СНАР. XXXIX. Legal changes, A.D. 1739. Resignation of the Lord Chancellor. Lord Wynd ham's character as Chancellor. Charity Boulter. think I could have offered a point of law that would have bid him fair to save him. When the twenty-three Peers returned to give their opinion, their countenances astonished the whole House; and all knew from the horror of their eyes and the paleness of their looks, how they were agitated within before they answered the dread question, "Guilty, upon my honour;" and he was so most certainly, according to the law; nor could they perhaps have brought in their dreadful verdict otherwise.' There was great influence used to obtain a mitigation of sentence in the case of Lord Santry. He was reprieved, and ultimately pardoned. In the year 1739 great changes took place on the Irish Bench. On September 7, Lord Wyndham resigned the Great Seal, and ROBERT JOCELYN, then Attorney-General for Ireland, was nominated his successor, and shortly received the title of Lord Newport, John Bowes replacing Jocelyn as Attorney-General. What was the reason which caused the resignation of the Chancellor does not appear. He had filled this high and important position of Lord Chancellor of Ireland with the confidence and to the satisfaction of all classes for thirteen years, a long time for a Chancellor, and possibly felt the duties, increased by the necessity of attending the House of Lords as Speaker, too much for his failing health. He might not have liked the dictatorial manner of Primate Boulter, who assumed almost the whole government of Ireland during the frequent absence of the Lord Lieutenant. It redounds much to the Prelate's character for generosity, that during this period, 1739-40, when the frost was so unusually severe that the poor were terribly afflicted, his bounty was of the most liberal nature. Every indigent person in the city of Dublin was relieved, chiefly at his cost. The House of Commons expressed their sense of his humane conduct by a public vote of thanks. Had the Primate confined himself to works of piety and charity which were befitting his profession, and left law 1 Stuart's History of Armagh, p. 428. XXXIX. to the lawyers, and politics to statesmen, he would not CHAP. have deserved the harsh criticism which he has received; but he was so bent on having Ireland for the English, that whenever a vacancy occurred in any office, be it lay or ecclesiastical, he put up at once the notice, 'No Irish need apply.' He seems to have entertained the conviction that any native of Ireland, Protestant or Catholic, was ipso facto an enemy to England, or, as he termed it, the English interest, and therefore rightly excluded from any position of station or emolument. Such notions most likely were not shared by Lord Chancellor Lord Wyndham, and may have led to his resignation. A very handsome compliment is paid to his memory by the historian of the King's Inns. He says, 'Lord Wyndham resigned, to the regret of every honest or intelligent Irishman, having rendered a name memorable in England for wisdom, public spirit, and eloquence, a subject of grateful regret to the Irish nation. His retreat was also unmarked by pension, place, or reversion. He lived a few years after his ceasing to be Lord Chancellor, and passed his latter days in his native country.' Lord Wyndham died without issue, November 24, 1745, Death of and with him the title became extinct. Ex-Chancellor Lord Wyndham. CHAP. Family of CHAPTER XL. LIFE OF ROBERT JOCELYN, VISCOUNT JOCELYN, LORD CHANCELLOR THE family of JOCELYN is distinguished for great antiquity, and many of its members have achieved renown in history. When William the Norman planned his expedition to England, and selected the bravest knights of Normandy to share the Saxon spoils, foremost of those who spurred Sir Gilbert by his side on the red sands of Hastings was Sir Gilbert Jocelyn. Jocelyn. Faithful to his friends, William the Conqueror distributed the broad lands and rich lordships of the vanquished Thanes to his companions in arms with no niggard hand, and to Sir Gilbert he assigned the lordships of Sempringham and Tyrrington, in pleasant Lincolnshire. Sir Gilbert had two sons, Gilbert and Geoffry, but the latter (evincing that zeal for the Catholic Church which one noble daughter of the race has so piously displayed in our day, though unable to manifest it to the same extent as Geoffry) abandoned the large possessions which the favour of the monarch granted to his father, and preferred the cloister, there to work out his salvation by serving God in the persons of His poor. Geoffry's devotion to a religious life left his brother sole heir to the estates of their father. John Jocelyn. The genealogist and historian will find a full account of the honour and intermarriages of the