View source for John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst

{{Short description|British lawyer and politician (1772–1863)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Lord Lyndhurst 
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC|QS|FRS}}
| image = Lord Lyndhurst by Felix Roffe.jpg
| caption = Lord Lyndhurst wearing the parliamentary robes of a baron, portrait by Felix Rogge c.1836
| alt = Half-length watercolour portrait
| order1 = [[Lord Chancellor]]
| term_start1 = 2 May 1827
| term_end1 = 24 November 1830
| monarch1 = {{unbulleted list|[[George IV]]|[[William IV]]}}
| primeminister1 = {{unbulleted list|[[George Canning]]|[[F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|The Viscount Goderich]]|[[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|The Duke of Wellington]]}}
| predecessor1 = [[John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon|The Earl of Eldon]]
| successor1 = [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|The Lord Brougham and Vaux]]
| term_start2 = 21 November 1834
| term_end2 = 8 April 1835
| monarch2 = [[William IV]]
| primeminister2 = {{unbulleted list|The Duke of Wellington|[[Robert Peel|Sir Robert Peel, Bt]]}}
| predecessor2 = [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|The Lord Brougham and Vaux]]
| successor2 = ''In Commission''
| term_start3 = 3 September 1841
| term_end3 = 27 June 1846
| monarch3 = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]]
| primeminister3 = Sir Robert Peel, Bt
| predecessor3 = [[Charles Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham|The Lord Cottenham]]
| successor3 = The Lord Cottenham
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1772|05|21}} 
| birth_place = [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1863|10|12|1772|05|21}} 
| death_place = [[London]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
| nationality = British
| party = [[Tories (British political party)|Tory]]
| alma_mater = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
* {{Marriage |Sarah Brunsden |1809|1834|end=d}}
* {{Marriage | Georgina Goldsmith |1837}}}}
}}
'''John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|PC|QS|FRS}} (21 May 1772 – 12 October 1863), was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times [[Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]].

==Background and education==
Copley was born in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, the son of painter [[John Singleton Copley]] and his wife Susanna Farnham (née Clarke), granddaughter of silversmith [[Edward Winslow (silversmith)|Edward Winslow]]. His father left America to live in London in 1774, and his wife and son followed a year later. Copley was educated at a private school and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=CPLY790JS|name=Copley, John Singleton}}</ref>

==Political and legal career==
Called to the bar at [[Lincoln's Inn]] in 1804, he gained a considerable practice. He was appointed a [[serjeant-at-law]] on 6 July 1813. In 1817, he was one of the counsel for [[James Watson (surgeon)|James Watson]], tried for his share in the [[Spa Fields riots]]. Lyndhurst's performance attracted the attention of [[Lord Castlereagh]] and other [[Tory]] leaders, and he entered parliament as member for [[Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)|Yarmouth]] in the [[Isle of Wight]]. He afterwards sat for Ashburton (1818–1826) and for [[Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridge University]] (1826–1827).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Lyndhurst, John Singleton Copley|volume=17|page=170}}</ref>

In December 1818, Copley was made [[King's Serjeant]] and [[Chief Justice of Chester]]. He became [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]] on 24 July 1819 and was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in October, became [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]] in 1824, [[Master of the Rolls]] in 1826 and [[Lord Chancellor]] in 1827. On his appointment to the latter post he was raised to the [[Hereditary peer|peerage]] as '''Baron Lyndhurst''', of [[Lyndhurst, Hampshire|Lyndhurst]] in the [[County of Southampton]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=18355 |date=24 April 1827 |page=914 }}</ref> As solicitor general he took a prominent part in the trial of [[Caroline of Brunswick|Queen Caroline]] and was opposed to the Liberal measures which marked the end of the reign of [[George IV]] and the beginning of that of [[William IV]]. He was [[Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer]] from 1831 to 1834. During the [[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Melbourne]] government from 1835 to 1841 he figured conspicuously as an obstructionist in the [[House of Lords]]. His former adversary [[Lord Brougham]], disgusted at his treatment by the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] leaders, soon became his most powerful ally in opposition. Lyndhurst held the chancellorship from 1827 to 1830, 1834–1835, and 1841–1846. As he was in regard to [[Catholic emancipation]], so in the agitation against the [[Corn Laws]], he opposed reform until [[Robert Peel|Peel]], his chief, gave the signal for concession.<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1837 he was [[Rector of the University of Aberdeen|Rector of Marischal College]] (later Aberdeen University).<ref>{{cite book|title=Officers of the Marischal College & University of Aberdeen, 1593–1860}}</ref>

