Vernon Lushington KC, (8 March 1832 – 24 January 1912), was a Positivist, Deputy Judge Advocate General,

Second Secretary to the Admiralty The Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty was the permanent secretary at the British Admiralty, Admiralty, the department of state in Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and subsequently the United Kingdom responsible for the administration of ...

, and was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was a

Cambridge Apostle The Cambridge Apostles (also known as the Conversazione Society) is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar. History Student ...

Biography

Lushington was born in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, London, to

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

and Sarah Grace (née Carr) Lushington; his twin brother was Godfrey Lushington, KCB GCMG, Permanent Under- Secretary of State of the Home Office. He was educated at East India College, Haileybury,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, and Trinity College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. He became a QC, a county court judge, Secretary to the Admiralty in 1871, and Deputy Judge Advocate General from 1878 to 1912. He married Jane Mowatt, daughter of Francis Mowatt, on 28 February 1865. From 1877 to 1903 the Lushington family's country residence was Pyports, Cobham, Surrey. With his brother Godfrey, he advocated positivist philosophy, motivated by the ideas of

Auguste Comte Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...

, and was a follower of

Frederic Harrison Frederic Harrison (18 October 1831 – 14 January 1923) was a British jurist and historian. A leading figure in the English Positivist movement and a disciple of Auguste Comte, he was known for his wide-ranging contributions to political ph ...

. Influenced by

Frederick Denison Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (29 August 1805 – 1 April 1872), commonly known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a prolific author and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War ...

, he joined the

Working Men's College The Working Men's College (also known as the St Pancras Working Men's College, WMC, The Camden College or WM College), is among the earliest adult education institutions established in the United Kingdom, and Europe's oldest extant centre for adu ...

as a singing teacher, and promoter of art and music appreciation; he became part of the group that formed the first College governing Corporation in 1854. At the death of Maurice in 1872, he, with his brother, and

Frederick James Furnivall Frederick James Furnivall (4 February 1825 – 2 July 1910) was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the '' New English Dictionary''. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pion ...

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 1822 – 22 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had atte ...

, and Richard Buckley Litchfield, became a unifying force at the College. J. F. C. Harrison, ''A History of the Working Men's College (1854-1954)'', Routledge Kegan Paul, 1954 He was a friend to artists, authors and activists, particularly those of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

who gravitated to the Working Men's College. In 1856, it was he who first introduced

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August 183317 June 1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...

in his college rooms."Lecture at the Grolier Club"
William Morris Society 12 March 2009; retrieved 26 April 2011 Rossetti used Lushington’s wife, Jane, as a model in 1865. Lushington, a friend of

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

, was a frequent visitor to

Kelmscott Manor Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire, southern England. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for Eng ...

. He was a close friend of

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, mountaineer, and an Ethical Culture, Ethical movement activist. He was also the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell and the ...

and his family; Stephen’s daughter

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

(later Woolf) based her character Mrs. Dalloway on Lushington’s daughter Kitty. He was also a close friend of Working Men’s College founder Richard Buckley Litchfield and his wife Etty, daughter of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

; the Lushingtons were regular visitors to Darwin’s

Down House Down House is the former home of the English Natural history, naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had conceived in London befor ...

. As

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

’s friend, he edited Carlyle’s first ''Collected Works'', (Chapman and Hall, 1858).

Musical family

Jane Lushington was a talented musician who sang in the Bach Choir and played the piano. Her playing was admired by Charles Darwin. She and her three daughters (Kitty, b. 1867, Margaret, b. 1869 and

Susan Susan is a feminine given name, the usual English version of Susanna or Susannah. All are versions of the Hebrew name Shoshana, which is derived from the Hebrew ''shoshan'', meaning ''lotus flower'' in Egyptian, original derivation, and severa ...

, b. 1870) were the subject of a painting by Arthur Hughes. ''The Home Quartet: Mrs Vernon Lushington and her Children'' was first exhibited in 1883, and shows Mrs Lushington at the piano, two daughters with violins and a third with a cello. The three sisters all received tutoring from

Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 1848 – 7 October 1918), was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is ...

and performed not only in an intimate family setting and before small groups like the Positivists, but in public with, for example, the South Hampstead Orchestra. Jane Lushington died suddenly in 1884. Kitty married the journalist and amateur tennis player Leo Maxse in 1890 and became a well-known London society hostess: she was the model for her friend

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

's character

Mrs Dalloway ''Mrs Dalloway'' is a novel by Virginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925. It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England. The working title of ''Mrs Dalloway'' was ''The Hours ...

. She died in 1922. Margaret married Stephen Massingberd in 1895 (who inherited Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire in 1897) but died early in 1906 of peritonitis. Susan Lushington was a founding member of the Folk Song Society in 1898. She was awarded the MBE in 1943 and died in 1953.Taylor, David. ''The Remarkable Lushington Family'' (2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lushington, Vernon 1832 births 1912 deaths People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 19th-century King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel British barristers 20th-century English judges Permanent Secretaries to the Admiralty County Court judges (England and Wales) 19th-century English judges