Sir Joseph Napier, 1st Baronet

He was the son of William Napier and Rosetta MacNaghten of Ballyreagh House, County Antrim, and was born in Belfast, Ireland, where his father was a prosperous brewer. He attended the Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College, Dublin, before being called to the Irish Bar in 1831. He built up a very large practice, and acquired an impressive reputation for learning, especially in the area of pleading.[1] He became a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1844.[2]

He was MP for Dublin University from 1848 to 1858, after failing to be elected in 1847. He became Attorney General for Ireland from March to December 1852. He was also made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland 1852. He received a Doctorate of Civil Law in 1853.[2]

Napier was a staunch Tory in politics, and exceptionally diligent in attending to his political duties.[3] He left the House of Commons when he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1858, an office he held until 1859. His appointment caused some surprise, since he had made his reputation in the courts of common law, although he also did some chancery work.[4] He was created a Baronet in 1867[5] and appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1868, which entitled him to sit on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Despite his obvious wish to return to office, he never became Chancellor again: even in the Tory party his strong Evangelical views had made him enemies, while the Bar complained that his deafness made it impossible for him to conduct business efficiently. He accepted the position of Lord Justice of Appeal, but the reaction from the Bar was so unfavourable (his deafness rather than his religious beliefs seems to have been the issue) that he withdrew. His publications include educational, mathematical and legal works.[2]

In 1880 he retired to St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex and died there on 9 December 1882. He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin with a tablet to his memory placed in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

He was remembered as a learned jurist and a diligent Parliamentarian, but above all as a devout Protestant with a deep devotion to the Church of Ireland, whose disestablishment he fiercely opposed. When young he was an extreme Evangelical, and strongly opposed to Catholic Emancipation, but it is said that his views mellowed as he grew older. His earlier religious views led to a clash with Daniel O'Connell, who nicknamed him "Holy Joe".

He married Charity (Cherry) Grace, daughter of John Grace of Dublin (from an old Kilkenny family), on 20 August 1831 and had 2 sons: William John Napier and Sir Joseph Napier, 2nd Baronet, and 3 daughters: Grace, Rosetta and Cherry. Lady Napier died 4 March 1901.[6]

One of his sisters, Rosetta Napier, married James Whiteside, Attorney General for Ireland and later Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and another sister, Mary Napier, married Echlin Molyneux who later became a Professor of English Law at Queen's University Belfast; she died young in 1831.

• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Vol. I 1832-1885, edited by Michael Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
• Andrew Shields, The Irish Conservative Party, 1852-1868: Land, Politics and Religion (Dublin, 2007)
• Authorized Report of the Proceedings of the Church Congress held at York, 1866. with speech from Napier
• Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. 2003
• Copy of confirmation of arms to the descendants of Joseph Napier of St. Andrews, Co. Down and to his grandson, the Rt. Hon. Joseph Napier, M.P., Lord Chancellor of Ireland, son of William Napier of St. Andrews, 16 March 1867. Dublin: National Library of Ireland, Genealogical Office: Ms. 109, pp. 143–4
• Our portrait gallery - No. LXIX: The Rt. Hon. Joseph Napier, M. P. (With etching). The Dublin University magazine: a literary and political journal, Vol. XLI, pp. 300–314, March, 1853. National Library of Ireland.
• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Napier, Joseph" . Dictionary of National Biography. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 65–68.
• Ewald, Alexander Charles. The Life of Sir Joseph Napier, Bart., ex Lord Chancellor of Ireland: from his private correspondence. Longmans, Green. London, 492pp. 1887

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Joseph Napier