Sir John Mellor was an English judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

 and Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

. He was born in Hollinwood, Oldham

Oldham

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...

 and raised in Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

, where his father was mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 and a Justice of the Peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

.

As a young man, his Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 beliefs prevented him attending university. He entered law, becoming Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

 in 1833. Following failed attempts in 1852 (at Warwick

Warwick (UK Parliament constituency)

Warwick was a parliamentary borough consisting of the town of Warwick, within the larger Warwickshire constituency of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then to the...

) and 1857 (at Coventry

Coventry (UK Parliament constituency)

Coventry was a borough constituency which was represented in the House of Commons of England and its successors, the House of Commons of Great Britain and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom....

) he was elected to Parliament to represent Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Great Yarmouth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in 1857, and Nottingham

Nottingham (UK Parliament constituency)

Nottingham was a parliamentary borough in Nottinghamshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295. In 1885 the constituency was abolished and the city of Nottingham divided into three single-member constituencies....

 in 1859. He was appointed to the Queen's Bench

Court of King's Bench (England)

The Court of King's Bench , formally known as The Court of the King Before the King Himself, was an English court of common law in the English legal system...

 in 1861 and knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed in 1862.

Mellor was one of the two judges at the special commission set up in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 in 1867 to try those accused of the murder of Police Sergeant Charles Brett.

He was one of three judges at the 188-day long trial in 1873 of Arthur Orton

Arthur Orton

Arthur Orton , was the celebrated Tichborne claimant of the Victorian era.-Biography:Orton was born at Wapping, London, the son of George Orton, a butcher and purveyor of ships' stores....

, the Tichborne claimant

Tichborne Case

The affair of the Tichborne claimant was the celebrated 19th-century legal case in the United Kingdom of Arthur Orton , an imposter who claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne , the missing heir to the Tichborne Baronetcy....

. In his description of the case, James Beresford Atlay described him as 'second to none amongst the Common Law judges'. Hamilton notes he 'often amused the jury with his dry humour'.

He and his wife Elizabeth (née Moseley) had eight children. He retired in 1879 and was raised to the Privy Council. He died at his London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 house in 1887 and was buried at Kingsdown, Kent

Kingsdown, Kent

Kingsdown is a village immediately to the south of Walmer, itself south of Deal, on the English Channel coast of Kent. Parts of the village are built on or behind the shingle beach that runs north to Deal and beyond, while other parts are on the cliffs and hills inland...

.

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