inMount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin. InDublin, he was a member of theKildare Street Club.[7]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forDublin University 1875–1885 With:David Plunket | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Attorney-General for Ireland 1877–1880 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1885–1886 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1886–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1895–1905 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Ashbourne 1886–1913 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| People | |
| Other | |
