Jonah Barrington (judge)
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Sir Jonah Barrington
Sir Jonah Barrington (born at Knapton, Abbeyleix
1760; died at Versailles
, France
on 8 April 1834), was one of no less than sixteen children, six at least, and probably seven were sons of John Barrington, a landowner in County Laois
. An Irish lawyer, judge and politician, he is most notable for his amusing and popular memoirs of life in late 18th-century Ireland
, and for his opposition to the Act of Union
in 1800.
in 1793. He was appointed an Admiralty court
judge
in 1798.
He joined the Irish Volunteers and supported the Irish Patriots
in the early 1780s. In the pre-1801 Irish parliament he was MP for Tuam
by purchase of the seat in 1790-97, and then MP for Clogher
in 1798. He received a sinecure
post worth £1,000p.a. in 1793, generally supporting Henry Grattan
. He re-entered parliament in 1798 and voted against the Act of Union
in 1799-1800, rejecting Lord Clare
’s offer of the solicitor-generalship in 1799. He later unsuccessfully contested a seat in the UK parliament for Dublin in 1802. His career as a judge led to a knighthood in 1807.
Barrington was a member of the Kildare Street Club
in Dublin.
Barrington was the first judge removed from office under the Act of Settlement, and to this day, is the only judge in the United Kingdom to be so removed.
. Personal sketches also includes vignettes on Irish people from every background. His works were reprinted with frequent additions and renamings as:
, Fenian
and Irish Parliamentary Party
movements, which hoped to re-establish "Grattan's parliament
" in some way. In particular his Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (1833) provided the basis for this romantic idealisation of Grattan’s Parliament adopted by the Irish Parliamentary Party from the 1880s.
.
Sir Jonah Barrington (born at Knapton, Abbeyleix
Abbeyleix
Abbeyleix is a town in County Laois, Ireland about from Portlaoise and located on the N77 national secondary route. Formerly the N8 National Primary Route ran through the centre of the town, making Abbeyleix an infamous bottleneck on the Dublin-Cork corridor with up to 15,000 vehicles passing...
1760; died at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on 8 April 1834), was one of no less than sixteen children, six at least, and probably seven were sons of John Barrington, a landowner in County Laois
County Laois
County Laois is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It was formerly known as Queen's County until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. The county's name was formerly spelt as Laoighis and Leix. Laois County Council...
. An Irish lawyer, judge and politician, he is most notable for his amusing and popular memoirs of life in late 18th-century Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and for his opposition to the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
in 1800.
Public life
Barrington was educated at Trinity College Dublin and was called to the Irish bar in 1788, taking silkQueen'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 1793. He was appointed an Admiralty court
Admiralty court
Admiralty courts, also known as maritime courts, are courts exercising jurisdiction over all maritime contracts, torts, injuries and offences.- Admiralty Courts in England and Wales :...
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...
in 1798.
He joined the Irish Volunteers and supported the Irish Patriots
Irish Patriot Party
The Irish Patriot Party was the name of a number of different political groupings in Ireland throughout the 18th century. They were primarily supportive of Whig concepts of personal liberty combined with an Irish identity that rejected full independence, but advocated strong self-government within...
in the early 1780s. In the pre-1801 Irish parliament he was MP for Tuam
Tuam
Tuam is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The name is pronounced choo-um . It is situated west of the midlands of Ireland, and north of Galway city.-History:...
by purchase of the seat in 1790-97, and then MP for Clogher
Clogher
Clogher is a village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Blackwater, south of Omagh. The United Kingdom Census of 2001 recorded a population of 309.-History:...
in 1798. He received a sinecure
Sinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
post worth £1,000p.a. in 1793, generally supporting Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan was an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He opposed the Act of Union 1800 that merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain.-Early life:Grattan was born at...
. He re-entered parliament in 1798 and voted against the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
in 1799-1800, rejecting Lord Clare
Lord Clare
Lord Clare may refer to:*any of the individuals who have held the title Earl of Clare*Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent , who was created Viscount Clare in 1767, and thus styled "Lord Clare" until 1776...
’s offer of the solicitor-generalship in 1799. He later unsuccessfully contested a seat in the UK parliament for Dublin in 1802. His career as a judge led to a knighthood in 1807.
Barrington was a member of the Kildare Street Club
Kildare Street Club
The Kildare Street Club was a gentlemen's club in Dublin, Ireland, at the heart of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy.The Club remained in Kildare Street between 1782 and 1977, when it merged with the Dublin University Club...
in Dublin.
Bankruptcy
Barrington moved to France in 1815 to escape his creditors, while still retaining his judgeship and salary. In 1830 a parliamentary commission recommended that he be removed from office, finding misappropriations of court funds in 1805, 1806 and 1810. Pursuant to a provision of the Act of Settlement of 1701, which sought to protect the independence of the judiciary, both Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom voted for an Address to King William IV praying for his removal, and The King duly dismissed Barringtom from office. By then, Barrington's first 1827 volume of memoirs had sold successfully, and they were republished and expanded (see below).Barrington was the first judge removed from office under the Act of Settlement, and to this day, is the only judge in the United Kingdom to be so removed.
