Charles Hare Hemphill, 1st Baron Hemphill, PC QC (August 1822 – 4 March 1908), was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

politician and barrister.

Career

Hemphill was born in

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was the son of John and the novelist Barbara Hemphill. He was made a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

(QC) shortly before being appointed

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On ra ...

in 1892, a post he held until 1895. He then sat as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for North Tyrone from 1895 to 1906, after which he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hemphill, of Rathkenny and of Cashel in the County of

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

. While most Irish Law Officers could confidently look forward to promotion to the Bench, Hemphill's age apparently ruled him out of serious consideration. As Solicitor-General, he is remembered mainly for the somewhat malicious "compliments" paid to him by the

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

, Sir Peter O'Brien, in the celebrated 1894 case of ''R. (Bridgeman) v. Drury''. Hemphill, who appeared for

Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660-1661, even more sign ...

, had argued, apparently with a good deal of hyperbole, that the members of the corporation were entitled to charge the

ratepayers Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

for an especially lavish picnic. The Lord Chief Justice paid ironic tribute to Hemphill's eloquence and persuasiveness, but added drily that he had entirely failed to persuade the Court that the members of the corporation would "starve" if they were unable to make the ratepayers foot the bill for fine

claret Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...

and

cigars A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder le ...

, to say nothing of the broken wineglasses (although there were only four of them, which as the judge fairly noted, seemed quite moderate in the circumstances).

Family

Lord Hemphill married Augusta Mary, daughter of Major the Hon. Sir Francis Charles Stanhope (son of the 3rd Earl of Harrington), in 1849. They had three sons and one daughter. He died in March 1908 and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Stanhope Charles John Hemphill (m. the Hon May Hamilton (1879-1970), daughter of James, 9th

Lord Belhaven and Stenton Lord Belhaven and Stenton, of the County of Haddington, is a Lordship of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1647 for Sir John Hamilton, 2nd Baronet, with remainder to his heirs male. History This branch of the prominent ...

). He had no son and on his death, the title passed to his brother Fitzroy Hemphill, 3rd Baron Hemphill. His daughter, Mary Hannah Augusta Hemphill, was the mother of the decorated R.A.M.C. officer and surgeon, Lt. Col. Herbert St Maur Carter, D.S.O., M.D. Hemphill was a cousin of John Hemphill, a Chief Justice of the

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Supreme Court, and a United States Senator, whose father was the Rev. John Hemphill from

Arms

Notes

References

*''New Dictionary of National Biography'' *Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, - * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hemphill, Charles, 1st Baron Hemphill 1822 births 1908 deaths People from County Tyrone Irish Liberal Party MPs Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Tyrone constituencies (1801–1922) Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Solicitors-General for Ireland UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs who were granted peerages Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) Peers created by Edward VII