descendants of Sir Gilbert Jocelyn in the Peerage of Ireland,'' but my space prevents my giving them here. I must not omit, however, a brief account and notable epitaph of John Jocelyn, third son of Sir Thomas Jocelyn, of Hide Hall, 1 Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, edited by Archdall, vol. iii. p. 265. a Privy Councillor in the reign of Edward VI. John was an eminent antiquary, and Secretary to Archbishop Parker, by whose direction he wrote the book 'De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ,' published by the Archbishop, and was collated by the Archbishop to the parsonage of Hollingbourne, in Kent. John Jocelyn was a perfect master of the Saxon language, of which he published a dictionary, was a member of Queen's College, Cambridge, died a very aged man, and lies buried in High Roothing Church, Essex, with this quaint inscription to his memory :— John Joceline, Esq.,' interred here doth lye, Sir Thomas Joceline's third son, of worthie Memorie. Not twenty yeeres old, him Cambridge did with two Degrees adorn. In learning tryde, worthy he did his mind always incline, But others took the Fame and Praise of his deserving wit, And his Inventions, as their own, to printing did commit. Sixteen hundred and three it grieves all to remember, He left this life (Poor's daily friend) the 28th December. ROBERT JOCELYN, the future Viscount of that name and Robert Jocelyn. Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was only son of Thomas, fifth son of Sir Robert Jocelyn, Baronet, and Anne, daughter of Thomas Bray, Esq., of Westminster. He was born about the year 1680, and received an excellent education, which fitted him for any learned profession. His taste having induced him to study law, he applied himself diligently, and when called to the Bar in 1706, family influence and his own abilities soon hastened his promotion at the Irish His proBar. On May 28, 1726, Mr. Jocelyn was appointed third Serjeant-at-Law to King George I.,2 and he so well sus- Serjeant. tained the favourable impression entertained of his capacity, that, in the following year, he became Solicitor- SolicitorGeneral. On the accession of George II., in the autumn of 1727, this appointment was confirmed, and the office I think he ought to have been styled Reverend. motion. General, CHAP. and AttorneyGeneral. cellor of Ireland, His great attain ments. Encou rages Irish Walter of Attorney-General becoming vacant in 1730, he was promoted to that place, in the room of Thomas Marley, appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer.' In 1739, on the resignation of Lord Wyndham, Lord Chancellor, the Great Seal of Ireland, was at the disposal of the Government. It was speedily entrusted to the Lord Chan- Attorney-General.' This appointment gave very general satisfaction, as the new Lord Chancellor was distinguished A.D. 1739. for great amiability in private life, high public character, eminent literary tastes, and profound legal acquirements. The Chancellor gave a very excellent proof of his esteem for men of ability by encouraging the study of Irish literature. history and antiquities. He assisted Walter Harris, a member of the Irish Bar, but better known by his historical and antiquarian works. This gentleman married a grand-daughter of the learned Irish antiquary, Sir James Ware, and aided by the liberality of the Lord Chancellor, and other lovers of Irish literature, he published in 1739 a handsome folio edition of the Lives of the Irish Bishops,' translated from the Latin of Sir James Ware. The success of this work induced Harris to undertake the publication of Ware's Antiquities and Irish Writers,' which is one of the most valuable compilations on the subject. His edition, published in 1747, contains numerous and well-executed engravings of ancient coins, medals, arms, and other antiquities, besides costumes of the various religious orders. He gave faithful representations of canons, nuns, knights templars, monks and friars, in their respective habits. The history of Irish writers in this work is particularly valuable, being most carefully 1 Pat. October 22, 1730. 4 Geo. II. 3 pars, f. R. 33. 2 Pat. September 7, 1739. 13 Geo. II. 1a pars, d. R. 12. In the patronage of literary and artistic skill, Jocelyn resembled the eminent English Chancellor, Lord Ellesmere, who was the patron of Sir John Davies. Shaftsbury and Bathurst were the friends and promoters of Sir William Jones. Jocelyn's efforts in favour of Walter Harris deserve to be faithfully recorded and mentioned with praise, because they are, as far as I am aware, the only instance of a Lord Chancellor of Ireland encouraging a literary barrister and rewarding his efforts by generous and liberal patronage. A fine edition of these works was issued in Dublin in 1764. |