Memoirs
Barrington is most notable today for his memoirs that included scathing but humorous thumbnail portraits of contemporary Irish lawyers, judges and politicians during the last years of the Protestant AscendancyProtestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
. Personal sketches also includes vignettes on Irish people from every background. His works were reprinted with frequent additions and renamings as:
- Historic Anecdotes and Secret Memoirs of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland (London: G. Robinson 1809);
- repubished with a 2nd volume as: Historic Memoirs, Comprising Secret Records of the National Convention, the Rebellion, and the Union, with Delineations of the Principal Characters Connected with These Transactions, 2 vols. (London: R. Bentley & H. Colburn 1833 [1809-33])
- 3rd edn: ..with memoir of the author, an essay on Irish wit and humour, and notes and corrections by Townsend Young; 2 vols. (London: G. Routledge & Sons 1869)
- 4th edn. in 2 vols, (Glasgow & London: Cameron & Ferguson 1876);
- Personal Sketches of his Own Times (3 vols. 1827-32): Vols. 1 & 2 (London: Henry Colburn 1827); Vol. 3 (London: Henry Colburn & R. Bentley 1832)
- 4th edn. in 2 vols, (Glasgow & London: Cameron & Ferguson 1876);
- 3rd edn: ..with memoir of the author, an essay on Irish wit and humour, and notes and corrections by Townsend Young; 2 vols. (London: G. Routledge & Sons 1869)
- reissued as (George Birmingham, intro.): Recollections of Jonah Barrington (Dublin: Talbot; London: T. Fisher Unwin 1918);
- Historic Memoirs of Ireland, 2 vols. (London: R. Bentley & H. Colburn 1833)
- The Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (Paris: G. G. Bennis 1833)
- 2nd edn. (Dublin: James Duffy 1853)
Political legacy
Barrington's comments on the Act of Union had a continuing resonance with the Young IrelandYoung Ireland
Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid-19th century. It led changes in Irish nationalism, including an abortive rebellion known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Many of the latter's leaders were tried for sedition and sentenced to penal transportation to...
, Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
and Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
movements, which hoped to re-establish "Grattan's parliament
Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan was an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He opposed the Act of Union 1800 that merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain.-Early life:Grattan was born at...
" in some way. In particular his Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (1833) provided the basis for this romantic idealisation of Grattan’s Parliament adopted by the Irish Parliamentary Party from the 1880s.
Criticism and literary resonance
Since his death Barrington's work has been quoted by a wide selection of editors, primarily following two themes; the political drama surrounding the Act of Union and the colourful nature of life in 1700s IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
- Frank O’Connor, ed., Book of Ireland (London: Fontana 1959 & edns.), was impressed by: "Merry Christmas, 1778" uninterrupted match of hard-going till the weather should break up ... hogshead of superior claret’ ... ‘the pipers plied their chants ... I shall never forget the attraction this novelty had for my youthful mind (p. 139); Sir Boyle RocheBoyle RocheSir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet was an Irish politician. After a distinguished career in North America with the British Army, Roche became a member of the Irish House of Commons in 1775, generally acting in support of the viceregal government...
... the most celebrated and entertaining anti-grammarian in the Irish Parliament (p. 183); on duelling Ough, thunder! ... how many holes did the villain want drilled in to his carcass? (p. 262); Crow Street theatre: immediately ... on being struck, he reeled, staggered, and fell very naturally, considering that it was his first death (p. 278). - Roy FosterRoy FosterRoy Foster may refer to:*Roy Foster *Roy Foster *R. F. Foster...
: the racy Personal Sketches...confirmed him as the chief historian of the "half-mounted gentlemen" of Ireland. - W. B. Yeats: Mrs French, in the first section of Yeats’s poem The Tower, is a character from Barrington’s Recollections, where it is used to illustrate mutual attachment between the Irish peasantry and their landlords.
- James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
: Leopold BloomLeopold BloomLeopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's Ulysses. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in The Odyssey....
makes reference to Barrrington's Reminiscences (recte Recollections) in UlyssesUlysses (novel)Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
: Must ask Ned Lambert to lend me those reminiscences of sir Jonah Barrington. - John MitchelJohn MitchelJohn Mitchel was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Ireland he became a leading member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation...
quoted Barrington in his History of Ireland, concerning the approach to the 1798 rebellion: Mr Pitt counted on the expertness of the Irish Government to effect a premature explosion. Free quarters were now ordered, to irritate the Irish population; slow tortures were inflicted, under the pretence of forcing confessions; the people were goaded and driven to madness (p. 264). - A Dictionary of Irish Writers (1985), ed. Brian CleeveBrian CleeveBrian Brendon Talbot Cleeve was a prolific writer, whose published works include twenty-one novels and over a hundred short stories. He was also an award-winning broadcaster on RTÉ television. Son of an Irish father and English mother, he was born and raised in England...
& Ann Brady, lists his Historic Anecdotes and Secret Memoirs of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland (1809). - A book of selections was published for the American market in 1967.
See also
- Ireland 1691–1801Ireland 1691–1801Ireland 1691–1801 was marked by the dominance of the so-called Protestant Ascendancy. These were the descendants of British colonists who had settled in the country in the wake of its conquest by England and colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland...
- Personal Sketches online, chapter links page; accessed Jan 2010