Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire
John Lawrance took which position in Jan 1887?
John Lawrance Sir John Compton Lawrance , PC ( 30 May 1832 – 5 December 1912 ) was an English judge and Conservative Party politician . He was Conservative MP for South Lincolnshire from 1880 to 1885 and for Stamford from 1885 until 1890 , when he was appointed to the High Court , where he served until 1912 . One of Lord Halsburys political appointments to the bench as Lord Chancellor , Lawrance acquired a degree of notoriety for his incompetence as a judge , at least in commercial cases . His conduct of one commercial action was said to be so inept that it was credited with the creation of the Commercial Court , earning him the moniker the Only Begetter of the Commercial Court . He was , however , said to be a good criminal judge and was personally well-liked . Background and political career . Lawrance was the only son of Thomas Munton Lawrance of Dunsby Hall , Lincolnshire and his wife Louisa , née Compton . He was called to the bar at Lincolns Inn in 1859 , became a Queens Counsel in 1877 , and a bencher of Lincolns Inn in 1879 . He was not well known in London and mainly practiced on the Midland Circuit ; he also practiced as a revising barrister . He was appointed Recorder of Derby in 1879 and was a JP for Lincolnshire . In 1878 , Lawrance stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative at a by-election in Peterborough , but at the 1880 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament ( MP ) for South Lincolnshire . That constituency was abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 , and at the 1885 general election Lawrance was elected MP for Stamford . He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire in 1886 . High Court judge . Appointment . Lawrance was appointed a Justice of the High Court in 1890 , in succession to Mr Justice Field . He was assigned to the Kings Bench Division , receiving the customary knighthood on 30 June 1890 . Lawrance had been nominated by Lord Halsbury , who had a reputation for choosing judges on party political grounds , especially from the ranks of unsuccessful Tory M.P.s with large majorities and no incomes . The appointment was greeted with hoots of derision . The Daily News said Lawrance was unfit for the lowest judicial appointment . The Law Times wrote that This is a bad appointment , for although a popular man and a thorough English gentleman , Mr . Lawrance has no reputation as a lawyer , and has been rarely seen of recent years in the Royal Courts of Justice . The Law Journal , however , cautiously welcomed the appointment , noting his professional experience , knowledge of business , and high character , though it also commented that probably Mr . Lawrance does affect to be a great lawyer . It also noted that his appointment , on personal grounds.. . will be very acceptable to every member of the profession . The Only Begetter of the Commercial Court . The case for which Lawrance achieved lasting notoriety was Rose v Bank of Australasia ( 1891 ) , which involved a complex issue of general average contribution from cargo-owners . The case was tried without a jury by Lawrance J over 22 days in May 1891 , who then reserved judgment . It was argued by some of the leading figures of the commercial bar : Arthur Cohen QC ( with him Thomas Edward Scrutton ) appeared for the plaintiffs ; Gorell Barnes QC ( with him J . A . Hamilton ) appeared for the defendants . Scrutton described Lawrance was a very popular Judge—who had practised in a purely agricultural county , and whose elevation was not wholly unconnected with his devoted services to his party . Sir Frank MacKinnon , who was later Scruttons pupil , reported that:The judge knew as much about the principles of general average as a Hindoo about figure-skating . He listened with a semblance of interest to Cohen and Gorell Barnes , reserved judgment , and forgot all about the case . After a long delay he was somehow reminded that he ought to give judgment . This he did—in favour of the plaintiff . To his horror Gorell Barnes then rose and said he had failed to deal with a very important point . Not having the least idea what the point was , he pulled himself together and said : Oh , yes ; I meant to say that having considered that I think the adjusters took the right view , and in that respect also I think the claim as made out by them ought to succeed.The defendants appealed to the Court of Appeal , which reversed Lawrance on questions of law and fact . On further appeal , the House of Lords ( Lord Herschell LC , Lord Watson , and Lord Morris ) restored the judgment for the plaintiffs , though they did not rely on his reasoning . According to Scrutton and MacKinnon , Lawrances performance in this case incensed the mercantile community so much that it led to the creation of the Commercial Court in 1895 , thus making him the Only Begetter of the Commercial Court . This account has been largely accepted by modern commentators such as R . F . V . Heuston and Sir Roger Toulson , although some recent writers have argued that this was either something of an exaggeration or remains unproven . Later years . Lawrance continued to sit in the Kings Bench Division , eventually becoming the most senior judge in the Kings Bench Division . In 1898 , he tried the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Burtsev and the typesetter Klement Wierzbicki for publishing a pamphlet which called for the murder of Nicholas II . The same year , he was one of the judges called upon by the House of Lords to provide an advisory opinion in Allen v Flood . In 1906 , he was one of the two judges appointed to hear election petitions arising from that years general election . At the hearing of the Maidstone petition , he sat with Mr Justice Grantham , another former Conservative MP elevated by Halsbury , who was subsequently the subject of a motion of censure in the House of Commons for his perceived partiality toward the Conservative candidate , but Lawrances conduct was not questioned . In 1903 , he presided over the second trial of William Gardiner for the murder of Rose Harsent : as with the first trial , the jury was unable to come to a verdict , and the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi . In November 1911 , Lawrence fell ill , and resigned on 15 April 1912 . He was sworn of the Privy Council on 19 July , and died on 5 December 1912 , aged 80 . Family . In 1861 , Lawrance married Charlotte Georgina Smart , daughter of Major Smart of Boston , Lincolnshire . They had one son , Thomas Dalton Lawrance ( 1865–1930 ) , sometime Assistant Registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal ; he married in 1898 Millicent Emma Rachel Fane , daughter of W . D . Fane , of Fulbeck Hall . Assessments . Assessments of Lawrance as a judge tend to be negative . Lord Justice MacKinnon wrote that:Mr . Justice J . C . Lawrance was a stupid man , a very ill-equipped lawyer , and a bad judge . He was not the worst judge I have appeared before : that distinction I would assign to Mr . Justice Ridley [ another Conservative MP controversially elevated by Halsbury ] . Ridley had much brains than Lawrance , but he had a perverse instinct for unfairness that Lawrance could never approach . It is perhaps not without significance that Lawrance and Ridley both failed to get admission to the modern Valhalla , the Dictionary of National Biography.However , Lawrance had his defenders , especially from the criminal bar . Frederic Holman and Sir Travers Humphreys both praised him for his common sense , while Ernest Bowen-Rowlands KC said that on circuit he was a good judge and in crime one of the best judges I have practiced before . The Times commented that:In the conduct of a trial with a jury he was usually patient and reasonable , and as a Criminal Judge he appears to have had no prepossession either towards undue severity or a flabby leniency . In this respect he was a satisfactory Judge , but he was hardly equal to a sustained course of reasoning or to the interpretation of intricate Acts of Parliament . In case involving these he was generally content simply to express his concurrence with a senior colleague , or in revenue cases to decide in favour of the Crown.Lawrance was personally well-liked : he was said to possess a an unostentatious sense of humour and a commendable gift of reticence . Another otherwise critical account credited him with prudence and self-restraint , and is irreproachable in word and act , and is , in fact , liked and admired for many qualities . On his retirement , The Law Journal commented that although this has not seriously reduced the judicial store of erudition , it has deprived the Kings Bench Division of one of its most attractive personalities . Lawrance was nicknamed Long Lawrance , both in reference to his height ( he was said to be the tallest judge on the bench ) and to distinguish him from A . T . Lawrence . Heuston wrote that Lawrance was as undistinguished on the Bench as [ he ] had been at the Bar , but that although he was not a clever man , before the Great War , the English did not always want clever men in public positions . They often preferred an honest gentleman .