Hugh Law

For his grandson, see Hugh Law (Cumann na nGaedheal).

Hugh Law PC (Ire), QC (19 June 1818 – 10 September 1883) was an Irish lawyer, politician and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Law was educated at Trinity College, Dublin where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1839. He became a barrister in 1840 and a Queen's Counsel in 1860. He drafted the Irish Church Act 1869 which disestablished the Church of Ireland.

He became legal adviser to the Liberal Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Spencer) in 1868. He became a bencher of King's Inns in 1870 and was appointed in succession Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1872, Attorney-General for Ireland in 1873 a member of the Irish Privy Council on 24 February 1874. In 1874 he was elected a Member of Parliament for Londonderry. He was appointed Attorney-General by Liberal Prime Minister Gladstone in 1880 before becoming Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1881.

Hugh Law died unexpectedly on 10 September 1883.

One of his sons, Hugh Law, bought the historic Ardbraccan House, former palace of the Lord Bishop of Meath, from the Church of Ireland in 1885. His grandson, also called Hugh Law, sat initially as a Nationalist MP in the House of Commons and later served in Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD from June 1927 until 1932.

References

• http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/l/Law,H(b1818)/life.htm
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hugh Law
•  Hamilton, J. A. (1892). "Law, Hugh". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 
• Hamilton, J. A.; rev. Sinéad Agnew (2004). "Law, Hugh (1818–1883)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16146. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16146. Retrieved 13 March 2010.  subscription or UK public library membership required

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Robert Peel Dawson Sir Frederick Heygate, Bt	Member of Parliament for Londonderry 1874–1881 With: Richard Smyth 1874–1878 Sir Thomas McClure, Bt 1878–1881	Succeeded by Sir Thomas McClure, Bt Andrew Marshall Porter
Legal offices
Preceded by Christopher Palles	Solicitor General for Ireland 1872–1874	Succeeded by Henry Ormsby
Preceded by Christopher Palles	Attorney General for Ireland 1874	Succeeded by John Thomas Ball
Preceded by Edward Gibson	Attorney General for Ireland 1880–1881	Succeeded by William Moore Johnson
Political offices
Preceded by The Lord O'Hagan	Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1881–1883	Succeeded by Sir Edward Sullivan, Bt