Hedges Eyre Chatterton (5 July 1819 – 30 August 1910) was an Irish Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom Parliament and subsequently

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of Ireland.

Biography

He was born in Cork, the eldest son of Abraham Chatterton, a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

, and Jane Tisdall of Kenmare.Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol.2 p.367 He attended

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, before being called to the Irish Bar in 1843. He became a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

(QC) in 1858. Chatterton was Solicitor General for Ireland 1866–1867 and

Attorney General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish and then, from 1801 under the Acts of Union 1800, United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on ...

in 1867. He was made a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

on 30 March 1867. He was elected MP for Dublin University in 1867. Chatterton left the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

on his appointment to the newly created judicial office of

of Ireland in 1867, an office which was abolished when he retired in 1904. He married firstly Mary Halloran of

Cloyne Cloyne () is a small town located to the southeast of Midleton in eastern County Cork, Ireland. It is also a see city of the Anglican (Church of Ireland) Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, while also giving its name to a Roman Catholic dioce ...

in 1845; she died in 1901. In the year of his retirement, he remarried Florence Henrietta Gore, widow of Edward Croker. He had no children.

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

remarks in '' Ulysses'' that his second marriage at the age of 85 infuriated his nephew, who had been waiting patiently for years to inherit his money.

Reputation

Despite his many years of service on the Bench, Chatterton does not seem to have been highly regarded as a judge. On his retirement the Bar paid tribute to his good qualities but added several qualifications: "there might have been on the Bench lawyers more profound, reasoners more acute..." In his first decade on the Bench he had to endure the continual denigration of Jonathan Christian, the Lord Justice of Appeal in Chancery. Christian was notoriously bitter-tongued, and while he despised most of his colleagues, he seems to have had a particular dislike of Chatterton. He regularly voted on appeal to overturn his judgments, and frequently added personal insults. Nor did he confine his attacks to the courtroom: there was controversy in 1870 when remarks of Christian that Chatterton was "lazy, stupid, conceited and so incompetent that he ought to be pensioned off" found their way into the

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

. The hint about pensioning off Chatterton was not taken up, no doubt because he enjoyed the confidence of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan, who was also on bad terms with Christian. In an appeal from Chatterton in 1873 the two appeal judges clashed publicly, with O'Hagan reprimanding Christian for insulting a judge who was not there to defend himself.

Renaming Sackville Street

Chatterton became involved in controversy in 1885, over the first attempt to rename Sackville Street as

O'Connell Street O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections bisected by Henry ...

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 si ...

voted for the name change, but it aroused considerable objections from local residents, one of whom sought an

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

. Chatterton granted the injunction on the ground that the corporation had exceeded its statutory powers; rather unwisely, he also attacked the merits of the decision, accusing the Corporation of "sentimental notions".''Anderson v. Dublin Corporation'' (1885) 15 L.R.Ir. 450 The corporation was angered by both the decision and the criticisms: while it may have been a coincidence, the fact that Temple Street was briefly renamed Chatterton Street was interpreted by some as an insult to the judge, since the street was much frequented by

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. The controversy was short-lived: the corporation was granted the necessary statutory powers in 1890, and the new name became official in 1924, by which time it had gained popular acceptance.

References

* ''Who's Who of British members of parliament: Vol. I 1832–1885'', edited by Michael Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976) * ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterton, Hedges Eyre 1819 births 1910 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Politicians from County Cork Irish Conservative Party MPs Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Solicitors-general for Ireland Attorneys-general for Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dublin University UK MPs 1865–1868 19th-century Irish judges Irish King's Counsel 19th-century King's Counsel Lawyers from County Cork