The Lord James of Hereford | |
|---|---|
 Lord James of Hereford, byBassano, 1882 | |
| Solicitor-General | |
| In office 26 September 1873 – 20 November 1873 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Sir George Jessel |
| Succeeded by | Sir William Vernon Harcourt |
| Attorney-General | |
| In office 20 November 1873 – 17 February 1874 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Sir John Coleridge |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Burgess Karslake |
| In office 3 May 1880 – 9 June 1885 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Sir John Holker |
| Succeeded by | Sir Richard Webster |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 4 July 1895 – 11 August 1902 | |
| Monarchs | Victoria Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Cross |
| Succeeded by | Sir William Walrond, Bt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1828-10-30)30 October 1828 |
| Died | 18 August 1911(1911-08-18) (aged 82) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | |
| Alma mater | Cheltenham College |
Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford,GCVO, PC, KC (30 October 1828 – 18 August 1911), known asSir Henry James between 1873 and 1895, was anAnglo-Welsh lawyer and statesman. Initially aLiberal, he served underWilliam Ewart Gladstone asSolicitor General in 1873 and asAttorney-General between 1873 and 1874 and 1880 and 1885. However, he broke with Gladstone overIrish Home Rule and joined theLiberal Unionists. From 1895 to 1902 he wasChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in theUnionist ministries ofLord Salisbury andArthur Balfour.
James was the son of Philip Turner James, asurgeon ofHereford,[1] and Frances Gertrude, daughter of John Bodenham.[2] His father's family was descended from the Gwynnes of Glanbran,Carmarthenshire, described in the nineteenth century as "one of the oldest in theEmpire". His grandfather, Gwynne James, was also asurgeon, while his great-grandfather, another Gwynne James, was anapothecary. He was educated atCheltenham College.[1]
James was admitted to theMiddle Temple on 12 January 1849 and wascalled to the bar on 16 January 1852.[3] He joined theOxford circuit, where he soon established a notable reputation.[1] In 1867 he was madepostman of theExchequer of pleas, and in 1869took silk.[1][4] At the1868 general election he representedparliament forTaunton as aLiberal, unseatingEdward William Cox after anelection petition heard in March 1869. He held the seat until 1885, when he was returned forBury. He attracted attention in parliament by his speeches in 1872 in the debates on theJudicature Act.[1]
In September 1873 James was madeSolicitor General byWilliam Ewart Gladstone. Already in November 1873, he was promoted toAttorney General by Gladstone, a post he held until the government fell the following year. He received the customaryknighthood at the time of his promotion.[5][6] When Gladstone returned asprime minister in 1880 James resumed this office. He was responsible for introducing the Corrupt Practices Act 1883 and guiding it through parliament.[1] In 1885 he was sworn of thePrivy Council.[7]
In 1886, he representedSir Charles Dilke in the Crawford divorce case alongsideSir Charles Russell QC in which Dilke was accused of adultery with his brother's wife's sister. James and Russell, with disastrous consequences, advised Dilke not to go into the witness box saying there was insufficient evidence to convict him. The judge agreed, but decided Mrs Crawford's confession was sufficient to award her husband a divorce, resulting in an apparently contradictory verdict: that she had committed adultery with Dilke, but he had not with her! Their advice has been called "some of the worst professional advice that any man can ever have received".[8] At a second hearing instigated by theQueen's Proctor, Dilke was cross-examined to devastating effect and his career ruined.
On Gladstone's conversion toIrish Home Rule, James distanced himself from him and became one of the most influential of theLiberal Unionists.[1] Gladstone had offered him theLord Chancellorship in 1886, but he declined it and the knowledge of the sacrifice he had made in refusing to follow his old chief in his new departure lent great weight to his advocacy of the Unionist cause in the country.[1] He was one of the leading counsel forThe Times before theParnell Commission, and from 1892 to 1895 wasAttorney General to the Prince of Wales.[1] In 1895 he was raised to the peerage asBaron James of Hereford, in the County of Hereford.[1][9] From 1895 to 1902 he was a member ofLord Salisbury's andArthur Balfour'sUnionist ministries asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In later years he was a prominent opponent of theTariff Reform movement, adhering to the section ofFree Trade Unionists.[1] On 11 August 1902, he was appointed to theRoyal Victorian Order as a Knight Grand Cross (GCVO).[10][11][12]
Lord James of Hereford died unmarried in August 1911, aged 82. By his mistress Alice, whom he refused to marry, daughter of Robert Hardwicke (d.1874) of London, he left a daughter Alice Henland (1868–1936), who married Lt. Col. George Talbot Lake Denniss, Royal Wilts. Regt.[13] The barony became extinct on his death.[2] His portrait was painted byJohn St Helier Lander, collection of Middle Temple; his 1893 photo-portrait byAlexander Bassano is in the National Portrait Gallery. Lord James (Sir Henry James at the time) was also president ofBury Golf Club during the 1890s, during which time a championship trophy was awarded in his honour.[14][15][16]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "James of Hereford, Henry James, 1st Baron".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 144–145.,Encyclopædia Britannica
Media related toHenry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford at Wikimedia Commons
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forTaunton 1869–1885 With:Alexander Charles Barclay 1869–1880 Sir William Palliser 1880–1882; Samuel Allsopp 1882–1885 | Succeeded by Samuel Allsopp (representation reduced to one member 1885) |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBury 1885–1895 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Solicitor General September 1873 – November 1873 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Attorney General 1873–1874 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Attorney General 1880–1885 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1895–1902 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron James of Hereford 1895–1911 | Extinct |