[[File:John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Monochrome photograph of Lord Lyndhurst seated wearing a suit|John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst in the late 1850s.]]
[[File:John Singleton Copley grave.jpg|thumb|left|Grave of John Singleton Copley in Highgate Cemetery (west)]]

After 1846 and the disintegration of the Tory party over Peel's adoption of free trade, Lord Lyndhurst did not attend parliament sessions as often, but he continued to take a lively interest in public affairs and to make speeches. His address to the [[House of Lords]] on 19 June 1854, on the war with Russia, made a sensation in Europe, and throughout the [[Crimean War]] he was a strong advocate of the energetic prosecution of hostilities.

In 1854, Copley was appointed to the [[Royal Commission for Consolidating the Statute Law]], a [[royal commission]] to consolidate existing statutes and enactments of [[English law]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Ilbert |first=Courtenay |author-link=Courtenay Ilbert |url=https://archive.org/details/legislativemetho00ilbeiala/page/56 |title=Legislative methods and forms |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=1901 |location=Oxford |pages=57 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>

In 1859 he denounced [[Napoleon III]]. His last speech was delivered in the House of Lords at the age of eighty-nine.<ref name="EB1911" />

==Family==
In 1819 Copley married Sarah, a daughter of Charles Brunsden and widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Thomas, who was killed at Waterloo. She died in 1834, and three years later, in August 1837, he married Georgiana Goldsmith (1807–1901), daughter of writer [[Lewis Goldsmith]], of Paris. They had two daughters, Georgiana Susan Copley, who married [[Charles Du Cane|Sir Charles Du Cane]], Governor of Tasmania,<ref name=TTObituary>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Obituary – Lady Lyndhurst|date=23 December 1901 |page=7 |issue=36645| }}</ref> and Sophia Clarence Copley (1828–1911), who married Hamilton Beckett and is buried near her father in Highgate Cemetery.

Since his second wife came from a family of Jewish origins, it may be her influence which led Lyndhurst to support the Jewish Emancipation of 1858, when the law which had restricted the Parliamentary oath of office to Christians was changed, leading to the admission of Jews into parliament. Lyndhurst also advocated women's rights in questions of divorce.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He died in London on 12 October 1863 and was buried in [[Highgate Cemetery]];<ref name=FC>{{cite book |last1=Cansick |first1=Frederick Teague |title=The Monumental Inscriptions of Middlesex Vol. II. |date=1872 |publisher=J Russell Smith |page=108 |url=https://archive.org/details/acollectioncuri03cansgoog/page/n142/mode/2up |access-date=15 October 2021}}</ref> as he left no son, his [[Hereditary peer|peerage]] became extinct. Lady Lyndhurst died in London 22 December 1901, aged 94.<ref name=TTObituary/>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|centre|150px]] [[File:Lyndhurst Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Argent a cross flory Sable within a bordure Azure charged with eight escallops of the field.
|crest = An escallop Or in front of a dexter arm embowed in armour the hand grasping a sword and the cubit encircled with a chaplet of laurel all Proper.
|supporters = Two eagles wings elevated Proper gorged with a plain collar Or and pendent therefrom a shield Argent charged with a cross flory Sable.
|motto = Ultra Pergere (To Push Onward)<ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1847}}</ref>}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Dennis Lee: ''Lord Lyndhurst: The Flexible Tory'' – {{ISBN|0-87081-358-7}}, 318 pages – 1994 Niwot (Colorado): University Press of Colorado.

==External links==
{{commons category|John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-copley | John Copley}}

{{Lord chancellors}}
{{First Peel Ministry}}
{{Masters of the Rolls}}
{{John Singleton Copley}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyndhurst, John Copley, 1st Baron}}
[[Category:Lord chancellors of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Ashburton]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the University of Cambridge]]
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[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:1772 births]]
[[Category:1863 deaths]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Boston]]
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[[Category:19th-century British lawyers]]
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