Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten

Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten, Bart., GCB, GCMG (3 February 1830 – 17 February 1913) was a Anglo-Irish barrister, Conservative-Unionist politician and one of seven Lords of Appeal in Ordinary.

Early life

He was born in Bloomsbury, London the second son of Sir Edmund Workman-Macnaghten, Bt. but grew up mainly at Roe Park, Limavady. He attended school in Sunderland and then Trinity College, Dublin, and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1852.

Legal & political career

After being called to the bar in 1857, Macnaghten built up a successful practice and became Queen's Counsel in 1880. That same year he was elected to the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for County Antrim, exchanging this seat five years later for that of North Antrim. In 1912 he signed the Ulster Covenant.

Having declined the offers of a judgeship from Gladstone and the Home Secretaryship from the Conservatives, he was in 1887 appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary as Baron Macnaghten, "of Runkerry in the County of Antrim". No practising barrister who had been queen's counsel for less than seven years had ever before been promoted to the House of Lords.

He married, in 1858, Frances Arabella (d. 1903), the only child of Sir Samuel Martin, a baron of the exchequer; they had five sons and six daughters. His daughters remained living at Runkerry until c. 1950.

Decorations

Lord Macnaghten was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1902 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1911 coronation honours of George V. He also succeeded his elder brother, Francis, as fourth Baronet in the latter year.

Legacy

Lord Macnaghten's most famous contribution to English law was the determination of categories of charitable trusts (in the case of "Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel"). He also sat in the landmark decision of "Salomon v. Salomon & Co." In the case of "Montgomery v. Thompson" (Eng.), A.C. 225 (1891), he held that a brewery opened in the town of Stone in Staffordshire could not use the name "Stone Ale", as this would infringe the rights of an existing seller of a product named "Stone Ale", famously remarking "Thirsty folk want beer, not explanations".

Death

He died of pneumonia in 1913 at his home 198, Queen's Gate, Kensington, London, and was buried at Bushmills. One of his sons, Sir Malcolm (himself a judge), married the daughter of Charles Booth.